The Architect Who Brought 'Rapid Bus' To L.A.

The Los Angeles Times profiles Martha Welborne, an architect and champion of L.A.'s highly-successful Rapid Bus.

1 minute read

January 27, 2003, 12:00 PM PST

By Chris Steins @planetizen


"Eight years ago, Welborne was managing director at the Los Angeles office of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, one of the world's largest architectural firms. A newcomer to Los Angeles, she was boggled by the traffic and frustrated that the city -- unlike Chicago and Boston, where she previously worked -- seemed to have few answers other than the slow build-out of a multibillion-dollar subway that served a sliver of the population... She was so taken with the approach that she ended up leaving her architectural practice to form the Surface Transit Project, a one-woman nonprofit organization advocating a Curitiba-type solution for Los Angeles' traffic problems." Editor's note: Requires free registration.

Thanks to Congress on New Urbanism

Friday, January 24, 2003 in The Los Angeles Times

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