According to Richard Platkin, the Hollywood Community Plan Update is merely one megaproject after the next--a huge mistake, and the antithesis to the Los Angeles General Plan Framekwork for good reason.
"First, Hollywood's public infrastructure and services cannot support super-sized projects, a barrier clearly documented in the Update's Final Environment Impact Report.
Second, there is no evidence that the upscale tenants, shoppers, and residents required to make these mega-projects succeed will ever materialize. LA is no longer a boomtown, but an old, deteriorating city, mired in poverty, inequality, and decay. Instead, like the Hollywood and Highland shopping center, the new skyscrapers encouraged by the Update will languish until their developers are forced to beg for public handouts to avoid bankruptcy."
Read the full story: The Hollywood Community Plan Update -- A Fiasco in the Making
Op-ed: Finding the value in LA’s emptiest parks
Los Angeles has the nation's largest dog population, but a measly 14 dog parks. Adaptive reuse can help bridge this gap.
Demise of Entertainment Industry Mirrors Demise of Housing in LA
Making movies has a lot in common with developing real estate: producers = developers; screenwriters = architects; directors = general contractors. The similarities are more than trivial. Both industries are now hurting in L.A.
Los Angeles Finalizing Three Long-Awaited Community Plan Updates
Los Angeles is poised to approve a trio of long-planned zoning code updates—for the neighborhoods of Boyle Heights, Downtown, and Hollywood—as the first test cases for a new citywide zoning code update known as re:code LA.
Desperate measures: Advocates weigh draining Lake Powell to fill Colorado River
Draining the reservoir could reduce evaporation losses by a couple hundred thousand acre-feet.
Eastern Nebraska is running out of electricity
Data centers and electrification are straining eastern Nebraska’s grid, throttling economic development.
Malls are becoming the midtowns of the future
Mall and office park redevelopments are a generational opportunity to create new nodes of urbanity.
NYC breaks ground on anti-flooding infrastructure project
New York City's new system will reduce stormwater flows to local sewers by 90%.
One Kentucky town’s secret to affordable housing
The Smoketown Community Land Trust has already built seven affordable homes for community members.
Houston gains petal-shaped cooling infrastructure to make streets more ‘delightful’
The city has installed the pavilions along 15 blocks in Houston.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS)
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority