Vermont/I-105 Station
real green, 1995
Kim Yasuda and Torgen Johnson, artists
Caltrans, architects
In real green, artist Kim Yasuda and architectural collaborator Torgen Johnson sought not only to pay homage to, but to revive, the agricultural history of Gardena, a city once well-recognized for its gardens. The inspiration for this project was a magnificent tree adjacent to the station; this tree had been scheduled to be removed for a park-and-ride lot. Part of the artists' project involved convincing Caltrans to save the tree, which they were successful in doing. Producing a poetic echo of the tree, the artists have integrated its photographic image onto the station walls.
Two curving walls, which will over time support landscape foliage, face each other and create "vertical gardens" that distinctly mark the entry into the station while also forming a gesture of embrace. Bronze letters appear to cascade from buckets suspended over the station stairways, creating wishing wells.
Yasuda and Johnson commissioned local writers Michelle T. Clinton and Rubén Martínez to create poetic text specifically for the site. Their words are embedded in a river-like band of blue glass paving material that weaves in between the concrete freeway pillars. The buckets above and the river below conceptually connect the two levels of the station.
"We attempted to reclaim the green space erased by the concrete freeway system. We also wanted to acknowledge the resilience of the residential community that has been impacted by these freeways. By drawing upon the neighborhood efforts of grass-roots community gardens, this public site takes on local identity and meaning."