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Walkable by Design
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| Emily Gabel-Luddy of the Planning Department's Urban Design Studio presenting a proposal to make Downtown more walkable at a Planning Commission last week. The panel unanimously approved the plan. Photo by Gary Leonard. |
Planning Commission Approves Proposal to Make Downtown More Pedestrian-Friendly
by Anna Scott
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - The City Planning Commission last week unanimously approved a proposal that could bring wide, tree-lined sidewalks, landscaped courtyards, more streetlights and other walking-friendly features to Downtown. The nearly two-year effort to improve pedestrian life in the area now moves to the City Council.
The Commission voted on Thursday, Jan. 8, to recommend that the city adopt new development requirements aimed at creating a walkable Downtown landscape. The plan is twofold: The Urban Design Standards and Guidelines address sidewalks and buildings, establishing standards for sustainable design, setbacks, architectural detail and other elements, while the Downtown Street Standards would update the area's street classifications to better balance car, pedestrian and bicycle traffic and other uses.
The guidelines would apply to new developments in an approximately 2.8-square-mile area roughly bounded by the 101, 10 and 110 freeways to the north, south and west, and the Fashion District to the east.
"This is the first time the city will be considering a true urban design project that joins the clear importance of our sidewalks to the way development is built," said Emily Gabel-Luddy, who heads the Planning Department's Urban Design Studio, which spearheaded the effort. "Downtown is the first neighborhood, or collection of neighborhoods, where this is being implemented."
The design and street standards, a joint effort between the Planning Department, the Community Redevelopment Agency, the Bureau of Engineering and the Department of Transportation, have been in the works since early 2007. They have received widespread support from city officials and stakeholder groups. Several voiced their support at last week's meeting, including the American Institute of Architects, representatives for Ninth District Councilwoman Jan Perry and 14th District Councilman Jose Huizar and the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council.
Still, one point of contention emerged: a stipulation in the design standards that buildings exceeding 150 feet in height must be at least 80 feet from any existing or "possible future" towers. Representatives for the Central City Association and Downtown-based developer Meruelo Maddux asked the Commission to reconsider the requirement, which they argued could stifle Downtown's overall development.
"That is a fairly large space and some of our developers felt that it didn't reflect the realities of an urban, dense area," CCA President Carol Schatz said before the meeting. "If you went to Manhattan, I doubt you would have an 80-foot space requirement. People who are moving Downtown realize that they're moving to a commercial neighborhood where they're not going to get the same light and space they're going to get in the suburbs."
Sidewalks and Buildings
Key to the plan are stipulations that would require most Downtown developers to widen sidewalks instead of streets near their projects and accommodate for landscaping.
Perry pointed to the Portland-based South Group's trio of eco-friendly high-rises in South Park, surrounded by double rows of trees, planters and benches, as an example of the sort of development Downtown would see more of under the new rules.
"The sidewalks can't just be cement slabs," said Perry. "They have to have landscaping and lighting so people aren't afraid to come out at night, much like the South Group has done."
Another piece of the plan is a set of rules governing buildings' street-level space. Focused on promoting pedestrian traffic and avoiding blank walls and visible parking, the standards demand, among other things, that ground-floor space facing the sidewalk be at least 75% devoted to retail, office or other active uses. The standards also dictate that buildings' primary entrances open onto the sidewalk or a sidewalk-accessible public space.
Those requirements in particular, said Huizar, could help his efforts to revitalize the Broadway corridor in the Historic Core. Huizar's Broadway team is currently working on its own streetscape design and plans to ask the city to rezone the street to create new standards for lighting, signage and other ambiance-related elements.
"It complements what we're doing on Broadway because it's giving us a broader infrastructure to do the detailed work we want to do," Huizar said of the Planning Department's guidelines. "It's providing some broad parameters as to what kind of environment they want to create. We're going to be putting all the bells and whistles in our streetscape plan and overlay zone."
Put to the Test
Though the Downtown design and street standards have not been adopted by the City Council, some area developers have already heeded the work-in-progress.
