Beeman Park's New Gym Has More Than One Finish Date. The Park Around It Is Still Open.

The playground at Beeman Park reopened in early October. The recreation center building next to it at the Studio City Recreation Center on Rye Street has been closed since September 9, 2024.

As of this week, the city's own documents give three different answers to when the new one will be ready. None of them is wrong. They describe a project that started as an experiment more than ten years ago and is now being finished by people who didn't design it.

Three Dates, Each Measuring Something Different

Three public sources currently cover the project's end point. Each one comes from a different agency talking about a different milestone.

The Recreation and Parks report is the most detailed and the most recent forecast from the agency that owns the park. Substantial completion is a construction milestone. A ribbon cutting is a separate event. So a March 2027 forecast for substantial completion makes January 16 look like the original plan rather than the current one. Read together, "early 2027" is a range. The report also explains why it keeps moving.

A Design That Outlived the People Who Drew It

The new building was never meant to be an ordinary gym. The Department of Recreation and Parks says the project "was initially designed over 10 years ago as a sustainable design pilot project for gymnasiums in the City of Los Angeles," pairing passive design features with active systems the department had not used on earlier projects.

Here's how that design aged:

1. 2018. The design was completed and permitted, then shelved for lack of funding.
2. March 18, 2020. The first round of construction bids came in. On July 16, 2020, all of them were rejected as nonresponsive.
3. 2021. After seeking additional grant funding to close the budget gap, the city restarted the project.
4. July 18, 2024. After a rebid, the Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners awarded the construction contract to Ford E.C., Inc. for $22,225,000.
5. August 2024. Ground was broken, with Congressman Brad Sherman's $3 million federal earmark completing the funding package, according to Councilmember Nithya Raman's office.

Between the 2018 permit and the 2024 contract, the design team changed. The board report says it plainly:

"Key staff that led the design for all the design disciplines left the City as part of the early retirement plan offered during the COVID-19 Pandemic."

The report says the staff who took over updated the plans to the 2020 Building Code. They did not run an additional quality-assurance review to confirm that the active sustainable systems were coordinated across every discipline in the bid set. Then the 2023 Building Code arrived mid-stream. Conflicts between the 2020 and 2023 codes were fixed through change orders, to protect public safety and limit the city's exposure to Americans with Disabilities Act claims.

The original drawings came from Sparano + Mooney Architecture, which the department's 2019 final-plans report lists as the project architect. A pilot design that sat on a shelf for three years and was then reworked by a new team is exactly the kind of project where coordination gaps turn up during construction.

Where the Contingency Went

Every public construction contract carries a contingency, which is money set aside for surprises. Alongside Ford's $22.225 million contract, the project carried a separate $3 million contingency. As of the October 2026 report, executed change orders totaled $2,793,882, or about 93% of that original cushion, and another $974,000 or so was forecast on top of it.

That brings projected contingency spending to about $3.8 million. Staff asked the board to raise the ceiling to $4.2 million to leave room for anything not yet identified. Construction plus contingency would then total $26.425 million, funded through Prop K, Quimby fees, MICLA financing and the $3 million HUD Community Project Funding grant.

The report lists what drove those change orders:

• Delays at DWP in updating the transformer yard and power duct bank design
• Existing infrastructure that wasn't in any records, plus new utility requirements
• Errors and omissions in coordinating the mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems
• Changes to the structural system during construction

Several of those changes hit the critical path, the sequence of tasks that sets the finish date. That led to formal time-impact change orders. The schedule has moved for the same reasons the budget has.

What You Can Use on Rye Street Right Now

The building is the only part of the 8.46-acre park the city has formally closed. On its center page, Recreation and Parks says the building closed starting September 9, 2024, and that "amenities will remain open for use." That notice is undated, so it is a general policy rather than a court-by-court status report.

Here's how the park looks this fall, based on the October 7 neighborhood council update and the department's facility list:

• Playground: open again now that work near the access ramp is finished. A temporary second ramp is planned so the play area can stay open through the rest of construction.
• Landale Street entrance: closed. The expanded construction fence blocks it, so plan to come in another way.
• Baseball diamond: listed as lighted. The department describes Beeman's youth baseball program as the second-largest program offered in its public parks.
• Basketball courts: listed as outdoor and lighted.
• Tennis courts: listed as unlighted, which matters more as daylight saving time ends and evenings get darker.
• Picnic tables, barbecue pits and outdoor fitness equipment: listed among the park's features.

The department keeps an email list on the Studio City Recreation Center page, along with a flyer about the new building. The Studio City Neighborhood Council has been posting the more frequent field-level updates.

What Is Going Up Behind the Fence

The delays are part of what makes the finished building unusual. The new gymnasium and community center is 12,000 square feet, about twice the size of the 5,723-square-foot building it replaces. The department says it is meant to provide "much-needed space" for its programs and classes.

The project also includes:

• New hardscape for walking and gathering, plus turf and irrigation repairs
• An expanded parking lot
• New trees and shade
• A 4,000-square-foot rooftop solar array, which was bid as an add-on and included in the 2024 award
• Targets for both LEED and Living Future Institute Net Zero certification

The neighborhood council's update describes the finished building as 100% solar-powered and net-zero energy, with upgraded picnic areas, walkways and water fountains. Those active energy systems are the same ones the board report describes as new to the department and not fully coordinated in the bid set.

For a Studio City household, it works out like this. The swings, diamond and courts are available now, minus the Landale Street gate. The gym, the classrooms and the bigger parking lot belong to 2027. The latest forecast puts substantial completion in March, and the grand opening will come after that. More neighborhood context lives on our Studio City neighborhood page.

Plans that were permitted years ago and then updated by a new team are a familiar risk on residential projects too, from ADUs to whole-home remodels. If you're weighing a renovation in Studio City and want a clear read on whether older drawings still hold up under the current code, Tina D Agent can walk through the scope, timeline and permitting picture with you. Schedule a free consultation.