Grand Avenue and Environs: Los Angeles, California

SERVICES USED ON THIS PROJECT INCLUDE:
	Environmental Compliance		Resource Management

In support of the Grand Avenue and Environs Project, Sapphos Environmental, Inc. prepared an Initial Study, Environmental Impact Report, Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Program, and Findings of Fact and Statement of Overriding Consideration, pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and a Categorical Exclusion pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), for the Music Center and the County of Los Angeles. The environmental documents were completed in 2002, and construction was completed in time for the 2003 grand opening of the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

The three project components—roadway realignment of Grand Avenue, between Temple Street and just south of Second Street; related pedestrian amenities; and improvements to the Music Center—provide an enhanced and more welcoming urban street setting for the community and for visitors to the Music Center campus, the County of Los Angeles Mall, the new Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, and Walt Disney Concert Hall.

A Section 106 study pursuant to the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) was completed to fulfill requirements related to awarding federal grant monies to the County of Los Angeles and the Music Center for the project. Extensive coordination was undertaken with the State Historic Preservation Office and the Los Angeles Conservancy to ensure that the proposed project did not adversely affect the three original structures within the Music Center—the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the Mark Taper Forum, and the Ahmanson Theater—designed by prominent mid-century architect, Welton Beckett.