People’s Architecture Office (PAO) has unveiled Core Memories, a public art project set to be installed later this year at Puente Hills Regional Park in Los Angeles. The site, shaped by decades of landfill use, now serves multiple roles, as a place for education, recreation, nature appreciation and as a resting ground where humans return to the earth in death. While the landscape has been reclaimed and repurposed, neighbouring communities still hold vivid memories of its environmental impact during its years as an active landfill. Core Memories seeks to transform this collective experience through the public art project.
Rather than concealing the site’s past, the project reveals it through a series of rammed-earth monoliths that resemble geological core samples. Each form is created using soil excavated directly from Puente Hills, physically embodying the site’s layered history from natural sedimentation to decades of accumulated waste. The monoliths make visible the often-overlooked environmental and social narratives embedded in the land.
The installation responds to the lived experiences of surrounding communities, many of whom recall the scents, noise and heavy traffic that once defined daily life near the landfill. By turning soil into sculpture, the project acknowledges these memories while reframing the landscape as a place of ecological renewal, learning and reflection.
Core Memories incorporates recycled concrete, native plantings and community engagement through the use of collected soils in public participation activities. The project offers a layered space for reconnecting with the environment while engaging with the deep histories embedded in the earth itself.
