Sam Hall Kaplan

Sam Hall Kaplan is a venerable planner, writer and academic persevering in Los Angeles.

Member for
18 years 10 months

Contributed 8 posts

Full Bio

Sam Hall Kaplan has a wealth of experience as a planning practitioner, educator, and author. He directed innovative planning and development programs in his native New York City, New Haven (CT) and Los Angeles, and was a creativity consultant to Disney Imagineering, among others; has taught at institutions such as the Art Center College of Design, Yale, and Princeton; was an urban affairs reporter for the New York Times, and design critic for the Los Angeles Times; and garnered an Emmy as a reporter/producer for Fox Television News in Southern California. Most recently Sam was a program strategist for the Los Angeles, Metropolitan Transportation Authority and at present conducts a cityscaping studio at UCLA.

Betting on the Enduring Attraction of the Printed Word

Like the rare <a href="http://www.huntington.org/huntingtonlibrary.aspx?id=4132" target="_blank">Corpse flower</a> that blooms every several years, the Los Angeles chapter of the American Institute of Architects is planning to publish yet <a href="http://www.aialosangeles.org/article/advertising-opportunities-with-larchitecture-aia-la-s-new-annual-full-color-magazine" target="_blank">a new magazine</a> exploring and extolling local design, how it impacts “our everyday life,” and “who architects are as people.” Such an effort at such a time deserves notice.

In Greenwich Village: a Case for a Planning Landmark, or, Simply, a Dash of Nostalgia

There is a certain irony in community stalwarts in testy Greenwich Village wanting to have the stale housing slabs hovering over the bland park composing Washington Square Village declared an architectural landmark that will somehow thwart New York University from overdeveloping further the singular super block. “Fugataboutit,” would be a relative polite New Yorker’s observation by anyone who has ever been to this dance before, as I have. The plea is really just a feint to get the retro-redevelopment realists involved into a backroom of one of the proposal’s big buck backers to splice and dice the project so it can be swallowed by all without choking to a political death.

For Planners: The Best of Times, The Worst of Times

Planetizen is honored to welcome Sam Hall Kaplan to Interchange, our daily blog featuring opinions and commentary from esteemed professionals such as himself. Many of you will need no introduction to Sam or his work. For those of you that do, a quick summary.