Huntington Library and Garden, Friends’ Hall
Saturday, April 28, 2012

Coffee and Pastries at 9:30 am
Colloquium and Lunch from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm

Much of the world thinks that Los Angeles just happened by chance—the inexplicable yet inevitable outcome of booming population growth and real estate investment unconstrained by coordinated intentions or public policy. Planners know better, and this event is all about refuting the persistent stereotype of an unplanned Los Angeles. Experts in the field will present on more than a century of plans, planners and planning, including the city’s first comprehensive plan; a state-of-the-art urban design for the last undeveloped area on the Westside; and innovative policies encouraging the amazing resurgence of a supposedly non-existent Downtown. Anyone interested in how our metropolis has been shaped and reshaped by purposeful planning should attend—and be prepared to discuss and debate possible lessons for the next generation of planners.

This event draws its speakers and issues from the new book Planning Los Angeles, a diverse collection of more than two dozen essays examining many aspects of LA’s urbanism and urbanization. (Published by the American Planning Association’s Planners’ Press, copies of the book will be available for purchase.) Author/presenters will include:

• David Sloane, Professor, USC Price School of Public Policy
• Vinit Mukhija, Associate Professor, UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs
• Vinayak Bharne, Director of Design, Moule & Polyzoides Architects & Urbanists
• Ken Bernstein, Manager, Office of Historic Resources, LA Department of City Planning
• Todd Gish, Urban Designer and Historian

Cost for the event is $40

($20 for students with a valid student ID)

Price includes coffee and pastries, box lunch, parking, and a day pass to the Huntington Library and Gardens

Seating is limited. Please RSVP to: Alice Lepis, LARPHG Secretary alepis@prodigy.net (preferred) or at 818.769.4179

Deadline for registration and payment is Tuesday, April 24.

Payment may be made in one of two ways (to complete RSVP):

Register with a credit card Using PayPal

• Registration: $40
• Student Registration (with Student ID): $20

Via US mail: print out and fill in Colloquium 7 Registration Form (PDF, 242 KB), include a check payable to Los Angeles Region Planning History Group, and send to:

Los Angeles Region Planning History Group
c/o Alice Lapis, Secretary
11227 Acama Street
North Hollywood, CA 91602

Please include a xerox of your current student ID if registering as a student.

Date & Location

• Saturday, July 9, 2011, 9:30 am – 2:00 pm
• Huntington Library and Gardens Friends’ Hall

Program

The Los Angeles region has evolved as much from out-sized dreams and inventions as from traditional rules for establishing human settlements.

Carey McWilliams called Los Angeles an “improbable” place not destined to succeed, but determined to do so.  As Southern California developed, the visionaries who built this region knew it was less about location and more about destination. The enormous popularity of “invented” or themed destinations – Venice of America, Olvera Street, Disneyland, Third Street Promenade, CityWalk, The Grove and many others – has provided planners, designers and developers with inspiration and lessons on both success and failure.

What is the difference between those places that have a “unifying vision” and those that celebrate a “messy vitality”?  Where do “invented” places end and “authentic” places begin?  In a land where set designers build houses, architects design movie sets, and many of our most cherished “public” spaces are privately owned and operated, anything is possible.

A distinguished panel, moderated by author and planner Sam Gennawey, will address these questions.

• David Sloane, Professor, USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development
• Hassan Haghani, Community Development Director, City of Glendale
• Vaughan Davies, Principal and Director of Urban Design, AECOM
• Tim O’Day, O’Day and Associates
• Neal Payton, Principal, Torti Gallas and Partners

Event Slideshow

Location & Date

• Saturday, June 19, 2010
• The Huntington Library

Program

The typical Angelino does not believe that there is a coherent plan for transportation in the Los Angeles region.  We hear the sad lament that we lost the nation’s best transportation system when the historic Red Cars were abandoned.  Transportation and land-use go hand in hand.  But what comes first – the transportation or the land use?  Perhaps it can be understood better from the point of view of basic, but not simple, economics.  To what extent has the current Los Angeles been influenced by changes and limitations in the funding process?  How can a rational transportation system be implemented in the 21st Century with limited funding resources?  What lessons can today’s urbanists and planning practitioners learn from the history of transportation funding?

A distinguished and experienced panel traced the development of the Los Angeles transportation system through the history of transportation funding.  The story starts with funding by land developers, who, on their own, built transport systems to create access to undeveloped land.  Later came the use of property taxes to build and maintain roads, gasoline tax/user fees, federal and state funding (with caveats for coordinated planning), local sales tax measures, developer impact fees and proposals for public/private transportation ventures.  All of these will be explored, with a lively and interactive discussion to follow.

Panelists

• Genevieve Giuliano, Director of METRANS Transportation Center, USC
• Brian Taylor,  Professor and Chair of Urban Planning; Director, Institute of Transportation Studies; UCLA
• David Grannis, President of Planning Company & Associates
• David Yale, Deputy Executive Officer for Regional Programming, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
• Moderator: Allyn Rifkin, LARPHG Board member and former Chief of the Bureau of Land Use and Transportation Management, City of Los Angeles Department of Transportation

Event Slideshow

• Saturday, March 27, 2010
• The Huntington Library

Program

Although Los Angeles is frequently derided as an “unplanned” city, shaped largely by real estate speculation, the City of Los Angeles was actually a planning pioneer, crafting the nation’s earliest municipal zoning ordinances in the early 20th century.  With Los Angeles zoning recently celebrating its centennial, how has our little-known zoning history shaped the city we now inhabit?  What lessons can today’s urbanists and planning practitioners learn from the successes and shortcomings of past zoning laws?  Is zoning, as we know it, ready for significant changes as the demand increases for more infill development in built-out areas?

A distinguished and experienced panel will trace the Los Angeles zoning story from the early 1900s to today, exploring the mixed and complex legacy of Los Angeles’ zoning regulation and more recent initiatives to break down the strict separation of land uses. A lively and interactive discussion followed

Panelists

• Greg Hise, PhD., historian of American cities, University of Nevada, Las Vegas and author, Magnetic Los Angeles: Planning the Twentieth Century Metropolis
• D.J. Waldie, Author, Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir and Where We Are Now: Notes from Los Angeles; Public Information Officer, City of Lakewood
• Stefanos Polyzoides, Principal, Moule & Polyzoides Architects and Urbanists; co-founder, Congress for the New Urbanism
• Jane Blumenfeld, Principal Planner, City of Los Angeles; initiator of City planning policies on mixed-use zoning, industrial land-use, and affordable housing
• Moderator: Ken Bernstein, LARPHG Board member, and Director of the City of Los Angeles Planning Department’s Office of Historic Resources

Event Slideshow