Los Angeles

For the first time since 1946, Los Angeles is completely revising its zoning code. Urban Insight, the team behind Planetizen, is pleased to be part of this project. One of our key goals is to create a modern web-based version of the zoning code.

September 3, 2013 - Chris Steins

Architect and planner Gerhard W. Mayer asserts that a city developed to accommodate cars is no place for paltry public transit offerings; Los Angeles needs major changes to its DNA if it wants to remain viable.

September 3, 2013 - The Architect's Newspaper

A Donald Shoup devotee offers new insight into the problems and solutions associated with parking in Los Angeles and other cities. Urban Planning professor Richard Willson says it'll cost you, but parking systems are going to get more efficient.

September 1, 2013 - The Eastsider LA

By a 13-2 vote, the Los Angeles City Council lifted an unevenly applied decade-long ban on public murals on Wednesday, ending a dark period for a city that had long celebrated its social and cultural identity on public walls.

August 30, 2013 - Los Angeles Times

Since it opened last year, throngs of Angelenos have flocked to downtown's Grand Park. With those crowds now paying attention to the massive public buildings that form the park's boundaries, some are wondering if they need to be replaced.

August 29, 2013 - Los Angeles Downtown News

After nearly a decade of work, the Los Angeles Conservancy's Modern Committee has succeeded in getting 10 of the homes built under the aegis of Arts & Architecture magazine's Case Study House program onto the National Register of Historic Places.

August 24, 2013 - Curbed LA

The highway widening project that's slowed traffic along the already slothful 405 freeway for the past four years, and brought us the revelatory event known as "Carmageddon", hasn't been all bad news. It offers a glimpse of the city's oldest rocks.

August 23, 2013 - Zocalo Public Square

Could L.A.'s ambitious transit expansion plans become a victim of Congressional budget battles? The extension of the city's subway and downtown Regional Connector are among the projects funded by the Senate but neglected by the House.

August 22, 2013 - Los Angeles Times

Through determined investment, L.A. is on track to generate a third of its power from renewables by 2020. Varun Sivaram, formerly Mayor Villaraigosa's senior advisor on energy and water policy, explains how the city must modernize its power system.

August 20, 2013 - The Planning Report

Those investing in the largely Latino enclave of Boyle Heights prefer to use the term "gentefication" - a play on the Spanish word for people - rather than the pejorative gentrification, to describe their efforts to improve the L.A. neighborhood.

August 19, 2013 - The New York Times

A scheme to transform a Watts housing project with mixed-use development earned final approval from the L.A. City Council on Wednesday. Shops, town homes, and open spaces are to replace "one of the city's most poverty-stricken and violent areas."

August 18, 2013 - Los Angeles Times

A spirit of reflection seems to be in the air across America this summer. Exhibitions in Chicago, the Bay Area, and Los Angeles catalog major projects that were never built and allow visitors to imagine what might have been.

August 17, 2013 - The Architect's Newspaper Blog

Andrew Romano explores the ironic fate of the modest mid-century home in the cradle of modernist residential design, where a hot housing market imperils their existence.

August 17, 2013 - Newsweek

A new rail age is dawning in California, thanks to high-speed rail; BART's impending "fleet of the future"; and more, says Projjal Dutta, director of sustainability at NYC's MTA. If successful, this will mean a major reduction of car use and sprawl.

August 14, 2013 - Future Cities

The U.S Department of Labor is holding up the distribution of billions of dollars in transit funding destined for San Diego, Sacramento, Los Angeles and other California cities due to a new state pension law's impact on transit workers.

August 8, 2013 - Los Angeles Times

If the hiring of the city's first Chief Sustainability Officer is any guide, the Garcetti administration intends to make sustainability a priority for Los Angeles.

August 6, 2013 - KPCC

A 'toxic tour' of Los Angeles raises awareness of the harmful effects the city's industrial infrastructure brings to adjacent, often minority, communities. Stops include a battery recycling plant, rendering plant, oil refinery, and scrap yards.

July 29, 2013 - Los Angeles Times

Buried beneath the enthusiasm that’s accompanied the unveiling of Peter Zumthor’s design for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is one important criteria by which the project should be evaluated: how does it contribute to the urban environment?

July 25, 2013 - Jonathan Nettler

This summer marks a key moment in the effort to transform the Los Angeles River from eyesore to amenity. A newly announced greenway plan and much-delayed U.S. Army Corps of Engineers feasibility study could fundamentally change the river's course.

July 24, 2013 - Los Angeles Times

Doug Failing, Executive Director of LA Metro's Highway Programs, proudly shares the agency's $700 million strategy for testing the value of public-private partnerships to finance and accelerate planned transportation upgrades.

July 17, 2013 - The Planning Report