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Photo: The Japanese Garden with the Administration Building (which looks like a 70's monorail station)
This is one of our city's hidden gems and if you were looking for something to do on a Sunday afternoon or a weekday, here it is (many pictures after the jump)
When the Federal Water Quality Act passed in 1965 came about, so did the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant (after some embattled years and a consent decree). Tillman, the City Engineer, was pressing for a Japanese Garden to be built around the plant to have a beautiful and peaceful buffer zone between the public and the facility. It was completed in 1983.
Open Mondays - Thursdays from 12:00 to 4:00 p.m. and Sundays 10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Oddly, no Saturdays. Occasionally the garden is booked for an event, so call ahead to make sure it is open that day. Admission is three dollars.
The Japanese Garden
6100 Woodley Ave
Van Nuys, California, 91406
818 756 8166
Ducks!!
Snow Viewing Lantern
Shoin Building
Kasuga Lantern
Waterfall Viewing Arbor
Jumping rocks in the Dry Garden
Yay! More Japanese Garden to Come!
Another Snow Viewing Lantern
What's hidden over the wall: the ugly side of water reclamation
From the Viewing Platform
Zigzag Bridge or yatsuhashi,
All photos by Zach Behrens/LAist
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This is so on my "someday I should do this" list. Great pics, Zach!
Someday could be this week. Get to it Ross!
You know what's really sad? I immediately recognized this as Starfleet Academy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfleet_Academy
I was just going to mention Starfleet Academy. Actually, this is a frequent filming location, from Alias to Austin Powers (remember the scene in the first one where Austin slides into the Japanese room with a hot-tub? That's the Shoin building!).
Also, and just to clarify: Water Reclamation means anything you flush or pour down the drain and goes into the sewer system (NOT the storm drain system, mind you) ends up here to be treated. The "reclaimed" water is then released into the beloved LA River (via the Gardens as well as Lake Balboa). The sludge is then put back into the sewer system and sent to Hyperion Treatment Facility in Westchester.
great post, thanks!
@4: thanks for that helpful definition. As someone that was raised in Chicagoland -- where our storm drain water IS treated (in part because we get our drinking water back from the places the storm water drains -- like Lake Michigan), I've always been baffled by how this works in the rest of the country and what the difference is. (Chicago/Cook County even has a gigantic -- and growing - storage container below the city, like several billion gallons, that does nothing but hold water for later treatment). Yours is the first explanation of this -- it's taken me years to figure out why the "drains to [blank}" signs were so odd to me.
Wonderful.
Does it smell?
Nopes, no rancid smells.