WE DID IT!

With overwhelming heartfelt support, the City Council’s Planning and Land Use Committee voted, with the full support of our City Councilman Herb Wesson, to approve the inclusion of Beneficial Plaza and Liberty Park in the list of Historic-Cultural Monuments. Today, March 7, 2018, the designation was approved unanimously at the City Council meeting. 

 Liberty Park will remain as it is for the foreseeable future.

Next Tuesday, March 6th, the City of Los Angeles Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) Committee will vote on whether to recommend designating Liberty Park as a Historic-Cultural Monument (HCM).

It is critical that Council President Herb Wesson is supportive of the HCM nomination for it to be successful (he represents the district in which Liberty Park is located).  He must hear from area residents and CD10 constituents on why recognizing Beneficial Plaza and Liberty Park with HCM status is the right thing to do.

Beneficial Plaza and Liberty Park is a remarkable cultural landscape and a fixture of Wilshire Boulevard for the past 50 years. Yet Liberty Park is threatened with demolition by a mixed-use project. We do not object to development or increased density, but believe that this remarkable property deserves recognition and protection so better informed decisions can be made affecting the property’s future.

How You Can Help

#1. Please email today and urge the PLUM Committee and Council President Herb Wesson to strongly support the HCM designation of Beneficial Plaza and Liberty Park.

Members of the PLUM Committee are:

• Councilmember José Huizar (Chair), councilmember.huizar@lacity.org
• Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson, councilmember.harris-dawson@lacity.org
• Councilmember Mitchell Englander, councilmember.englander@lacity.org
• Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, councilmember.blumenfield@lacity.org
• Councilmember Curren D. Price, Jr., councilmember.price@lacity.org

To make sure your message becomes part of the official record, please include "CHC-2017-3695-HCM, Beneficial Plaza and Liberty Park" in the subject line.

Please copy the following people:

·         Council President Herb Wesson, in whose Council District Beneficial Plaza and Liberty Park is located, councilmember.wesson@lacity.org and jamie.hwang@lacity.org. 

#2. Attend the PLUM Committee meeting to speak in support of the nomination.

The PLUM Committee will consider the HCM nomination during its meeting on Tuesday, March 6th. Please attend if possible and speak in support of the Beneficial Plaza and Liberty Park.

UPDATE! October 5, 2017 - At today's Cultural Heritage Commission meeting,  the City's Cultural Heritage Commissioners voted unanimously to take under consideration Beneficial Plaza and Liberty Park as a Monument.   Annette Van Duren, the applicant of the HCM nomination, introduced the nomination and presented a brief overview regarding the historical significance of Beneficial Plaza and Liberty Park.  Evanne St. Charles, Architectural Historian and Preservation Planner at Architectural Resources Group (ARG) presented the nomination to the Commissioners.  Members of Save Liberty Park coalition participated in the hearing by reading support letters from Alan Hess, Mia Lehrer and The Cultural Landscape Foundation.      

(Read all letters of support, click here.)

On Thursday October 5, 2017, the City’s Cultural Heritage Commission will consider our application to designate Beneficial Plaza and Liberty Park at 3700 Wilshire Blvd as a Historic-Cultural Monument.  If landmark designation is granted, the site would be protected from immediate demolition and allow the Cultural Heritage Commission to review modifications to site. The LA City Planning Department determined the 93-page application is complete and that the property may be significant enough to warrant further investigation as a potential Historic-Cultural Monument.

In addition to serving as community open space, Liberty Park was originally intended by Beneficial Insurance Group as a monument to the nation’s heritage and an outdoor museum of patriotic objects heralding great moments in American history. Postwar optimism was highlighted by the display of a replica of the Mercury space capsule in 1968, a full-scale model of the Apollo space capsule for lunar missions in 1969, and an actual Titan rocket in 1970. The first object to go on display, an exact replica of Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell cast by the same London foundry and in the same molds as the original, has been a permanent feature of Liberty Park since its unveiling on July 4, 1968. Beneficial Plaza was dedicated the previous year on Veterans Day, November 11, 1967.