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Winning designs for the City of LA's Low-Rise Design Challenge explore new opportunities for housing through research and community engagement

2021-05-17T19:46:00-04:00

To improve and explore housing solutions in the city of Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti and the Chief Design Officer for the City of Los Angeles, Christopher Hawthorne, organized the "Low-Rise: Housing Ideas for Los Angeles." While the design challenge is "not a competition" in the traditional sense, explains its organizers, "this design challenge is part of a larger research initiative [...] to explore new paths to homeownership and new models of affordability in low-rise neighborhoods across Los Angeles."

In support from sponsors and partners such as the James Irvine Foundation and Urban Institute, to name a few, Low-Rise offers an expanded version of housing discourse for the city. What makes this particular challenge different is by "engaging community experts in housing and asking them, in a series of listening sessions organized by theme, how they and their fellow residents would like to see their neighborhoods evolve," shares Low-Rise in their design challenge overview. The ...

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.

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.

One of the iconic arches of the old Sixth Street Bridge in LA will be preserved

2016-10-11T13:48:00-04:00

Earlier this year, the Sixth Street Bridge, which spans the Los Angeles River and connects the Arts District to Boyle Heights, was demolished due to a structural issue known as “concrete rot”. Built in 1932, the bridge held an iconic status in the collective imagination of the city, particularly due to its easily-recognizable silhouette, formed by two swooping, steel arches. Now officials report that one of these arches will be preserved and placed somewhere in the new, 8-acre park that will soon be beneath the new viaduct, which is designed by Michael Maltzan and features ribbon-like, Y-shaped columns. The city also gave away around 1,000 pieces of the bridge as commemorative objects.

h/t the Eastsider LA

For more on the Sixth Street Bridge, check out these articles: