Park West Companies, a provider of landscape construction, landscape management and tree care services, was engaged to provide landscape construction services for the stunning Wilshire Grand Center, a multi-use development recently opened in downtown Los Angeles. The landscape architect for the project was RELM Landscape Architecture (formerly Melendrez). The general contractor was Turner Construction, with whom Park West has a longstanding relationship.
As the tallest structure west of the Mississippi, the Wilshire Grand Center represents a challenging and exciting flagship project for Park West with podium work commissioned on the first, fifth, seventh and 73rd floors. The building is home to the 889-room InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown hotel and its cutting-edge restaurants, as well as a state-of-the-art office complex.
Four days of deliveries were needed to provide the materials required for completion of Phase 1 alone. The Park West crew and safety team worked diligently to ensure that everything was properly secured before transporting over 100 bags of dirt, each weighing 2,000 pounds, and two pine trees weighing 15,000 to 20,000 pounds apiece.
The project required very close coordination with other trades, due to the scale of the work in tightly confined spaces, particularly in areas where installations were required prior to a slab being poured. After the slab was in place, irrigation could be stubbed into each planter followed by soil, irrigation, trees and shrubs. Planters had to be waterproofed and 150 yards of dirt were installed on the seventh floor alone.
Other challenges included hoisting materials to the fifth and seventh floors, and using a freight elevator to the 73rd floor. Moreover, only five hours out of an eight-hour day were available for hoisting, with the other three hours set aside for setting up traffic control and a crane.
“A project of this magnitude in downtown Los Angeles offered a tremendous opportunity for us to apply our expertise and collaborate with the other trades in creating a landmark for the city,” said Bart Ryder, president of Park West Landscape Construction. “An extraordinary level of teamwork, communication and organization were vital to keep it running smoothly. It was a fantastic experience and we’re very proud of the end result.”
To view a short video on the project, please click here.