Developers of the proposed Park Fifth high-rise next to Pershing Square, for example, made several adjustments to their plans based on the design guidelines, said Gabel-Luddy. The new elements included a residential mezzanine connected to the Pershing Square Red Line stop and a bus shelter and rest stop that would be incorporated into the project, replacing an existing stop on Hill Street. However, the project, which has yet to break ground, is facing financing issues and is currently stalled.
The Skid Row Housing Trust's proposed New Genesis Apartments, a low-income project at 456 S. Main St., were also designed using the Planning Department's proposed guidelines. "We knew they were in the process of putting these together, and we worked out a solution," said New Genesis architect Wade Killefer. "It was very seamless for us. What they're proposing is what everybody would like them to have been doing for the past 20 years."
Many of the standards, said Gabel-Luddy, are based on existing requirements in other big cities, including New York, Vancouver and Seattle. "All three of these cities have a very well-established relationship between street design and building design," she said. "Our street standards for years have been divorced from building design."
Now that the Planning Commission has approved the plan, it will continue on to the City Council for final approval. Gabel-Luddy said she expects the plan to be adopted in March.
Contact Anna Scott at anna@downtownnews.com.
page 1, 1/12/2009
© Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to re-distribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.
The Commission voted on Thursday, Jan. 8, to recommend that the city adopt new development requirements aimed at creating a walkable Downtown landscape. The plan is twofold: The Urban Design Standards and Guidelines address sidewalks and buildings, establishing standards for sustainable design, setbacks, architectural detail and other elements, while the Downtown Street Standards would update the area's street classifications to better balance car, pedestrian and bicycle traffic and other uses.
The guidelines would apply to new developments in an approximately 2.8-square-mile area roughly bounded by the 101, 10 and 110 freeways to the north, south and west, and the Fashion District to the east.
"This is the first time the city will be considering a true urban design project that joins the clear importance of our sidewalks to the way development is built," said Emily Gabel-Luddy, who heads the Planning Department's Urban Design Studio, which spearheaded the effort. "Downtown is the first neighborhood, or collection of neighborhoods, where this is being implemented."
The design and street standards, a joint effort between the Planning Department, the Community Redevelopment Agency, the Bureau of Engineering and the Department of Transportation, have been in the works since early 2007. They have received widespread support from city officials and stakeholder groups. Several voiced their support at last week's meeting, including the American Institute of Architects, representatives for Ninth District Councilwoman Jan Perry and 14th District Councilman Jose Huizar and the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council.
Still, one point of contention emerged: a stipulation in the design standards that buildings exceeding 150 feet in height must be at least 80 feet from any existing or "possible future" towers. Representatives for the Central City Association and Downtown-based developer Meruelo Maddux asked the Commission to reconsider the requirement, which they argued could stifle Downtown's overall development.
"That is a fairly large space and some of our developers felt that it didn't reflect the realities of an urban, dense area," CCA President Carol Schatz said before the meeting. "If you went to Manhattan, I doubt you would have an 80-foot space requirement. People who are moving Downtown realize that they're moving to a commercial neighborhood where they're not going to get the same light and space they're going to get in the suburbs."
Key to the plan are stipulations that would require most Downtown developers to widen sidewalks instead of streets near their projects and accommodate for landscaping.
Perry pointed to the Portland-based South Group's trio of eco-friendly high-rises in South Park, surrounded by double rows of trees, planters and benches, as an example of the sort of development Downtown would see more of under the new rules.
"The sidewalks can't just be cement slabs," said Perry. "They have to have landscaping and lighting so people aren't afraid to come out at night, much like the South Group has done."
Another piece of the plan is a set of rules governing buildings' street-level space. Focused on promoting pedestrian traffic and avoiding blank walls and visible parking, the standards demand, among other things, that ground-floor space facing the sidewalk be at least 75% devoted to retail, office or other active uses. The standards also dictate that buildings' primary entrances open onto the sidewalk or a sidewalk-accessible public space.
Those requirements in particular, said Huizar, could help his efforts to revitalize the Broadway corridor in the Historic Core. Huizar's Broadway team is currently working on its own streetscape design and plans to ask the city to rezone the street to create new standards for lighting, signage and other ambiance-related elements.
