What stories lie beneath a paved river?

Fifty-one miles of river

Channelized by the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1930s after devastating floods, the Los Angeles River runs 51 miles through a basin that millions call home—and Frank Gehry’s firm had taken on the massive river master plan to rethink its future.

Verizon Media’s RYOT partnered with Gehry Partners and River LA to help Angelenos understand that plan: not through hundreds of pages of reports, but through story and technology. RYOT brought in Jessica Brillhart’s Vrai Pictures and Superbright to build the immersive layer—mobile AR, data visualization, and a physical exhibition that could meet people where they live.

Interactive exhibition

Alongside the app, we built a physical installation—a topography table that lets viewers see the river basin evolve through urban development, community change, and environmental pressure. River LA used the platform as a community-engagement tool: a way to reach residents who might never attend a planning meeting but whose neighborhoods the master plan would transform.

River as data

The experience draws on historic archives and the LA River Index—research assembled by River LA from 25 years of study, including work with Gehry Partners, OLIN, and Geosyntec. Animated layers make abstract data tangible: population, pollution, flood risk, open space, transit, and equity mapped across the same 51-mile corridor.