Segura Associates, Inc., was retained by the City of Long Beach as a cohesive part of the design team responsible for design development of the Long Beach portion of the Light Rail Transit Project. Working with a special city Task Force Segura Associates Inc., acted as a liaison between the City of Long Beach and the “Los Angeles County Transportation Commission” (LACTC).

The final design for the 6.4 miles stretch along Long Beach Blvd. balances the numerous safety requirements with the aesthetic goals of the City. The design encourages a comprehensive street tree program leading to the more active downtown area. New paving, street furniture and canopy shade trees are proposed for the pedestrian oriented downtown area. The median design consists of a mix of palms, small flowering accent trees, shrubs and ground cover. Plant material was carefully selected to insure that there were absolutely no conflicts with high voltage overhead catinary wires, rail operators, site lines and pedestrian travel to and from rail stations.

Numerous workshops were conducted with the various related agencies to assure that all aspects of safety, security and design concerns were addressed with in the final Design Development Program.

The Golden Mall is a 20 year old six block (six acre) downtown of Burbank which until recently was an outdoor landscaped mall within the retail core of Burbank. This outdoor pedestrian mall was well maintained, but was simply not successful for the 80’s and 90’s. With declining activity and increasing vacancies, merchants faced relocations as their only solution. The concern of city officials initiated a program to revitalize the sixty acres “Golden Mall” retail core.

The mall design was an intricate part of a successful revitalization program. Traffic and parking, graphics, utilities, lighting, and landscaping will be improved in the public realm. Concurrently, design guidelines were being prepared to guide new construction and encourage improvements of existing stores. As one increment of a major renewal of downtown, five blocks will be reopened to traffic, with the sixth block remaining closed and known as “Magnolia Plaza”. This plaza will become Burbank’s major public retail space, staged for community events. The entire mall will share common elements or parts, such as newly detail and paved sidewalks, community plazas, trellis structures, street furniture and landscaping. Using these features, each block is being tailored to its own particular needs and opportunities.

Segura Associates, Inc., was selected as the Landscape Architectural Firm for the Foothill Boulevard Landscape Improvement Project. Our task was to transform, a major city entrance, which was a very unsightly thoroughfare, into a ‘landmark gateway’. Working with the consulting civil engineering firm, new sidewalks and raised medians were designed to incorporate drainage bio-swales, impervious decorative stone materials, city signage, tree up-lighting, drought tolerant plantings and a water cautious irrigation. This successful streetscape will serve as the design prototype for existing median programs throughout the City of Upland.