Milton Street Park

Milton Street Park is a pioneering example of landscape infrastructure, transforming a 1.2-acre flood-control levee along Ballona Creek into a vibrant community park and ecological gateway to the Ballona Wetlands. As a team project designer, Pamela Conrad led the planting design and graphic visualization efforts, helping communicate a vision that balanced community priorities with environmental performance. The project emerged from an extensive community engagement process and responded to neighborhood desires for safety, beauty, recreation, and access to nature.

As one of the first parks of its scale built atop Los Angeles’ storm channel system, Milton Street Park demonstrates how infrastructure can serve multiple functions. Native plant communities inspired by the adjacent wetlands create habitat for birds, pollinators, reptiles, and other wildlife while educating visitors about local ecology. An integrated stormwater treatment system captures and cleans urban runoff through bioswales, vegetated buffers, and infiltration basins before water enters Ballona Creek. Recycled materials, alternative transportation connections, and recreational amenities—including birdwatching platforms, picnic areas, and trail enhancements—further strengthen the park’s role as a resilient public space that improves environmental quality and neighborhood life.