Introducing the
2026/27 Shade Zones Jury
Meet the experts choosing the designs that will keep LA cool.
Chester Kano
Deputy Director, L.A. County Department of Parks and Recreation
Chester is an architect and Deputy Director of the Planning & Development Agency at LA County Parks, one of the nation’s largest public parks agencies. His team of planners, project managers, architects, landscape architects, and thinkers/dreamers/doers manage a portfolio of several hundred initiatives and projects to expand open space access and improve park facilities. Chester has 25+ years of private and public-sector experience in the U.S. and Japan; he leans into projects that support LA County Parks’ mission to serve as faithful stewards of parklands while building healthy, resilient, and sustainable communities through an equity-centered allocation of public resources.
