Archinect - News

Los Angeles bets on tiny homes to battle enormous homelessness crisis

2020-12-14T14:15:00-05:00

At the city’s first tiny home village, scheduled to open in January, each of the 39 closet-sized homes is costing $130,000, about 10 times what some other cities are spending. Five more villages are planned to open later.

LA Times Senior Writer Doug Smith reports on the progress, and higher-than-usual costs, of erecting tiny home villages in a City of Los Angeles effort to take on its ballooning homelessness crisis.

"Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the program in March," writes Smith, "signaling that the concept of sheltering people in tiny homes, long neglected in Los Angeles, had emerged as a leading strategy in the city’s response to a federal lawsuit alleging it has done too little to get homeless people off the streets."

LA to launch first 'Transportation Technology Innovation Zone'

2020-11-23T12:56:00-05:00

Mayor Eric Garcetti announced last week the city’s first Transportation Technology Innovation Zone, an area where innovators can test their transportation technology solutions. Located in the West San Fernando Valley, the zone is the result of a partnership between Mayor Garcetti and City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, "designed to transform Warner Center into one of L.A.’s mobility innovation and workforce development hubs."

"Transportation and technology each have the ability to connect communities, create jobs, and contribute to progress on sustainability, equity, and economic growth — and Los Angeles takes pride in serving as a testing ground for dynamic and innovative mobility solutions," said Mayor Garcetti in his announcement. "The first-ever Transportation Technology Innovation Zone will unite local businesses, workers, and inventors around how to revolutionize mobility in the West Valley, and it will serve as a model for what’s possible as more zones come online in areas ac...

Mayor Garcetti nominates LA urbanist and landscape designer Mia Lehrer to LADWP Board of Commissioners

2020-09-28T18:39:00-04:00

Mia Lehrer has been nominated as the L.A. Department of Water and Power Commissioner by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. Her extensive expertise, spanning nearly four decades, will help the city in its plans towards sustainability, planning, and resiliency efforts.

A photo of Mia Lehrer's stunning studio, from Archinect's Studio Visits: Studio-MLA. Photo by Amanda Ortland © Archinect

The Mayor shared in a press statement: "When Mia takes her seat on the Board, we will make history for our city and mark a critical moment of progress on the road to true equity — all while deepening the department's commitment to safeguarding our environment, combating climate change, and creating good-paying jobs."

"A Conversation with Mia Lehrer on Her Origins, Civil Service, and Design Leadership." First and Broadway Park (FAB Park). Image via Studio-MLA

While the decision awaits confirmation from City Council, Mia's appointment will set the department for its first-ever all-female Board. With her lo...

Los Angeles adopts all-electric, embodied carbon standards for municipal buildings

2020-02-12T13:52:00-05:00

With a new Executive Directive issued by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, the City of Los Angeles has become the latest California municipality to make a plan to decarbonize its municipal building stock.

Under the recently unveiled Executive Directive No. 25, L.A.'s Green New Deal: Leading By Example vision, the city will, among other broad efforts aimed at bringing environmental sustainability and economic and social justice initiatives to the fore, "ensure that all new municipally-owned buildings or major renovations be designed to reach carbon neutrality by 2030," according to the memo's text.

In addition, the directive will make the city the first in the state to adopt the guidelines of the Buy Clean California Act, a measure that indexes and rates on the embodied carbon of building materials for new building projects and renovations. The move aligns "procurement decisions for steel, flat glass, and mineral wool using Sate of California-adopted Global Warming Potential limits"...

LA releases ambitious zero emissions transportation targets for 2028

2019-12-05T20:07:00-05:00

Last week the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) and its partners released the Zero Emissions 2028 Roadmap 2.0 which seeks to accelerate the deployment of zero-emissions electric cars, buses and trucks, and charging stations across Los Angeles.

"Our Roadmap 2.0 charts a course toward a healthier region with a cleaner transit network," said Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti in a statement, "[it] draws up a blueprint for cities worldwide to follow, so all of us can invest in the smart policies and green energy that will strengthen our families' well-being and quality of life for generations to come," he continued.

