Lauren Halsey’s Sculpture Park Is an Architectural Offering to South Central Los Angeles

At the corner of Western Avenue and 76th Street in South Central Los Angeles, a 10,000-square-foot lot has been vacant of a permanent structure since 2016. Now through September 2027, artist Lauren Halsey is offering it to the community she grew up in. In collaboration with L.A.-based architecture studio Current Interests and landscape studio Green House, the artist has transformed the space into a monumental sculpture park, “sister dreamer: lauren halsey’s architectural ode to tha surge n splurge of south central los angeles,” celebrating her neighborhood, personal heroes, and art as a public good.

“I want the space to function like an oasis and have an idiosyncratic ambiance that resonates with people—that welcomes and holds people there,” Halsey—who first conceived of the sister dreamer project in 2006 while an architecture student at El Camino College in Torrance, California—explains to Surface. Combining architecture, art, and public engagement, the garden contains eight Hathoric columns featuring locals’ likenesses and a gridded, open-air structure, whose glass fiber reinforced concrete surfaces are all etched with symbols and language familiar to neighbors. Eight sphinxes also watch over a landscape of water features, fruit trees, vegetables, and native plants. There are plenty of hardscaped spaces to gather, and Halsey, founder of nonprofit Summaeverythang Community Center, has big plans.

“There will be events that are scheduled and preplanned ambitiously, including educational initiatives for youth, community talks, and running and walk clubs,” Halsey says of the project, which is presented by Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND) and curated by Christine Y. Kim. “And there will be experiences and happenings that are spontaneous—gatherings and formations where the space shape shifts, where people pull up impromptu to ponder, or because they want to play dominoes on game night, or because their child needs homework assistance—where they come to feel inspired, free-spirited, open, playful, connected.”

Halsey’s multidisciplinary practice has long used architecture to honor and protect Black spaces, including her own. Her projects, like this one, are ambitious, and often large-scale. Partners like Current Interests were facilitators of that vision. “As architects, we often work on buildings, facades, and interiors,” says Current Interests co-principal Mira Henry. “This project allowed us to focus on a public, urban landscape.”

The firm coordinated the municipal permitting and infrastructure for “sister dreamer,” including envisioning the hardscape and entry points that would protect the world Halsey built while maintaining a welcoming spirit. “Lauren already understood the ways that space can carry intention,” adds Current Interests co-principal Matthew Au. “We were working in the same language, even if our methods varied.” The result is a public green space that has neighborhood stories to tell and offers itself as a venue to create new ones.