[Video] Kickstarter Fundraiser: Birth of an Urban (Spring Street) Park in Downtown LA

Watch intro with Josh Gray-Emmer and Spring St Park ground breaking

Everyone knows that parks and other high quality public spaces are absolutely necessary when it comes to building a livable urban city. Every urban city we usually fall in love with has great parks that contribute to our fond feelings because of that sense of human-urban connection we have with the city. Now that the Historic Core in Downtown LA is actively building a new park called Spring Street Park (near 5th and Spring), two downtown residents — Josh Gray-Emmer and Joe Rubenstein — are documenting the creation of this park through time-elapsed photography.

Here are the details from the Kickstarter page:

Over the course of 8 months, between 4 and 12 cameras will record a stunning time-lapse, as Spring Street Park is born. The Birth of an Urban Park KickStarter is a community art project that will use time lapse photography to completely capture the transformation of a parking lot to a park.

Spring Street Park is a turning point in the 160 year history of Downtown Los Angeles. Once a bustling metropolis, it’s spent the last 50 years in decay. This conversion of a parking lot into a park, is a symbol of the new evolution of Historic Downtown. It’s a historic mark in the long story of our city, one that harkens the coming return of residents to the neighborhood.

Over the course of eight months, between four and twelve Canon G12 cameras in specially created housings will snap a picture every five minutes. Set at angles that form an arching circle around the new park, the cameras will capture images in full resolution to high capacity HD cards. These will be changed once a month, with the resulting photos filling an entire 10TB drive!

We are looking to raise $10,000 to cover the costs of purchasing the cameras, cards, and equipment. Build the weather/tamper proof housings. Make deals with the building owners to install the equipment. Gather and catalogue the information, and create the first HD Timelapse project. If we make more than $10,000 we will continue to add cameras up to twelve.

Even after we have our first time lapse, the “Birth of an Urban Park” project will still grow! Part of the cost of the project pays for the delivery of all the data on a hard drive to the website HitRecord.org, so that their members will be able to access the RAW data and continue to create amazing videos.

Ultimately we hope to host a screening of the creation of the park IN the park, on the side of the attached parking garage.

There are two people making this dream a reality.

Josh Gray-Emmer - a ten year resident of Spring Street describes his consulting business as, “born out of a love and passion for the neighborhood.” His, AP Consulting LA, is responsible for the branding and marketing of several prominent Downtown LA buildings, as well as the creation of The DTLA Resident Program. He has been throwing outrageous events for over 15 years and the premiere screening promises to be no exception. Josh is the idea and force behind “The Birth of an Urban Park”

Joe Rubenstein - a four year resident of Historic Downtown, is a KickStarter regular, both backing over 40 projects, and also with his own successful kickstarter project, the Digital Bolex. In addition to developing a camera, Joe has a lot of experience in photography being a founder of Polite in Public, a cutting edge photo booth and photo technology company. Joe is the technical director making sure that “The Birth of an Urban Park” uses the right equipment and generates stunning footage.

To contribute toward this Kickstarter fundraiser to realize this artistic vision for another milestone in Downtown LA’s urban evolution toward a livable and energetic urban center, please click here.