The plan comes as an embodiment of the commitment from members the Transportation Electrification Partnership (TEP) to develop policies, establish pilots, and discover strategies to realist the targets in the Roadmap.

According to LACI, the Zero Emissions 2028 Roadmap aims to go 25 percent beyond the existing commitments tied to California state law and the Paris Climate Accor...

Los Angeles approves nation's largest solar and battery energy storage system

2019-09-12T17:37:00-04:00

Under the 25-year deal with developer 8minute Solar Energy, the city would buy electricity from a sprawling complex of solar panels and lithium-ion batteries in the Mojave Desert of eastern Kern County, about two hours north of Los Angeles. The Eland project would meet 6% to 7% of L.A.'s annual electricity needs and would be capable of pumping clean energy into the grid for four hours each night. The combined solar power and energy storage is priced at 3.3 cents per kilowatt-hour [...]

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti praised the approved Eland Solar and Storage Center as an integral part of the city's climate commitment to reach 55% renewable energy by 2025, 80% renewable energy by 2036, and 100% renewable energy by 2045.

"Located on 2,650 acres in Kern County, California, the project will include two large-scale solar facilities that will capture 400 megawatts (MW) of solar energy and store up to 1,200 megawatt-hours (MWh) of energy — all of which can be distributed to meet peak demand, reducing the need for natural gas at night or on cloudy days," explains a statement issued by the Mayor's office and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, adding, "The site will hold enough energy to power 283,330 homes across Los Angeles."

LA Mayor Eric Garcetti taking 'full responsibility' for city's homelessness response

2019-06-13T14:15:00-04:00

When Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti took office in 2013, the city was home to 22,993 homeless residents [...]. The number of unhoused people living within city limits now stands at 36,300—and 75 percent are unsheltered. With homelessness up 58 percent on his watch, the mayor struck an apologetic tone in a letter sent to residents Tuesday.

"As your mayor, I take full responsibility for our response to this crisis," wrote Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti in an open letter this week. "And like everyone who has seen families in tents or spoken to a homeless veteran in need, I am both heartbroken and impatient. While we have housed more homeless Angelenos than ever before in our city’s history, it’s not enough. We must respond like it’s an earthquake — and do more, faster."

Garcetti's response follows the release of sobering statistics on extreme poverty in Los Angeles County; counting nearly 59,000 homeless people countywide and 36,300 within the City of LA.

LAX breaks ground on its new $4.9bn Automated People Mover

2019-03-14T13:42:00-04:00

A groundbreaking ceremony will be held Thursday for the 2.25-mile Automated People Mover at Los Angeles International Airport, which aims to cut down on auto traffic traveling in and out of the airport, officials announced Monday. The project has a targeted opening date of 2023.

Rendering of the people mover train above the terminal loop.

Earlier this morning, LA Mayor Eric Garcetti and other city officials celebrated the kick-off of what will be one of the most significant upgrades to Los Angeles International Airport—an elevated Automated People Mover system that will carry passengers among terminals and finally create an ample connection to the regional light rail system and the brand new consolidated rent-a-car facility.

The nearly $5 billion project is expected to bring much-needed congestion relief now that LAX has taken the title of fourth busiest airport in the world (serving a whopping 87.5 million passengers in 2018) and is projected to welcome even more guests when Los Angeles will host the 2028 Summer Olympics and Paralympics.

L.A.'s homeless count nearly doubled in six years

2018-02-10T09:00:00-05:00

The number of those living in the streets and shelters of the city of L.A. and most of the county surged 75% — to roughly 55,000 from about 32,000 — in the last six years. But the crisis has been decades in the making. If homelessness continues to escalate at current rates, it will swamp even the best efforts.

Despite declaring homelessness in the city an 'emergency' and committing drastically increased funds to housing and services, Los Angeles is failing to improve the lives of its unsheltered citizens.

Twenty-four years after the Northridge quake, Los Angeles still has thousands of 'soft-story' buildings to retrofit

2018-01-18T14:08:00-05:00

Los Angeles city officials and property owners are making progress on retrofitting the types of apartment buildings that proved especially vulnerable in the 1994 Northridge earthquake. [...] As of this month, retrofits on 608 “soft-story” buildings are complete and another almost 4,000 retrofits are in progress, according to the mayor’s office. More than 13,000 of an estimated 13,500 soft-story buildings have been issued orders to comply, the first step on the road to retrofitting.

