Just north of the Chinatown Library, a series of concrete terraces are now taking shape, the most visible signs of progress on a neighborhood pocket park.

The half-acre park sits on a previously undeveloped hillside property at the intersection of Yale and Ord Streets.  Local officials - including former City Councilmember Ed Reyes and former County Supervisor Gloria Molina - have pushed to convert the land to public green space for more than a decade.

Landscape architecture firm AHBE | MIG designed the project, uses staircases and multiple terrace levels to account for its hillside location.  The stepped levels - which provide three entrance points along Ord Street and Hill Place - will include landscaping, seating areas, viewing platforms, and exercise equipment.

The project, originally set at $8.5 million, has not been immune to the rising costs of construction in the Los Angeles area.  The Los Angeles City Council voted in February 2020 to increase its total budget to just over $11.3 million.

The development was originally funded through Proposition K as an expansion of the Alpine Recreation Center, which is located a block north along Yale Street.

The project site is located just north of the former site of the Velvet Turtle restaurant, which was approved for the construction of a mixed-use development featuring apartments and ground-floor retail space in 2017.  While the shuttered restaurant has been demolished, work on the new housing complex has yet to proceed.