Beautifying Beverly Hills' Business Triangle

By Greg Aragon

PHOTO COURTESY OF CITY OF BEVERLY HILLS

Beverly Hills just wrapped up a major streetscape improvement project called the "Urban Design Program."

The Urban Design Program was led by Pasadena-based Moule & Polyzoides, Architects and Urbanists; Santa Fe Springs-based Griffith Co., the general contractor; and Costa Mesa-based landscape architect Fong-Hart-Schneider + Partners.

Costing about $16 million, the 150,000-sq.-ft. endeavor involved the landscape enhancement of five streets, which constitute the city's "business triangle." The most famous of the streets is Rodeo Drive.

"We felt that the infrastructure in this area had lived its life," said Daniel Cartagena, economic development project manger for Beverly Hills. "In some instances, it had been more than 70 years since the sidewalks were poured."

Cartagena said the goal of the two-year project, which completed in June, was to provide pedestrian enhancements and link the streets in a fashion that allows visitors to the triangle to park their cars only once and have access to all the shops and businesses.

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Project highlights include new streetlights and crosswalks; a new 8-ft. median with rose and palm trees on Rodeo Drive and sidewalks widened to 18 ft. on both sides of Rodeo Drive. And to help visitors navigate their way around, landscape contractors planted more than 500 new palm and deciduous trees standing between 9-ft. and 20 ft.-tall throughout the triangle.

Listed below are links to additional stories included in the Los Angeles/Long Beach Market Report:

• Residential Construction Rising From Arts District to South Park
  
• Living Closer to Work, Family and Fun
  
• Structural Steel Starts on 'Stars'
  
• Beautifying Beverly Hills' 'Business Triangle
  
• A Hot Summer in Big City by the Sea
  
• Back From the Dead in Downey
  
• Creating a Colossal Campus