ARCHITECTURE + URBAN DESIGN
2311 The Campus (Revised).jpg

Signal Hill Civic Center Master Plan


Signal Hill Civic Center Master Plan


Location
Signal Hill, California

Client
City of Signal Hill

Project Status
Adopted August 2024

Awards
American Planning Association, Los Angeles, Urban Design Award of Merit, 2025 (With City of Signal Hill)

 

The Civic Center is the City of Signal Hill’s center, home to its historic City Hall, and host of its library. The Civic Center, inclusive of Signal Hill Park, now contains an underutilized sports field, an oversubscribed community center, and outdated infrastructure limiting the range of desired community use. With five million dollars of support from the State of California for a new amphitheater, the City asked JKA, leading a consultant team, to organize outreach, design, and support for a master plan to locate the amphitheater and reposition the Civic Center as a vibrant community-supported space for events and activities. To build support, the City and consultants organized pop-up, one-on-one, and group listening sessions, culminating in a three-day interactive design workshop where three distinct alternatives were prepared. Utilizing community surveys and input from decision-makers, JKA developed an evolved final concept that located the amphitheater to realize views to the harbor, weaved new accessible pathways across the park connecting to surrounding streets, reimagined the roadway fronting City Hall as a flexible event street, proposed a new community center serving all ages, and provided a wider range of active and passive outdoor recreation types. Approved by the City Council in August 2024, the Civic Center Master Plan now guides the amphitheater implementation while establishing a 10-year blueprint of next steps that realizes the Civic Center as the place to gather and celebrate Signal Hill everyday civic life.

Consultant Team

Kimley-Horn: Landscape Architecture, Traffic and Parking Planning, Infrastructure/Utilities
Economic & Planning Systems, Inc.: Economic Consultants
HplusF: Amphitheater Consultants
Ellana Inc.: Cost Estimating
Bill Block: Architectural Illustration