According to The Los Angeles Times, the new lawn at the LAPD headquarters has been installed. As  the paper mention's, "Just after the new 10-story building and its landscaping were dedicated last fall, trucks and cranes rolled in to erect a massive tent for a Los Angeles Police Foundation fundraiser. Work on the gala ended up destroying the lawn, the LAPD says." Here is the background story. "The rare open space, a hit with downtown loft-dwellers and their dogs, debuted as an alluring oasis in the city's urban core, complete with a stand of palm trees at one end and edges of benches, native plants and tall grasses," said The Times. "Just after the 10-story building and its sustainable, park-like landscaping were dedicated last fall, trucks and cranes rolled in to erect a massive tent for a Los Angeles Police Foundation fundraiser. Ironically, work on the gala, which raises money to help improve the department, ended up destroying the green, the LAPD says. Vehicle tracks gouged in the turf can still be seen, and sprinklers in a water-conserving irrigation system were damaged, officials say."Here are some more before and after pictures.  My question is, in a city where the average rainfall amounts to approx. 15 inches a year could we have come up with a better alternative to this expanse of green? I am not anti-lawn, except where conditions don't seem right. This would seem to be one of those situations. Los Angeles is a desert served with water shipped from many miles away. In addition the city offers a rebate to citizens for ripping out their lawns. The rebate was offered in June of 2009, during one of the areas frequent droughts.

What happens with the next drought? Will this lawn be ripped out and replaced with a water conserving landscape? What message does this send to citizens of the city? Could this area have been designed a bit differently?