Urban fabrics exist as layered tapestries — woven from infrastructure, landscape, community, and culture. When a city lacks this complexity, it fails to function as a living organism. Taylor Yards presented such a challenge: a site constrained by the revitalized Los Angeles River and limited access routes, yet full of potential to redefine urban experience.

Our approach unfolded in four independent yet interwoven layers: The Matrix, The Linears, The Field Ground, and The Solitaires. Each layer was tested in isolation, then examined in their intersections. Their collision generated an XY axis — a framework for urban life — while the sectional qualities of the remaining two axes shaped spaces that could act, react, and resonate with human activity.

The design sought to address Los Angeles’ paradox: a city dispersed in form, yet enriched by natural landscapes and cultural openness. Downtown, however, has long lacked magnetism, unable to draw neighboring communities into its fold. To counter this, we turned to Venice and New York’s Manhattan boroughs as inspirations — models of density, vitality, and layered experience.

The resulting vision proposes three distinct downtowns supported by a Venice-like district where residential and retail life flow seamlessly into the edge of the LA River. It is not a singular city center, but a constellation of places — urbanism reframed as a fabric of intersections, layers, and cultural exchanges.