REINVENTING L.A.'S OLD RIVER CHILDREN HELP DESIGN NEW PROJECT.

Byline: Holly Edwards Staff Writer

STUDIO CITY - A hummingbird fountain, a snakelike slide, a butterfly maze and a giant gate shaped like a toad - all leading to a riparian oasis - will transform a barren stretch of the Los Angeles River into a lush community park.

Credit goes to 70 students from Colfax Elementary School in North Hollywood who designed the park as part of the Greenway Project - a multimillion-dollar effort to change the river into a linear park spanning 52 miles from Canoga Park to Long Beach.

Flanked by concrete walls and littered with trash, the Los Angeles River now looks more like a poorly maintained drainage ditch than a natural resource.

``I see people just dumping their trash into the river, and it's turned into kind of a dump,'' said Conor May, 11, one of the students who helped design the park. ``But once it becomes a park, people will respect the river more and all the animals will come back.''

Funded through a combination of state, federal, county and city dollars, the Greenway Project got under way five years ago in the Elysian Valley area of Los Angeles.

The first phase of the project in the San Fernando Valley will begin in Studio City this fall, said Melanie Winter, director of The River Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring the Los Angeles and San Gabriel River watersheds.

The city has earmarked $2.5 million for bike paths and tree plantings along the river from Laurel Canyon Boulevard to Whitsett Avenue.

The section designed by the Colfax Elementary students will connect to that area, and it will extend from Radford Avenue to Laurel Canyon Boulevard. Construction of the student-designed park will be funded through a combination of $65,000 from the state, $750,000 from the county and about $100,000 in private donations, Winter said.

Groundbreaking for both sections is expected to occur simultaneously in October or November, she said, and the first phase of the projects - which will include bike paths and tree plantings - will be complete in about four months.

The second phase of the project, which will include construction of fountains, benches, slides and gates, is expected to begin next year.

``The river is the reason L.A. exists, and it's a great place to be reminded of where we came from,'' said Winter, who had approached Colfax Elementary with the idea of a student-designed park. ``By getting the kids engaged in making the river more beautiful, they can see the things they learn come to life, as opposed to some abstraction.''

Two second-grade classes and one class of fourth- and fifth-graders at Colfax Elementary spent about four months last year researching the history of the river and the riparian vegetation found on its banks. The most artistic students designed plans for the park.

Teachers involved with the project say they incorporated the river theme into every subject, from music to math.

Paula Denen, who taught at Colfax Elementary last year and is now a math coach for the Los Angeles Unified School District, said the project gave the students a stronger appreciation of the importance of preserving nature as a place that is enjoyable - not harmful - for humans.

``It's very hard to give urban kids a sense of history because so much development has gone on around them,'' Denen said. ``By researching the history of Los Angeles and the plants and trees that grow here, the kids were able to get a clearer picture of what the area looked like before it was developed.''

Through their research, the students came up with a list of trees and plants that would thrive next to the river - sycamore and cottonwood trees, native grasses, poppies, sage and lemonade berry bushes - and incorporated them into the park design.

The students also created colorful storybooks about the river. Most stories begin with the river surrounded by flowers and animals, only to end as a dingy brown stream because of pollution, litter and neglect.

``I hope people will see this as a river again, and not as a place for pollution and stuff,'' said Iris Chang, 10, who designed the park's hummingbird fountain. ``There used to be animals here, but when it was cemented, all the animals were driven away. Now I hope they come back.''

CAPTION(S):

3 photos, box, map

Photo:

(1) L.A. River Project director Melanie Winter, center, reviews conceptual drawings with student artists from Carpenter Avenue School in Studio City. The snake design will be a slide in the Greenway Project, which breaks ground in fall.

(2 -- 3) Carpenter Avenue School third-graders Julia Mazur, left, and Kelly Wong study the Los Angeles River channel behind a fence at Radford Avenue in Studio City. At left, kindergartner Laurel Jackson looks out from under a tree planted last year.

Charlotte Schmid-Maybach/Staff Photographer

Box:

RIVER PROJECT

Map:

First phase