Commemorating the 24-year anniversary of the 1994 Northridge Earthquake which devastated the greater Los Angeles area on January 17, Curbed LA reports about the status of LA Mayor Eric Garcetti's effort to retrofit all of the city's 13,500 "soft-story" buildings — like the ubiquitous, and extremely vulnerable, dingbat-style apartment buildings.

Los Angeles to host 2028 Summer Olympics; hopes to cut costs by using existing venues

2017-08-01T13:40:00-04:00

After weeks of negotiations with the International Olympic Committee, Los Angeles officials have reached a deal to host the 2028 Summer Games under terms they hope will generate hundreds of millions in savings and additional revenues. The agreement will bring the Olympics back to Southern California for a third time, after Los Angeles hosted in 1984 and 1932. It also opens the door for the 2024 Games to be held in Paris.

Spiraling costs and notorious budget overruns have discouraged other cities from pushing towards being a host to the 2024/28 Summer Olympics, but Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti thinks otherwise and hopes to avoid unpredictable spending by reusing existing venues and infrastructure.

As the Los Angeles Times reports, "Olympic experts have said that L.A. could be different because its plan relies on existing venues such as Staples Center, Pauley Pavilion and the Coliseum. It avoids spending billions to construct new stadiums and arenas. Further savings would arise from housing athletes and the media at UCLA and USC rather than building expensive villages."

LA officials aren't only hoping to cover the cost of the games but actually generate a surplus — emulating the success of the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics.

LA officials seek sweeping overhaul of neighborhood plans

2016-04-14T19:10:00-04:00

Facing a potentially bruising ballot fight over real estate development next year, Los Angeles' political leaders announced Wednesday that they will seek a sweeping update of the plans that govern the size and density of new buildings that go up in scores of neighborhoods. Mayor Eric Garcetti and several council members said they want the Planning Department to revise nearly three dozen “community plans” by 2026, a task that will require the hiring of 28 new employees at a cost of $4.2M a year.

In related news:

Mayor Eric Garcetti on Frank Gehry's plans for the LA River: "a cooperative, collaborative, regional approach"

2016-03-02T13:59:00-05:00

When we finally see this river restored to its natural beauty, it’ll be thanks to the work of thousands of people over decades. The work that Frank Gehry is doing builds upon this—looking at how we can stitch together these 88 cities of LA County, including the 15 different jurisdictions along the river’s 51 miles—some of the most diverse and interesting communities that we’ve ever known. [...] people have put aside their differences and said: This is an opportunity to move forward.

Get caught up with more news on Gehry's ongoing redevelopment strategy for the LA River:

Los Angeles approves plans to tackle homelessness crisis, but funding is still unclear

2016-02-10T13:44:00-05:00

In a fresh bid to confront a problem that has confounded lawmakers for decades, Los Angeles city and county officials approved sweeping plans Tuesday aimed at getting thousands of homeless people off the streets. But one crucial question remains unanswered: Where will most of the money come from? [...] The renewed government attention to homelessness was spurred in part by a 12% surge in people living on the streets [...] pushing the total to more than 44,000 homeless people countywide.

Previously in the Archinect news:

LA mayor Eric Garcetti slow-jams 101 freeway closure announcement

2016-02-08T15:41:00-05:00

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti summoned his inner crooner and released a music video Thursday to warn drivers of an impending 40-hour traffic headache -- the #101SlowJam. Flanked by the Theodore Roosevelt High School Jazz Band, Garcetti sings a tune reminiscent of the "Slow Jam the News" segment on "The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon."

"See we're bringing down the 6th Street Bridge, making way for something new and the demolition will cause delays," Garcetti says in the video. "But sometimes, just sometimes, you have to get your hands dirty to build something beautiful." – Infrastructure never felt so sexy.

