Panorama.

The Japanese Garden, (JG) designed in 1984 by the late noted Dr. Koichi Kawana, is a 6.5 acre park of waterfalls, rock gardens, bamboo, wisteria, hand carved stone lanterns, a tatami mat tea house and adjacent tea garden. It was built as a deliberately aesthetic and environmental part of a sewage treatment facility, euphemistically called The Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant.

A brutal horizontal administration building forces its concrete mass into the naturalistic water and rocks below. But the assertive modernism is clean, strong and confident. The natural and man made are dynamically harmonious. This blend of ecology, biology, Asian design and American technology could only exist in California.

Unlike a public park, the Japanese Gardens have no litter, graffiti or dogs. But unlike Griffith Park or Will Rogers State Park, this space is begging for exposure. According to a recent article in the San Fernando Valley Business Journal, about 20,000 visitors come here annually but manager Gene Greene would like to find more donors to finance a new community room, library and other facilities.

Filming brings in some revenue, but can inconvenience visitors. The JG once welcomed wedding receptions [and even funerals], but trash, crowds and disrespect often followed the nuptial vows, so this was stopped two years ago.

In a better city, say Zurich or Paris, these 6.5 acres of a verdant and cultured nature, would sit in the heart of an exclusive residential area, with ornate apartments and exclusive hotels overlooking the waterfalls and gingko trees. In LA, the best things are often hidden , waiting to be discovered by a lucky few.

The Japanese Garden

6100 Woodley Avenue

Van Nuys, CA 91406

For docent led tours and information call:

t. 818 756 8166