Archinect - News

AIA Los Angeles pens open letter to 2028 Olympics & Paralympics organizers

2023-09-11T18:43:00-04:00

The American Institute of Architects Los Angeles (AIA|LA) has released an open letter sent to organizers of the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games on behalf of its members, encouraging their strategizing with the chapter toward outcomes they say will be a “big win” for multiple stakeholders in the community.

The text states the need for LA28 to consider the importance of placemaking and the games’ eventual aftermath, calling on organizers as a whole to work together on a progressive design agenda that benefits all while enshrining the region’s diversity and enhancing the events’ sustainable footprint.

Focusing on four key areas, the chapter’s letter calls for:

Engage with the AIA and the architecture & design community.
Consider the expansion of LA28’s legacy mission.
Expand partnerships with community stakeholders and leverage their resources to advance projects already in the Los Angeles pipeline.
Increase participation opportunities in the Games planning process and be a leader in in...

SPF:architects' anticipated LA River pedestrian bridge opens to the public with a unifying gesture

2022-04-27T09:00:00-04:00

A major milestone in the ongoing LA River revitalization has been reached after SPF:architects announced the completion of its new Taylor Yard Pedestrian Bridge earlier this month.

Connecting an area north of Dodger Stadium known as Elysian Valley to the neighboring Cypress Park district, the bridge sits on a 42-acre former railway site and has been given the nickname ‘Rumblefish’ by its creators. The bridge takes its namesake and vibrant orange color from a lesser-known Francis Ford Coppola film that SPF:a felt reflected the same ideas of cohesion and brotherly unity expressed in its architecture and will thus serve as the most important piece of infrastructure in the larger Taylor Yard G2 River Park Project currently being undertaken by LA’s Bureau of Engineering.

Photo: Mike Kelley

Construction on the bridge began in 2019 and eventually yielded a 400-foot box-trussed span, in touch with the area’s industrial character and opposing elevations, with two cantilevered central viewing ...

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...

LA Mayor calls on architects to expand 3D-printed PPE efforts

2020-04-06T13:19:00-04:00

The American Institute of Architects Los Angeles (AIA |LA) chapter has been asked by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti to aid the city in its efforts to expand the growing #OperationPPE initiative that has taken root in the city.

Initiated by a team led by University of Southern California (USC) Associate Professor Alvin Huang, #OperationPPE brings together resources and expertise from throughout the USC ecosystem (including its medical and engineering schools) with the productive capabilities of local architecture firms, universities, and other 3D-printing facilities. The effort, which includes contributions from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), and Cal Poly LA Metro architecture programs, has been working around the clock over the last week to manufacture makeshift Personal Protective Equipment for area hospital workers who are on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic.

Previously on Archinect: “#OperationPP...

LA Mayor Eric Garcetti orders closure of all movie theaters, bars, nightclubs, entertainment venues and gyms

2020-03-16T12:40:00-04:00

As a preventative measure for the spread of coronavirus, Mayor Eric Garcetti took to Facebook Live to announce that he has now taken executive action to close all movie theaters, bars, nightclubs, entertainment venues and gyms until March 31. Restaurants will remain open but will only provide takeout and delivery. However, grocery stores, food banks and pharmacies will remain open. The restrictions go into effect Sunday at midnight.

The announcement comes after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced called for the closure of all movie theaters in New York City, Deadline reports. See Mayor Garcetti's full address below:

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."

Nonprofit group seeks to gut L.A.'s most successful affordable housing reforms

2019-09-04T13:15:00-04:00

The city’s [Transit-Oriented Communities] program has been touted as one of City Hall’s most successful initiatives for producing affordable housing. Since it was launched in late 2017, developers have proposed nearly 20,000 new homes, nearly 3,900 of which would be kept affordable for lower-income households, according to the latest data from the planning department.

The notorious Los Angeles NIMBY group Fix The City has filed a lawsuit targeting the city's Transit Oriented Communities (TOC) program, arguing that the program, widely approved by a 2016 voter referendum, violates city and state laws and was not properly vetted by the public.

Alex Comisar, a spokesperson for Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti's office, speaking with The Los Angeles Times, called the "lawful and essential" program "an incredible weapon" for bringing housing affordability to the city, adding, "The mayor believes this program is a critical tool for getting new affordable housing units built across the city."

Christopher Hawthorne leaves LA Times to become Chief Design Officer for the City of Los Angeles

2018-03-12T14:15:00-04:00

After 14 years as the Los Angeles Times' resident architecture critic, Christopher Hawthorne is moving on to become chief design officer for the city of Los Angeles. Announced this morning, Hawthorne explained that "beginning next month, [he'll] be working in the mayor's office to raise the quality of public architecture and urban design across the city—and the level of civic conversation about those subjects." His position will be housed in the city's Office of Economic Development.

Created by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, the position has been something he has openly proposed over the years as he's discussed the future of the city. In a story for the New York Times last year, Garcetti described the role as "a guru who can marshal the forces of the city and look at every bus stop, curb, utility box, every facade, every subway portal.” Beyond bus stops and subway portals, Hawthorne will collaborate on a wide range of public projects, oversee design competitions, and enlist talent...

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.

L.A. Mayor Garcetti proposes gondola lift to the Hollywood sign

2017-05-09T19:36:00-04:00

To snap a photo of the Hollywood sign, tourists have clogged hillside streets and hiking paths, spurring battles in Hollywood Hills neighborhoods and in court over how people should be able to access the iconic landmark. Now Mayor Eric Garcetti has floated an alternative: Building a gondola to ferry visitors to the beloved sign.

Instead of having to evade trespassing laws (or take the long way around), those who want to visit the Hollywood sign up close may be able to simply take an aerial gondola lift if Mayor Eric Garcetti's recent remarks become a reality. As this article notes:

Garcetti spokesman George Kivork said in a written statement Monday that the mayor was "open to exploring ideas that ease congestion and encourages creative thinking when looking at ways to give Angelenos and tourists better access to the Hollywood sign and other iconic landmarks and destinations.”

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.

Mayor Eric Garcetti seeks artist to help reduce L.A.'s pedestrian fatalities

2015-10-29T15:49:00-04:00

Spiffing up materials the city puts out to promote safe driving “is definitely not what this is about,” Reynolds said. “It's going much deeper into the way we think about designing the streets. Art has the power to get people to sit up and pay attention and jolt them out of their normal ways of thinking. We can infuse unexpected elements into the design of the streets and the way of moving through the streets.”

For more on the (changing) art of street navigation:

• What Do Pedestrian Traffic Icons Say About Your Culture?

• Los Angeles has Created the Perfect Parking Sign

• Seeking identity through city fonts

• From California to Texas, car culture is losing its monopoly