"It complements what we're doing on Broadway because it's giving us a broader infrastructure to do the detailed work we want to do," Huizar said of the Planning Department's guidelines. "It's providing some broad parameters as to what kind of environment they want to create. We're going to be putting all the bells and whistles in our streetscape plan and overlay zone."
Though the Downtown design and street standards have not been adopted by the City Council, some area developers have already heeded the work-in-progress.
Developers of the proposed Park Fifth high-rise next to Pershing Square, for example, made several adjustments to their plans based on the design guidelines, said Gabel-Luddy. The new elements included a residential mezzanine connected to the Pershing Square Red Line stop and a bus shelter and rest stop that would be incorporated into the project, replacing an existing stop on Hill Street. However, the project, which has yet to break ground, is facing financing issues and is currently stalled.
The Skid Row Housing Trust's proposed New Genesis Apartments, a low-income project at 456 S. Main St., were also designed using the Planning Department's proposed guidelines. "We knew they were in the process of putting these together, and we worked out a solution," said New Genesis architect Wade Killefer. "It was very seamless for us. What they're proposing is what everybody would like them to have been doing for the past 20 years."
Many of the standards, said Gabel-Luddy, are based on existing requirements in other big cities, including New York, Vancouver and Seattle. "All three of these cities have a very well-established relationship between street design and building design," she said. "Our street standards for years have been divorced from building design."
Now that the Planning Commission has approved the plan, it will continue on to the City Council for final approval. Gabel-Luddy said she expects the plan to be adopted in March.
Contact Anna Scott at anna@downtownnews.com.
page 1, 1/12/2009
© Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to re-distribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.
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Reader Comments
The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of ladowntownnews.com.
seb wrote on Jan 12, 2009 10:09 AM:
" The best way to make it pedestrian friendly is to add more retail, and get rid of those long cold blank walls. "
judith markoff hansen wrote on Jan 14, 2009 2:05 PM:
" I walk downtown L.A. A lot. Living in the northwest corner, I can walk to Ralphs and Muraukai, Chinatown, Little Tokyo and Buena Vista Park within 20minutes. Why go to the gym?
As much as I love the streets, there are only a few places really attractive to walkers. What distinguishes them as attractive, inviting and not sun-baked are the trees.
In my time here (recently since 2004) I have seen more trees go down then go up. Villaragosa's tree campaign was a joke. Wide sidewalks are nice (see the south side of Tom Maynes' Transportation building) but what makes the street lovely are trees. What makes all streets lovely are trees.
Grand Ave. now stands as a disaster area.: hot to walkers, without any attempt to even plant things as a stop-gap until development.
It has wide, very wide sidewalks. What it needs is green and shade and even a canopy in places. I say TREES before sidewalk. "
As much as I love the streets, there are only a few places really attractive to walkers. What distinguishes them as attractive, inviting and not sun-baked are the trees.
In my time here (recently since 2004) I have seen more trees go down then go up. Villaragosa's tree campaign was a joke. Wide sidewalks are nice (see the south side of Tom Maynes' Transportation building) but what makes the street lovely are trees. What makes all streets lovely are trees.
Grand Ave. now stands as a disaster area.: hot to walkers, without any attempt to even plant things as a stop-gap until development.
It has wide, very wide sidewalks. What it needs is green and shade and even a canopy in places. I say TREES before sidewalk. "
Jeffrey Blue wrote on Jan 15, 2009 5:49 AM:
" I have always wanted for Downtown L.A. to get hip. I am so tired off this old way of thinking and not wanted to implement a great and better change for the downtown area. I want our downtown to be a place of excitement and class. Something that I can brag about to friends and family who leave out of state. I anticipate to see more in depth information from the Downtown News staff about what changes are in the works. "
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Alek F wrote on Jan 11, 2009 9:02 PM:
it's about time they finally do that!!
Thus far LA has the ugliest downtown among large cities, but I'm glad it's about to change.
By creating a true urban walkable environment in our Downtown, LA will hopefully (one day!) transform into a new place, a great city to live, work and visit.
Thank you! "