Beeman Park in Studio City: What's Open and What's Still Closed

"The Project was initially designed over 10 years ago as a sustainable design pilot project for gymnasiums in the City of Los Angeles."

That line comes from an October 1, 2026 report to the Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners. It explains most of what neighbors have seen at the Studio City Recreation Center, locally known as Beeman Park, since the building closed in September 2024. The new gym is the city's test case for a different kind of recreation building. That test has a price, and it shows up in both the schedule and the budget. According to the same report, the project was 79% complete in its construction phase as of October 1 and is expected to reach substantial completion in March 2027.

So the fence stays up through one more winter. Part of the park has already come back, though.

What you can use at Beeman right now

On October 7, the Studio City Neighborhood Council posted an update on the 8.46-acre park at 12621 W. Rye St. Here is where things stand:

• Playground: open. Work near the access ramp is done.
• Play area access during the rest of construction: a second, temporary ramp is planned so the playground stays open until the work ends.
• Landale Street entrance: closed. The construction fence has been expanded and now blocks access from Landale.
• Recreation center building: closed since September 9, 2024.

When the building closed in 2024, LA Recreation and Parks said the park's other amenities would stay open, and listed the tennis courts, baseball diamond and outdoor basketball courts. That notice dates from the 2024 closure. It isn't a court-by-court status report for this fall, so if you're coming from the Landale side, plan on using a different entrance.

A pilot drawn ten years ago, built under a newer code

The board report traces the delays back to the project's history, and the timeline explains a lot.

1. More than a decade ago: the gym is designed as a sustainable-design pilot for Los Angeles gymnasiums. It combines familiar passive design features with active systems that, according to the report, Recreation and Parks had not used on earlier projects.
2. 2018: the design is finished and permitted. The project is then shelved for lack of funding.
3. 2021: with more grant money found, the city restarts the project.
4. July 18, 2024: the board awards the construction contract to Ford E.C., Inc. for $22,225,000. That figure includes the rooftop solar add-on.
5. September 9, 2024: the recreation center closes and work begins.
6. October 1, 2026: the project is 79% complete, and the board is asked to raise the contingency budget.
7. March 2027: anticipated substantial completion. The neighborhood council describes this as heading toward an early 2027 grand opening.

The gap between steps 2 and 3 is where the trouble started. According to the report, the staff who led design across every discipline left the city through the early retirement program offered during the COVID-19 pandemic. The staff who took over updated the plans to the 2020 Building Code. They did not run the additional quality checks needed to confirm that the active sustainable systems were coordinated across every trade in the bid set. Then California's 2023 Building Code arrived. The report says conflicts between the 2020 and 2023 codes were handled as change orders, for public safety and to limit the city's exposure to Americans with Disabilities Act claims.

The design that Sparano + Mooney Architecture worked on as the project's architectural consultant was solid enough to permit in 2018. What slowed the build was keeping a first-of-its-kind building coordinated through a funding gap, a staff turnover and a code change.

Where the extra money goes

The report lists every cost on top of the base contract. It also names the problems that produced them:

The original contingency was set at $3 million when the contract was awarded. The $4.2 million ceiling adds $400,000 on top of the projected $3.8 million as a cushion for change orders nobody has identified yet. With the contract, that brings total construction funding to $26,425,000.

The report lists these causes for the change orders so far:

• Delays at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power in updating the design for the transformer yard and the power duct bank
• Undocumented existing infrastructure found once digging began
• New utility requirements
• Errors and omissions in coordinating the mechanical, electrical and plumbing design
• Changes to the structural system during construction

Several of those changes affected the critical path, and the report says that led to the negotiation of Time Impact Change Orders. According to the report, about 40 forecast change orders are still being negotiated, and time-impact claims make up most of their cost.

The funding comes from several sources. Beeman is a Proposition K "L.A. for Kids" Specified Project, ID S12. The report also lists Quimby park fees, MICLA borrowing, a further Proposition K assessment and a $3 million federal HUD Community Project Funding grant. Congressman Brad Sherman's office announced that federal grant in August 2024, just before the building closed.

What the 12,000 square feet replaces

The building being replaced dates to 1952. At the August 2024 groundbreaking, the Council District 4 office described it as the park's original gymnasium. The board report lists it at 5,723 square feet. The new gym and community center will be 12,000 square feet, a bit more than twice as large, which the report says will give Recreation and Parks programs and classes the space they need.

The extra space matters because of who uses the park. The report says Beeman's youth baseball program is considered the second largest offered in any public park. Until now, everything indoors at Beeman has run through one auditorium that doubles as a small gym.

The rest of the project is spread across the grounds:

• Energy: a 4,000-square-foot rooftop solar array. The project is aiming for both LEED certification and Living Future Institute Net Zero certification. The neighborhood council describes the building as 100% solar-powered and net-zero.
• Parking: an expanded parking lot.
• Grounds: new hardscape for walking and gathering, repaired turf and irrigation, and new trees and shade. The neighborhood council adds upgraded picnic areas, walkways and water fountains.

The existing lighted baseball diamond, basketball courts, tennis courts, barbecue pits, picnic tables and outdoor fitness equipment stay where they are. When the fence comes down, Beeman will be the same park around a building that does far more.

Whitsett is on the same calendar

On Whitsett Avenue, a separate project is closing in on the same window. Harvard-Westlake's River Park, on the former Weddington Golf & Tennis site, is a school sports complex, and public access there runs on the school's rules. The Los Angeles Times reported in July that the school is targeting early 2027 for activity to begin. The site still needed city inspections and a Certificate of Occupancy. The Times said the public would be welcome on grounds that can be used during the school day, including the tennis courts, a privately run cafe and a walking path next to the LA River.

The school's October 16 construction update gives the latest from the street.

• Sidewalk repair and tree planting along Whitsett Avenue, with a lane closed, were expected to run about two more weeks, which puts the end of that work around the end of October.
• Sidewalk repair on Valley Spring Lane was on the same roughly two-week timeline.
• On Field A, crews were assembling metal bleachers and installing artificial turf.
• Field lights and tennis court lights were tested on October 19. The field lights go off by 8 p.m. and the court lights by 9 p.m., which the school says matches the cutoff times once the site opens.

Taken together, both of Studio City's large recreation buildings are scheduled to open within a few months of each other in early 2027. Beeman's playground is open now, and the Landale fence has one more winter to go.

When the fence comes down at Rye and Landale, the streets around Beeman Park will have a new 12,000-square-foot anchor and a bigger parking lot next door. If you own nearby and want a clear, evidence-based number for your home before that happens, Mario Acosta can walk you through it. Get a Free Home Valuation, and plan your next move with real figures.