More than likely you have seen evidence of Lyn MacEwen Cohen’s civic engagement and commitment to greening our community along Wilshire Blvd or Rossmore Avenue. No doubt you have enjoyed the park-like spaces she’s help to create but just didn’t know who to thank for it. Well now you can join the Windsor Square Hancock Park Historical Society at their annual Los Angeles Garden Tour and Party next month in honoring Lyn for her contributions to enhancing our neighborhood.
As President of the Miracle Mile Residential Association for 10 years, Lyn negotiated the creation of the design for Miracle Miles’ unique Art Deco “Wilshire Green Park” in 1988 with the residents. This park is a thriving, mature, vibrant public park on private property maintained in a first class manner in perpetuity.
Also in Miracle Mile, Lyn, as President of the Miracle Mile Civic Coalition for 25 years (May 2012) initiated and monitored the long term maintenance of several landscape projects such as:
- A Master Plan for Restoration for Hancock County Park at the La Brea Tar Pits in 1989
- A Landscape Design and Maintenance Plan from 1990 to present for the Miracle Mile’s one mile median island and side walk via a unique and very successful Benefit Assessment District
- Producing “ The Greening of Miracle Mile – A Legacy” documentary video in 1999
- “Mother Nature’s Garden Feast” at the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits.
With her enthusiasm, beautification meets patriotism in the garden – both at the home she shares with her husband, Marc, on Rossmore and in public parks and public spaces like local Fire Stations.
Lyn and Marc both developed a passion for the Fire Department when they met three Los Angeles firefighters at a still smoldering Ground Zero in 2001. Since then she has championed the “United We Plant” 9/11 Tree Planting Program chaired by the Hollywood /Los Angeles Beautification Team (H/LABT). To date, Lyn considers it a privilege and honor to help facilitate the planting of trees to honor all those loved and lost on 9/11 including 343 trees remembering fallen fighters planted at or near fire stations. 184 trees have been planted in Miracle Mile for all those lost at the Pentagon Site and a Miracle Milestone was installed for Captain Charles Burlingame, American Flight 77, and his crew and passengers. On September 11, 2011 Lyn chaired “The Spirit of Los Angeles” 10thAnniversary Commemoration and Procession of First Responders at The Grove and the donation of 343 American Flags to the F.D.N.Y by the Daughters of the American Revolution, of which she is a member.
Lyn is a trustee for Windsor Square-Hancock Park Historical Society and was Mayoral Appointee to HPOZ Board for Miracle Mile North. She is currently President and Founder of the Miracle Mile Civic Coalition and Founding President of the FIRST-IN FIRE FOUNDATION INC., “Friends of the Fire Department and Fire Service.” The organization supports efforts to get local neighborhoods and civic organizations to support their local fire station. She was honored with her husband in 2006 as “Honorary Fire Chief” for the Los Angeles Fire Department.
Lyn is a civic philanthropist with a passion for green, for historic preservation and a seemingly limitless energy for public service. We are lucky to call her a neighbor. It’s fitting that she is being honored on Earth Day, April 22, 2012.
Click here for more information on the Los Angeles Garden Tour and Party and to order tickets.
Windsor Square Hancock Park Historical Society Los Angeles Garden Tour and Party Sunday April 22, 2012 at 12 Noon Getty House, the Official Residence of the Mayor of Los Angeles 605 South Irving Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90005
