Curbed LA

New Master Plan for L.A.'s Union Station Will Focus on Passengers, not Developers

If you paid attention to the visions unveiled a year ago by the teams competing to develop a master plan for the area around L.A.'s Union Station, you might expect to see a development-focused final product. Apparently, you'd be wrong.

March 23, 2013 - Curbed LA

Idiot brigade

Leaked Settlement Shows the Dirty Underbelly of NIMBYism

In case anyone thought that developers were the only bad actors seeking to profit off of contentious projects, confidential settlement terms leaked to Curbed show how local groups abuse the California Environmental Quality Act for dubious gains.

January 5, 2013 - Curbed LA

Los Angeles Skyline

With Innovative Plan, L.A. Says Adios to Parking Requirements

Yesterday, the Los Angeles City Planning Commission approved a landmark specific plan that is notable as much for what it doesn't include as what it does.

December 14, 2012 - Curbed LA

Replacing Billboards with Trees...Sort Of

Artist Stephen Glassman and a team of engineers and planners have developed a plan for transforming L.A.'s ubiquitous billboards into floating, globally connected urban forests. All that's needed for the first prototype are a few generous strangers.

November 6, 2012 - Curbed LA

Will New Neighbors Overshadow Hollywood Landmark?

The predicted "New Yorkification" of Hollywood appears to have finally found its incarnation in the proposal released last week to build twin 500- and 600-foot towers adjacent to the historic Capitol Records building.

October 30, 2012 - Curbed LA

Planning in LA is On a Roll

Hot on the heels of the hard fought passage of a new community plan for Hollywood comes news that the City Council has approved five years of funding for L.A.'s planning department to revise the city's zoning code, for the first time since 1946.

June 21, 2012 - Curbed LA

Controversial Plan for Hollywood Moves Closer to Approval

A controversial new community plan for Hollywood made it's first appearance before City Council members this week. James Brasuell was on hand to capture the drama.

March 29, 2012 - Curbed LA

Comprehensive Coverage of the End of Redevelopment in California

With no last minute pardons granted, yesterday marked the official dissolution date for California's 400-plus redevelopment agencies. Curbed LA has gathered the essential readings to guide you through the 'developments' at the state and local levels.

February 2, 2012 - Curbed LA

A Guide to Classic L.A. Houses

Adrian Glick Kudler writes in Curbed LA about a feature in the February issue of Los Angeles magazine profiling 16 of the most classic types of L.A. houses.

January 30, 2012 - Curbed LA

LA County Passes Healthy Design Ordinance

Yesterday the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors passed a new ordinance meant to better tie planning for the county's unincorporated areas to positive public health outcomes.

January 25, 2012 - Curbed LA

An Efficient LA in Chris Burden's Mini-City

Metropolis II, on display now at the LA County Museum of Art, features a futuristic model of Los Angeles in which cars and trains zip around super-efficiently (and, reportedly, loudly).

January 14, 2012 - Curbed LA

GTA V Trailer Satirizes LA Planning And Construction

The new edition of the Grand Theft Auto series will parody LA, including its idiosyncratic planning landscape, which will feature avaricious developers, activist NIMBYs, and a oceanside dwelling starchitect.

November 4, 2011 - Curbed LA

Conan O'Brien's Streetscape Improvements to Proposed 'Conan O'Brien Blvd.'

In response to Chicago's recent naming of a street in honor of Oprah Winfrey, late night TV host Conan O'Brien has suggested having his own street in L.A., along with various streetscape improvements.

June 17, 2011 - Curbed LA

Real Estate of the Rich and Tyrannical

With Bin Laden's Abbotabad hideaway still in the news, Rob Bear takes us on a tour of despot's palaces and hideaways.

May 17, 2011 - Curbed LA

10 Tips for Building a Stadium in L.A.

As the city of Los Angeles edges closer to approving the construction of a new sports stadium in downtown, this post from Curbed LA offers 10 suggestions on how the stadium could and should fit into the city.

April 9, 2011 - Curbed LA

Mayors Speak Out Against Brown's Shutdown of Redevelopment Agencies

Mayor Villaraigosa of L.A. and Mayor Chuck Reed of San Jose have both spoken publicly against Governor Jerry Brown's plan to eliminate all of the state's redevelopment agencies to save cash.

January 12, 2011 - Curbed LA

Historic Preservation with the Muppets

The plot of a new Muppets movie in the works is said to focus largely around historic preservation issues, according to this post from Curbed LA.

January 11, 2011 - Curbed LA

Signage Issues Resolved, Skyscrapers Get Approved in L.A.

Previous renderings of the building proposed for the two-tower, 42-story building on L.A.'s Wilshire Blvd. showed almost the entire structure wrapped in advertising. With a more modest space for signage, the project gets the thumbs-up.

December 18, 2010 - Curbed LA

Chinese "Car-Swallowing" Bus Actually First Proposed in 1969 for NYC

Remember that cutting-edge bus that straddles traffic built by the Chinese earlier this year? Dakota Smith at Curbed LA found an LA architect that proposed the entire idea back in 1969.

November 3, 2010 - Curbed LA

The 'Negligible' Building Safety Benefit of Helipads

In the second part of a series looking at codes in L.A. that require tall buildings to have flat roofs for helicopter landing, Curbed LA discusses a new building that has been exempted from the code and whether more are likely to follow.

October 27, 2010 - Curbed LA

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