Eric Garcetti vs the Car: how LA's mayor plans to change the way Angeleños get around

2016-01-14T13:15:00-05:00

Now in his third year as mayor, the 44-year-old [Eric Garcetti] wants Los Angeles to be “the first postmodern city,” as he tells me, speaking in his art-filled office one morning in October. Throughout the past year, he has made a series of proposals that would fundamentally alter the city by deposing the automobile, which has reigned over Los Angeles for a half-century like a cocksure Third World despot... Call him the Che Guevara of Southern California infrastructure.

Related:

Los Angeles to declare homelessness in the city an 'emergency' and pledge $100 million

2015-09-22T13:46:00-04:00

Los Angeles elected leaders announced Tuesday that they will declare a “state of emergency” on the growing homelessness problem in the city and commit $100 million toward housing and other services for homeless people. [...] "If we want to be a great city that hosts the Olympics and shows itself off to the world,” Cedillo said, “we shouldn't have 25,000 to 50,000 people sleeping on the streets.”

Related on Archinect:

LA mayor Garcetti confident that 2024 Olympics in his city would pay for themselves

2015-08-11T19:51:00-04:00

As Los Angeles moves closer to bidding for the 2024 Summer Olympics, officials said they can host the massive 17-day sporting event for $4.1 billion and offered to guarantee that the city will cover any cost overruns. [...] Garcetti and his team have proposed to spend $500 million less than what Boston had planned and expect to finish with a $150-million surplus by generating billions in broadcast and sponsorship revenue.

Related Olympic news on Archinect:

Waze and its new uneasy bedfellows

2015-06-08T14:44:00-04:00

The L.A.-Waze partnership is, at least in theory, an initial step toward allowing the city’s planners and engineers to regain a healthier role in mediating the kinds of longstanding cross-town conflicts that Waze has renewed and amplified. Whether the deal will help to resolve fundamental long-term issues related to the city’s growth and inadequate infrastructure is another matter.

Will Los Angeles be seeing more housing development along its LA River?

2015-04-27T14:49:00-04:00

If Los Angeles aims to add more housing, it should look at the neighborhoods lining its long-maligned river to do it. [...] The city could make a big dent in Mayor Eric Garcetti's goal of adding 100,000 housing units by 2021 if it streamlines permitting and creates incentive zones in places along the river [...]. The report comes in the wake of a billion-dollar plan by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to revamp 11 miles of the L.A. River north of downtown [...].

Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House to reopen once again in February

2015-01-23T14:22:00-05:00

In the heart of Hollywood's Barnsdall Park, Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House will officially reopen on February 13, as recently announced by L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, Councilmember Mitch O'Farrell, and the Barnsdall Park Art Foundation. This isn't the first time the iconic house has been restored, but the latest renovation focused on bringing back the house, and all its decorative details, to its original early 20th century state. The conservation effort took place from 2008 to 2014 and cost $4,359,000.

The Hollyhock House was Frank Lloyd Wright's first residence in Los Angeles. Pennsylvanian oil heiress and arts enthusiast Aline Barnsdall commissioned Wright to build the house -- which was named after her favorite flower -- as her own venue for producing avant-garde plays. It later became a performing arts complex including Barnsdall's private residence. Construction began in 1919 but came to a halt in 1921 when Barnsdall fired Wright, primarily due to costs.

Nonetheless, the hou...

Garcetti Calls for 100K New Homes in Los Angeles by 2021

2014-11-06T18:35:00-05:00

Calling the cost of housing one of Los Angeles’ biggest challenges, Mayor Eric Garcetti on Wednesday announced a goal for 100,000 new homes in the city by 2021. In a speech to business leaders at UCLA, the mayor outlined a plan to increase funding for affordable housing, subsidize development around transit stations and cut the red tape that many developers say drives up the cost of building in the city.

