Work proceeds slowly at the former parking lot of Koreatown's Pio Pico Library, where construction began last year for a new pocket park.

The more than $26-million project calls for undergrounding the existing parking lot at 649 S. Oxford Avenue and using the space above to create a 26,000-square-foot park above. Plans call for 50 stalls in the underground garage, as well as additional street parking to serve the library.

Construction of Pio Pico Library pocket parkRichard Bourne

JFAK Architects is designing the park, which will include a playground, an event space, a shade structure, fitness equipment, a walking loop, benches, tables, trees, and landscaping.

"The Park is intended to serve the neighborhood and visitors to Koreatown," reads a narrative from the JFAK website. "It will function as an outdoor extension of the Library providing reading areas and social spaces for Library patrons. The project will also include façade enhancements to the public library, which fronts directly onto the park. The library’s new façade will include a new building logo that will form a bold graphic on the building and will help to enliven the identity of the park."

Location of Pio Pico Library and proposed pocket park in KoreatownGoogle Maps

According to an initial study published in 2019 by the City of Los Angeles, construction of the pocket park is expected to take approximately 18 months.

The Pio Pico Park is an attempt to make up for a failed CRA/LA effort to convert the once empty lot at 7th Street and Hobart Avenue into "Koreatown Central Park."  That plan fell through with the demise of the statewide CRA systems, and the proposed site has since been redeveloped with an apartment building called the Pearl on Wilshire. Koreatown remains one of the most park-poor neighborhoods in Los Angeles.

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