New Name, New Era for Gym
By GWEN MURANAKA
RAFU ENGLISH EDITOR IN CHIEF
Saturday, April 18, 2009

Budokan of Los Angeles chosen as new name for recreation center to be built in Little Tokyo.

Photos by MARIO G. REYES/Rafu Shimpo
Architect Hayahiko Takase shows a rendering of the Budokan of Los Angeles at Little Tokyo Service Center on Thursday. The illustrations were created by Ishou Keikaku Corporation of Japan. He is joined by other members of the team, from left, Sylvia Yoshimizu, Kevin Sanada and Scott Ito.

A rendering of the exterior of the Budokan of Los Angeles, which is to be built on Los Angeles Street between Second and Third streets.

Four courts for basketball and martial arts are planned for the gym.

With a nod to Japanese culture and tradition, the gymnasium project in Little Tokyo has been renamed the Budokan of Los Ange­les (BOLA). Budokan in Japanese means martial arts hall.

“It’s derived from the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo,” said Scott Ito, BOLA project director. “Young people associate it as a gathering place and that’s what we’re trying to do here.”

The Nippon Budokan in cen­tral Tokyo was built for the 1964 summer Olympics and serves as a venue for national martial arts tournaments. To westerners and the youth, it is probably better known as a large concert hall, hosting bands from the Beatles and Led Zeppelin to Beyonce Knowles and My Chemical Romance.

The gymnasium project in Little Tokyo, which received a memo­randum of understanding from the City Council last year, has gone by Little Tokyo Recreation Center for a number of years, but the devel­opment team felt with the capital campaign upcoming that a name change was necessary.

Bill Watanabe, Little Tokyo Service Center executive director, got the idea for the new name after seeing the Nippon Budokan on a visit to Tokyo to speak with pos­sible investors.

“It helped him to envision what this project would be in the United States. Even though the Budokan started out as a martial arts facility, nowadays it’s a huge multi-use arena that’s used for a number of different types of events,” Ito said.

“Also in terms of Little Tokyo’s identity as a community. By having a Japanese name like Budokan hope­fully in 20 or 30 years down the road it would help to retain the culture and identity of Little Tokyo.”

Project architect Hayahiko Takase also revealed new architectural ren­derings for the gymnasium created by the Japanese firm Ishou Keikaku Corporation, under his direction.

“The interesting thing is the time difference,” said Takase. “Our 5 p.m. it is 9 a.m. the next day. So by the evening I give some instructions by e-mail to them, then while we are sleeping, they work. They’ll send back to me the next morning.”

The Budokan features include a four-court gymna­sium, rooftop Japanese garden, jogging track, 2,000 square feet of retail space, folding bleachers and a mezzanine for spectator viewing. The new building will also be energy efficient with solar panels and a skylight to let natural light in.

The facility will be large enough to host basketball and martial arts tournaments, considered a key benefit and a way to bring young people to Little Tokyo.

As part of the agreement with the city, the LTSC will also build parking, which would be utilized by city workers during the day and the public at night and during the weekends. The current plan calls for one level of above ground parking and two levels of underground parking for 240 cars. But the architect said depending on the city’s request, another level of underground parking could be built, taking the total to 350 spaces.

Takase has gone through countless renderings of the facility and recalled in the 1970s when a community gymnasium was first planned as part of the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center.

Asked if this was close to the final vision of the gymnasium, Takase replied, “I hope so.”

“I believe this facility is really needed for Little Tokyo and the Japanese community. It started a long time ago, maybe 20 or 25 years ago when the CRA (Community Redevelopment Agency) decided to build the JACCC. At that time the plan included a main building, theater and gym but it was very small, one-basketball court ... Since then we have been trying to build this sports facility.”

The economic downturn has delayed the start of the capital campaign, which Ito said gives the team more time to work on their plans. A parking study for the site also has to be completed.

The new renderings will be on display at the 11th an­nual San Tai San basketball tournament on May 16.

“We have a little bit more time before our clock starts ticking. We’re hoping with the economic fallout that we can work out a more lenient time frame in terms of raising the money. Right now those are the kinds of things that we’re discussing with the city,” Ito said.

“What we’re trying to do is lay out the groundwork for the capital campaign, we’re putting together our market­ing materials and getting everything set, so when the city is ready, we’ll be able to move forward.”