Neighbor, can you spare a dime? CityLab conference considers sharing economy's urban impact

2014-10-08T13:28:00-04:00

For two days on the cusp of fall, a gaggle of mayors, journalists, technologists, and civic-minded entrepreneurs convened for The Atlantic’s CityLab 2014 conference in still-balmy downtown Los Angeles. The full title, "Urban Solutions to Global Challenges", jumps off of the presumption that cities, not countries, are at the forefront of public innovation, and then dives into the waters where civic tech and urban life intermingle – where local governments have got to make better use of digital technology, and fast. To take the panels and presentations as gospel, our cities are at the best of times and the worst of times; climbing to dizzying heights of technological capabilities and entrepreneurial hopes, while caught in the social and rhetorical undertows of the big “G” word, income inequality and population growing pains. But throughout the lofty jargon, the clearest concern was how cultural shifts in information technologies can improve urban development.

It’s easy to point to inst...

Mayor Vows to Make LA More Pedestrian-Friendly

2014-10-01T11:33:00-04:00

Calling Los Angeles streets a “front door to the world and the place where public life and private enterprise connect,” Mayor Eric Garcetti and the city Department of Transportation released a strategic plan Monday aimed at making them safer and more accessible by 2025. The 61-page report, titled “Great Streets for Los Angeles,” looks toward ending all pedestrian-related deaths, improving safety around public schools and changing the timing of streetlights [...]

Included in the plan are initiatives to help the city become more bike-friendly, such as adding more bike corrals on the street and racks to city buses. This comes on the heels of new, state-wide legislation recently signed by Gov. Jerry Brown aimed to increase bike safety. Assembly Bill 1193 will create standards for protected bike lanes, or cycle tracks. Senate Bill 1183 will provide funding for bike lanes and bike infrastructure through a vehicle surcharge.

While long considered an exclusively automobile-oriented city, LA has become increasingly friendly for bicyclists and pedestrians in recent years. Actually, USA Today recently ranked the city #28 out of the 50 best cities for biking, right after Oakland (and before Miami). Part of the increase in bike riding in the city has been because of the new green bike lanes that have been put in place over the last few years. The bright green color, however, has received some criticism: an LA Times op-ed published in 2012 bemoaned the a...

LA drops helipad requirement for tall buildings; enter LA skyline 2.0

2014-09-29T17:36:00-04:00

In a move that could dramatically change Los Angeles’ skyline, city leaders announced Monday that helicopter landing facilities will no longer be required atop new buildings. The fire code requirement has been criticized for contributing to the “flat-topped” look of Los Angeles’ skyline, particularly in downtown. Los Angeles was the only major U.S. city with such a rule, which has been in place since at least the 1970s.

Hollywood Target building shut down during construction due to established height limits

2014-08-22T19:09:00-04:00

A judge has called for retail giant Target Corp. to stop work on a partly built shopping center in Hollywood, handing a stinging setback to a project championed by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. Superior Court Judge Richard L. Fruin Jr. sided with two community groups who said in separate lawsuits that the City Council should not have allowed Target to build a 74-foot-tall structure in a location where such projects cannot exceed 35 feet.

LA Mayor: 'The Basics Have Been Neglected For Too Long'

2014-02-19T18:37:00-05:00

Los Angeles may be known for its celebrities, glitz and glam, but the city's mayor, Eric Garcetti, is focused on something decidedly less flashy: infrastructure. [...] "We destroyed our public transit system from the '30s and '40s and '50s, and so we're in the process of rebuilding it," Garcetti says. "A bigger program than anywhere in the U.S., but a long way to go."

LA Mayor talks urbanism and mass transit with architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne

2014-02-14T18:06:00-05:00

Last night on the bucolic hilltop campus of Occidental College, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti spoke with the Los Angeles Times architecture critic, Christopher Hawthorne, about the state of L.A. urbanism. This broad topical platform positioned Hawthorne's interview not as a political interrogation, nor as a staged public appearance, but as a relaxed discourse for Garcetti to mention policy while riffing on the kind of place he believes L.A. is becoming. You can review Archinect's live-tweets of the event here.

The discourse of L.A. urbanism is often bogged down by insufficient comparisons and false dichotomies -- sprawl vs. density, cyclists vs. drivers, liberals vs. libertarians, east vs. west, etc. -- that doggedly try to force the region into the conventions of other, completely incomparable cities. Early on, Hawthorne made clear that "Los Angeles" has to be thought of on the "regional scale", and shouldn't copy the developmental models of radically different cities. Garcetti ce...