The LA River in Los Angeles, designed and built by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1930’s to protect the city against destructive floods, spans 51 miles. Frank Gehry’s architecture firm has taken on the massive urban development project of the ‘river master plan,’ focusing on revitalization and naturalization of the riverfront.

“Rio de Los Angeles” is an augmented reality app that tells the river’s story from the pre-historic era to the present, focusing on the river’s development through urban sprawl and the complexities of its design. The app leverages AR technologies to show animated data visualizations of GIS data about population, pollution, transportation, demographics, environmental condition and more, to contextualize the importance of the river to the city of LA and its local communities.

Data was sourced from a variety of sources, including historic archives and the data from a variety of sources, including historic archives and the LA River Index, a research database assembled by River LA, one of the many groups involved in the planned redevelopment of the river.

Created by:
Vrai Pictures
Superbright
RYOT