ice skates at Pershing Square 2018
Architecture around Los Angeles / Downtown / Festivals around LA

Skating, sledding and a Joni Mitchell song at Pershing Square in Los Angeles

by carollightwood

Every winter–except 2020–there is ice skating in downtown Los Angeles. It’s unlikely and wholesome fun for LA families. But in 2018 the activities for children expanded to give the event are more carnival-like feeling. The temporary ice rink was set up in Pershing Square by a group that calls itself the Holiday Ice Rink, but I am not certain who brought in the bouncy-houses, miniature merry-go-round and kid-size train.

This expanding event probably does not make the Pershing Square Restoration Society very happy. They want to return the Square to something similar to its park-like original configuration over 100 years ago.  Mostly it would be grass and trees and statues if they had their way.  I am not sure where the urban ice skating rink would go in their plans, not to mention the children’s playground and the dog park lined with tall pink concrete cylinders and bougainvillea.

Redesign the Square?

The Pershing Square dog park is ideal for the loft and apartment dwellers downtown.  Helps keep the streets clean, too.

The current configuration of Pershing Square–and there have been 5 redesigns since the beginning–was done in 1993 by the famous Mexican Modernist architect Ricardo Legorreta,  landscape architect Laurie Olin, and artist Barbara McCarren.  And as the years have rolled by the playgrounds were added in recognition of the growing number of families living downtown.  I used to favor restoration, but no longer. Grand Park, just a few blocks away, has plenty of grass and trees and some statues, too. Pershing Square should remain as it is today.

Okay…enough of this rant.  On to what I saw.

These beginning skaters may have never seen real snow, but they are learning to ice skate and, who knows, may become L.A. Kings hockey fans.
What a great day for a family outing.  Lots of sunshine and penguin helpers for the kids.
There was a long line of parents and children waiting to ride this Merry-Go-Round.
Hot dogs, tacos, kettle corn and a Micky Mouse poster.  Street vendors have recently been legalized in Los Angeles after decades of selling food on street corners “illegally”.  I don’t think street vendors were arrested very often.  They provide a useful function in the city.
A staff member waits until one sledder is down the slope before she sends the next customer up to the top.
If you don’t like to ice skate there is always sledding.  This Dad and daughter are ready to go.
Lemon tree and sled slope Pershing Square 2018
I love the real yellow lemons in the tree behind the artificial sledding slope!  I noticed that throughout the Square the lemons were only high up on the trees.  No doubt the lower level ones had been picked already by nearby residents. The temperature was about 72 degrees F.
This new building has risen over the parking lot that Joni Mitchell made famous in her song “Big Yellow Taxi”. Before this high rise began to reach skyward, the space was for decades a parking lot which had replaced the old building that was home to the Los Angeles Philharmonic.  They tore down the beautiful philharmonic building and “paved paradise and put up a parking lot” sometime back in the 1970s.  The Pershing Square Restoration Society should take note that “Change Happens”.

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  1. Pingback: Tucson ice skating cancelled by a “rain day” – I saw it in Tucson

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