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LA Grows UP: Dealing with Density

Where most major cities in the US are dense and vertical, LA has been distinctively horizontal - a sprawling county of around 10 million people spread over 4000 square miles in mostly single family houses, with easy access, by car, to the network of freeways and wide surface streets. This urban model has enabled a lifestyle that felt liberating and self-determining, and that prioritized private space over public. It also produced some highly original and influential residential architecture.

But as LA’s population has grown and its affordable, available land has diminished, the region is going increasingly vertical. In the last few years there has been an explosion of construction of low and high-rise multi-family buildings, from non-profit affordable housing, to high-end condo towers in downtown, Century City and Hollywood. Some of these buildings are designed by top Los Angeles architects and are very exciting architecturally.

But the vertical development is also disturbing to many Angelenos, who associate it with traffic congestion, density and loss of the free-spirited LA lifestyle, especially since this ‘manhattanization’ of LA has not yet caused people to get out of their cars and use public transportation.

At Dwell on Design, we’ll discuss the architectural and social opportunities, and the challenges, facing Los Angeles as it Grows UP.

SPEAKER BIO

A recognized leader in sustainable design and construction, firm principal Angela Brooks places Pugh + Scarpa at the forefront of the field which promises to dominate future design, construction, and urban planning. Her expertise in the area provides clients financial benefits through long term savings.

Brooks heads the firm’s Sustainable Development Department and has served as Project Architect and consultant on buildings which range in scope from public and institutional projects, to mixed-use projects, single - and multifamily housing. She joined Pugh + Scarpa as a Principal in 1999. Holding strong operational skills as well as design aptitude, Brooks is responsible for overall project management and supervision of the firm’s designers and staff.

Her expertise is recognized by such entities as the City of Santa Monica, which appointed Brooks to the Advisory Board of Solar Santa Monica. She is a co-founder and past President of Livable Places, Inc., a non-profit development company dedicated to building sustainable mixed-use housing. Brooks has been dedicated to implementing positive urban planning since 1993, when she won the New Public Realm International Design Competition.

Brooks holds a Master of Architecture, Graduation with Distinction from the Southern California Institute of Architecture and a Bachelor of Design in Architecture from the University of Florida.