Last week Los Angeles councilman, Jose Huizar, announced the formation of a 21-member task force to help re-imagine Pershing Square, the beleaguered central park in the middle of downtown. The group includes local residents, design and architecture experts, business people, and government officials. Huizar said he hoped they could bring “a wide-range of ideas and perspectives to the discussion.” They’ll also have to develop an agenda and a timeline, and figure out how to fund the project.

One possible funding source could be seed money from downtown developments’ community benefits funds, according to Huizar’s planning director, Tanner Blackman. To help get the discussion going (and shed light on the square’s possibilities) Gensler shared its ideas for the square, developed over the last year has as part of its year-long company-wide “Town Square” research and design project. The ambitious goal: to “reconsider the role of public open space in cities.”

Their studies weighed a dizzying amount of data informing a possible redesign. Who knew there could be so many uses and designs for a park? And who knew that the current iteration could be so out of sync with what’s around it. (Well actually, we did know that…) “It’s a starting point,” said Gensler principal Li Wen. “We’d love to test this model with the park’s stakeholders,” added associate Brian Glodney. That could be a while off, and there’s no telling who will be selected to lead the eventual redesign. But regardless of what direction the square takes one thing is for sure: Gensler has a head start on the competition.