Photo: carfree.com
Echo Park, like Van Nuys, and other areas, may now lose up to 50 homes to make way for a LAUSD school.
LA does not lack innovative design in school architecture. Many of the buildings now being erected in LA are modern, dynamic and slick. But they still adhere to the low-density model that requires acres of land. And the demolition of homes that are in the way of large bureaucratic plans…..
It would be interesting to see if LA could integrate its future school construction into walkable neighborhoods combined with housing, courtyards and pedestrian friendly streets. Such as in the European model above. These could be built adjacent to those yawning commercial strips of sprawl like Van Nuys Boulevard, Reseda Blvd., Sepulveda, etc.
Here in Van Nuys 
I think this post highlights an important aspect of urban development that is often overlooked: the role of a school in the community. Schools are built with facilities like pools, auditoriums, and cafeterias that can be used to benefit the community as well as the students. Schools that are walkable, close to mixed use development, and that have adaptable facilities should be as much a civic institution as a city hall or public library: indeed, many of their functions overlap.
I too continue to hope that we can stop worrying about how to describe LA’s density, and agree that it must be denser in order to create the kind of walkable environments we all want
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Most of LA is made up of single family homes. Perhaps the houses are densely packed, but they are still homes. The separation of zoning, which creates commercial streets, residential “pockets” and vast, grids of wide avenues, is a contributor to our problems.
I will continue to hope, that LA can build around mass transit, while erecting parks, courtyard buildings, schools, shops, offices and (even!) factories which are walkable.
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LA is the dense-est urban area in the nation maybe (as in dumbest)… but certainly not the most dense (as in population density). Not even close actually. I’m not sure where you pulled that stat out of… considering the LA is a giant suburb of a city. Certain areas are dense, West Hollywood, Santa Monica, etc, but it doesn’t take an engineer to show that the rest of the city isn’t even close.
Anyway, that wasn’t the point of Here in Van Nuys post, the point was that incorporating schools into a neighborhood is much smarter than creating gigantic sprawling structures, even if they are well designed and slic looking.
To answer his questions, I don’t think we will live long enough to see that type of design in Los Angeles. I hate to be such a “debbie downer.” But the best we may see in our lifetime is LEED certified school buildings.
Maybe up in Seattle or New York you may see projects such as the one you showed in Europe. And we should certainly all keep our fingers crossed that we will finally come to our senses and finally see quality development in Southern California. I just think realistically we would have to get rid of all of the people that live here and start over again for that to really happen! People here don’t even see the problem with their horrific Las Vegas style development, and like they tell drunks in AA – admitting there’s a problem in the first place is the first step towards healing.
Let’s start by admitting there’s a problem LA.
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In general terms the typical new building in Greater LA is being built at twice the density of surrounding similar structures. Add to that LA is already the densest urban area in the nation. Mentioning LA and low density in the same breath is a myth that will not die.
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