L.A.’s forbidden city consists of the many buildings that we inhabit, use and care about but that are illegal to build today. Some of Los Angeles’ most iconic building types, from the bungalow courts and dingbats common in our residential neighborhoods to Broadway’s ornate theaters and office buildings, share this strange fate of being appreciated, but for all practical purposes, banned. — urbanize.la
In this article, Mark Vallianatos describes how most of Los Angeles' buildings, much like New York, would be illegal to build today. He draws a detailed and fascinating history of the evolution of Los Angeles building and zoning codes and how those changes impacted both the shape of the built environment and the lives of Angelinos.
Vallianatos, is the director of LAplus (Los Angeles Planning and Land Use Society) a non-profit organization for public consultations, and a member of Abundant Housing LA and recode LA. He organized, in July 2017, a walking tour of the forbidden city in collaboration with the pedestrian advocacy group Los Angeles Walks.
More than constraining rules for designers, zoning and building codes directly affect the quality of life, access to housing and mobility of citizens.
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