The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors recently allocated $3.74 million in Measure A and Measure U funds for the park, named after basketball Hall of Famer and South Los Angeles investor Earvin “Magic” Johnson. 

The park is among the largest parks in South Los Angeles, complete with fishing lakes, soccer fields and meandering walking paths.    

Few things are as remarkable as the power of the human condition to both shape and be shaped by the world around us, particularly as we consider the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. As we confront together this invisible force, MIG is heartened to see a deepening appreciation and visibility across the globe of the value of communities and the human connections that sustain us all even while apart.

Climb a giant lantern? Ring a bell at the top of a pile of buns? Slide a serpent down two floors? All of the above! 

During a week-long design workshop at the Hong Kong International School, it became clear that the students needed more diverse and sensory-rich play settings that encouraged them to play collaboratively rather than competitively. The upper two stories of the building, over 8,000 square feet, would be a complement to the ground floor outdoor play areas. 

As part of the 22nd annual Great Places Awards, the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) selected Streets Reconsidered: Inclusive Design for the Public Realm by MIG principals Daniel Iacofano and Mukul Malhotra, for an Honorable Mention in the book award category. 

“The power of design will create a healthier, more equitable and sustainable world.” That’s the motto of the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF). 

LAF provides independent case studies—its Landscape Performance Series—that quantify the community benefits of a place. This year, its Case Study Investigation (CSI) team studied what about Yanaguana works so well. A few highlights:

Beloved by the Ashland community, Lithia Park is as central to the city’s identity as is the annual Oregon Shakespeare festival, which might be more well known to nonresidents. Through a highly transparent process, the MIG design team developed four key themes that define the essence of the park, identified major improvements for the health of the creek that runs through the park and the forest that surrounds it, and created strategies for improving and preserving the park’s iconic features.

Should public agency workspaces look spartan and cost-effective so no one gets upset about wasting public money? The opposite, said MIG Principal Gary Lai in a think tank discussion.

Stories linked to places are ubiquitous, but rarely are those stories researched to a level that links them to an actual space at different moments in time. The process of developing this cultural landscape report for Willamette Falls completed that long overdue process, using primary research from multiple  archives to highlight both the ugly and celebratory truths about a particularly potent nexus of historic events in Oregon. 

Jeff Hou, a landscape architecture professor at the University of Washington, in collaboration with the Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority and the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, just released the Hing Hay Park Post-Occupancy Evaluation, showing the impacts of the recent MIG-led renovation of this urban Seattle park. 

The City of Tualatin and MIG were awarded Oregon Recreation and Parks Association’s 2019 Planning Award for the Tualatin Parks & Recreation Master Plan. The City was so thrilled they made a video!