They’ll Pass

Nicolai Ouroussoff could have described Morphosis’ Main Street overpass more succinctly (“Bridging L.A.’s Cultural Divide,” June 20).

It is a crude, coarse, vulgar, hulking, two-sided rusting billboard . . . instant urban blight.

TOM ROBERTS

Beverly Hills

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Left unsaid is how all this metal will encourage people to cross the 101 Freeway. And cross it they do. Evidently Ouroussoff has not been downtown anywhere near the lunch hour. Thousands of people regularly cross the freeway, mainly for lunch at the restaurants north of it.

He also mentioned that bougainvillea would be used on trellises. So like an architect to be completely ignorant of the properties of materials. Bougainvillea will be a complete failure. If shade is desired, plant trees--and I don’t mean palms, but real trees, with real branches, with real leaves. Like they do in Barcelona.

The ultimate solution: Either line the street with retail, as in the Ponte Vecchio, or create a freeway “lid,” topping it with grass and trees, as in the lid over Interstate 10 in Phoenix.

MICHAEL L. O’BRIEN

Scottsdale, Ariz.