Frank Gehry makes like an urbanist in his new plans for Related's high profile, $1.8 billion, nine-acre, Grand Avenue project in downtown Los Angeles. Could LA become an architectural mecca?
"The champion of stand-alone, sculptural architecture had delivered a surprisingly down-to-earth and practical scheme for the immense mixed-use program, to be built across the street from Gehry's own Concert Hall. While not entirely free of awkward details, and few projects covering nearly three city blocks would be problem-free at this early stage of design, the Gehry scheme acknowledges the constraints of both urbanism and commercial development."
..."Despite its large, conventional downtown, Los Angeles is notoriously a-centric, being a loosely packed shopping bag of different industrial clusters and ethnic communities.... The notion that Grand Avenue by itself will reorient Los Angeles towards downtown sounds like an idea hatched at a Chelsea pot party."
..."More tenable was the suggestion by real estate executive, philanthropist and fixer extraordinaire Eli Broad, that Grand Avenue would eventually join a circle of name-brand architecture in downtown Los Angeles that includes Rafael Moneo's Cathedral of Our Lady of Los Angeles and the future High School for the Visual and Performing Arts by Wolf Prix, aging bad boy of Vienna's Coop Himmelblau. This collection of architectural wonders will, predicts Broad, make Los Angeles 'a city of architecture second to none.' "
Thanks to Peter Slatin
FULL STORY: Gehry's Grand Strides

Alabama: Trump Terminates Settlements for Black Communities Harmed By Raw Sewage
Trump deemed the landmark civil rights agreement “illegal DEI and environmental justice policy.”

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

The 120 Year Old Tiny Home Villages That Sheltered San Francisco’s Earthquake Refugees
More than a century ago, San Francisco mobilized to house thousands of residents displaced by the 1906 earthquake. Could their strategy offer a model for the present?

In Both Crashes and Crime, Public Transportation is Far Safer than Driving
Contrary to popular assumptions, public transportation has far lower crash and crime rates than automobile travel. For safer communities, improve and encourage transit travel.

Report: Zoning Reforms Should Complement Nashville’s Ambitious Transit Plan
Without reform, restrictive zoning codes will limit the impact of the city’s planned transit expansion and could exclude some of the residents who depend on transit the most.

Judge Orders Release of Frozen IRA, IIJA Funding
The decision is a victory for environmental groups who charged that freezing funds for critical infrastructure and disaster response programs caused “real and irreparable harm” to communities.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Clanton & Associates, Inc.
Jessamine County Fiscal Court
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions
Salt Lake City
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service