Archinect - News

L.A.'s "People St." initiative puts public place-making into the public's hands

2014-02-13T14:27:00-05:00

Communities can transform underused areas of L.A.’s largest public asset—our 7,500 miles of city streets—into active, vibrant, and accessible public space with People St, a program of the City of Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT). Eligible Community Partners can apply for approval to create projects that enhance the quality of life in this city. Three innovative types of projects are available: Plazas, Parklets, and Bicycle Corrals.

Los Angeles began piloting its "People St." program in 2011, developing spaces designed to reclaim sections of streetspace for public recreation and use, rather than car traffic. The projects were few but popular, including the Sunset Triangle (designed by Rios Clementi Hale Studios) plaza in Silverlake, a couple of parklets in Downtown, and bike corrals in Atwater Village and Highland Park. Led by LA's Department of Transportation and invigorated by LA's current mayor, Eric Garcetti, the program will accept applications for "People St." initiatives by any eligible community group, beginning this March.

The program is designed not only so communities can individualize their surroundings and make their city more livable, but for LADOT to expedite city improvement projects. Initiatives that otherwise would have taken years of planning and hundreds of thousands of dollars become faster and cheaper to execute, led by the people most in touch with the project site, and approved by city of...

Editor's Picks #232

2011-10-09T12:52:59-04:00

Orhan Ayyüce, alerts Archinect to the fact that recently LADOT “erected traffic signal in front of historically significant Neutra VDL House in Silver Lake, Los Angeles. No notification was ever sent to institutions, individuals and organizations in charge of the house which is open to public.” Janosh believes “That's so audacious that it's the perfect example of LADOT's total detachment from the world outside of traffic engineering. Cars, after all, can't appreciate architecture.”

Guy Horton, author of Contours, Archinect's featured series on the business, politics, and culture of architecture, gets real regarding our current economic situation. He states "discussions about the recession in the architecture field have been less than up-front and honest. Much of this is related to the need for firms to do internal damage-control while continuing to project a positive brand out into the marketplace. Media permeates every aspect of the business now...Very little about the reality of the current economy makes it through the firewall."

News
Hungarian architect Imre Makovecz, died at age 75. As chicagoski commented “Makovecz showed that you don't need a computer to get away from the orthogonal”.

The world also lost Steve Jobs this week. Paul Petrunia, thinks the “The world is a little less interesting now” In response to which Gregory Walker, said “less interesting and less imaginary. ..and apple can leave the best legacy simply by continuing to dare to fai...