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Grand Hope Park
Rating Details »
Categories: Local Flavor, Parks [Edit]
Neighborhood: DowntownW 9th Street and Hope
Los Angeles, CA 90017
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
6 reviews for Grand Hope Park
This is literally my favourite park in the entire city. I work at the FIDM and spend many of my lunch hours lying on the grass or reading under the Jacaranda trees. It has lots of security, and unlike Pershing (which I live across the street from) there are no residentially challenged individuals making comments about how I look that morning while I try to eat. It's not that I'm anti-homeless people; it just gets exhausting after a while.
Anyway! This park is more family-friendly ... on Saturday afternoons I see old woman in tai-chi classes, families playing catch on the grass, students chain smoking at the benches. There's also lots of events here (most of them are for the school).
The best part about the park is how lush all the greenery is. Unlike Pershing Square, which can hardly be called a park since it's mostly made of concrete these days, this place has small rolling hills with the natural curve of the earth still intact and hanging vines over gazebos. The design is really beautiful. I think the park owners were smart to keep a fence around it (park hours are later during the summer: they close around 8. In the winter, it's about 6) -- it preserves the environment much more than other local parks.
And as for not having dogs, I don't blame them. I'd love to take my pup there -- I'm sure he'd have a lot of fun, but then this park would smell like dog piss just like Pershing does. Literally, when you walk onto the grass there, you feel the urine saturation. It has nothing to do with responsibility -- it's just that dogs come to grass to urinate/defecate, hence why there are so many yellow spots all over Pershing Square.
I take my pup to bunker hill. The bums love him, and there's plenty of space to roam.
This is a great park and I am in full support of more green space in Downtown LA, hence the 3 stars. But they fall way short in my opinion by not allowing dogs. I guess it's privately owned and not owned by the city but in any case, the reality is that there are many, many more residents who call Downtown home and lots of them want to have a fun place for their 4 legged friends to romp and play. I'm a responsible dog owners and know that most of my neighbors are as well so it saddens me to see the restrictions on this place. I still take my doggie here...on the down low.
Other that that, there is a decent playground and lots of shade. Beware of the pigeon poop, though. This seems to be a haven for them.
I've never really hung out there, but what a great place to stroll through during my lunch hour. Especially in between FIDM classes, very easy on the eyes - the landscaping that is! Seriously, I always feel a bit sheepish dressed in my corporate casual, black and grey or not, when passing by all the cutting edge beauty of the FIDM students. The Park itself? Oh yeah, really nice, tiny sloping hills of irrigated grass, nice palm trees, a tiny playground, modern industrial fountains, like a nicer, smaller version of that weird stuff they have in Pershing square. One of the nicest places to have a moment in downtown.
It's right across the street from Ralph's. This park is small and very green. There were kids playing soccer on the grass and people just sitting on the grass enjoying the evening. There are tons of benches and picnic tables to eat on. This is a really nice small park with both sunshine and shade.
Living across the street I wish they allowed dogs! They have dog statues! They are in a dog friendly neighborhood, but the security guys say, "the owner doesn't want dogs". We've had a few special stolen moments, but I wish they would change their policy. The park is really lush and green and very clean. There are always kids in the little play area and we even took my nieces when they were visiting. My sister and I both went to FIDM, but old school, before this was built. I wish this was here when I went to school, I wouldn't have had to hang out at Carl's jr.!
The security guys are nice about it and they lock it up at night like jimmy p. said. I love the sidewalk outside the park on the hope side. It is canopy-d with these gorgeous shade trees. I love walking up to Ralphs under the trees, you literally have to duck your head or get leaves in your hair! I've even witnessed soccer games being played in the park on weekends. There is a fountain, birds, students, I've even seen this "old guy" who I think lives in the Renaissance apartments, with his chaise lounge laying out in the sun! Downtown is GREAT! Gotta love it! Let's get our doggies in now!
Grand Hope Park is 2.5 acres of tranquil greenspace in a place where the majority of "parks" are "parking lots".
This small but special park is located behind the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) in the Downtown neighborhood of South Park. Its existence is truly an enigma, and while I'd hope that the residential influx into Downtown will bring more parks of its type, I remain skeptical... so Grand Hope Park remains our one hope for public neighborhood greenspace in the area.
The LA Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) opened Grand Hope Park in 1994 and was the first public park to open in Downtown since 1870 when Central Park (now the cement nightmare known as Pershing Square) opened. Grand Hope Park is surrounded by a wrought iron fence (which apparently caused a bit of controversy) and gates that close at the end of the day which seem to help it from becoming a breeding ground of bad things like Pershing Square. Who needs to be in a park after dark anyways unless you're up to no good? The sidewalks outside the fence surrounding the park are wide and tree-lined, another very un-LA aspect of the park area. The entrance on the corner of 9th and Hope features a lovely mosaic adorned clock tower designed by the park's designer Lawrence Halprin and apparently used to have some very lovely composed chimes which no longer work. Hopefully they will be brought back in the near future, as there's nothing more lovely than a clock's chime.
Lush vines and flowering plants grow up the many pergolas, providing shade zones for the ample benches and other seating options. In the center of the park, right behind the FIDM building there's a large grassy lawn, with bronze sculptures of coyotes adding the the visual splendor of the space. On the Grand Avenue side you'll find the "Celestial Source Fountain", a lovely pond and art piece that evokes the feeling of arctic ice, with angled chunks of cement making a path in the water. It's probably my favorite part of the park. Another fountain, the Mirage Fountain, lies adjacent to a lovely playground for children. The equipment looks good, and I believe it may be the only public play area in Downtown Los Angeles.
Grand Hope Park is a visual treat and a welcome retreat from all things Downtown and all things Los Angeles. Sadly, it's a unique and rare find in this city, but because of that I encourage everyone to visit and make use of this anti-parking lot. Of course, because of its location in Downtown, it's highly transit accessible.
Transit access: Metro Red/Purple and Blue lines, Metro Rapid lines 714, 720, 740 and 745, all local lines with numbers 1-99 and their limited-stop counterparts, and all express lines numbered 400-499; all LADOT DASH lines downtown except D and all Commuter Express lines numbered 400-499 and 534; Antelope Valley Transit Authority Line 785; all Foothill Transit 400-series busway express lines, though only 480 runs outside of rush hours; Montebello Municipal Bus Lines 40, 50 and 341/342/343, Orange County Transportation Authority lines 701 and 721; Santa Clarita Transit Line 799; Santa Monica Big Blue Bus Line 10; and Torrance Transit lines 1 and 2.
