Radburn Plan Alive and Well in LA

21 September 2009 - 12:00pm

Village Green, a utopian, multifamily development in the Baldwin Hills district of Los Angeles, was built in 1941 and inspired by the Radburn Plan. The low, California style apartments ring a large, common open space.

Now a designated National Historic Landmark, the neighborhood is still a working community.

"Village Green was designed to address what the architects saw as the problems of the era, said Sara Loe, a homeowner at Village Green since 1992. They wanted to give people a safe, affordable place to live that was also beautiful.

A walk in any direction shows how well the planners succeeded. Front doors face grassy courtyards planted with shrubs and flowers. These yield to the central green: The rolling lawn, laced with paths and filled with pedestrians, is dotted with mature trees."

Source: The Los Angeles Times, September 19, 2009
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In short, we’ve seen the last of the cheap oil on which we’ve built our economy, our communities, and our daily lives.