LA River(s)

The Los Angeles River is unlike any other. From its headwaters in San Fernando Valley to its mouth at the Pacific Ocean, it runs beneath 110 bridges and is almost entirely constrained by concrete. Since its channelization in 1939, the river has stood still in time, in course and in its intermittent flows. This thesis investigates the fundamental natures of the LA river and its relation to the city then-and-now; to question its condition of loss and its relationship to water and the city. The research presents a deconstructed atlas of the mythologized river, its development and its absence - and presence - within the city. Building on a conceptual study of three lenses - the invisible, the infrastructural and the cinematic - this thesis imagines through storytelling multiple reconstructions of the LA River through image and text in order to re-conceptualize, re-engage and re-activate it before its eventual renovation.