Lake Flat Porch House from Lake/Flato Architects in San Antonio, TX


Trolling around the internet today, I discovered a San Antonio, TX architecture firm, Lake/Flato, which is designing and building modular type green houses for lower cost. These type of houses could be the next wave for LA in such areas as Van Nuys.

Description below comes from Lake/Flato:

“Porch House, with a uniquely adaptable design and construction process, enables its inhabitants to be a partner with the environment, in a house shaped by the climate and place, where the landscape and rooms are a unified whole. Like many of our firm’s celebrated designs, the Porch House is born from the simplicity of vernacular architecture and leverages what Lake|Flato has learned over the years in terms of good design, quality, sustainability, and practicality. The factory built rooms are arranged on the site to take advantage of views, breeze, solar orientation, and outdoor spaces.  The custom designed site built “porch elements”, such as breezeways, porches, overhangs, and carports are the “connecting tissue” which holds the rooms together while allowing the overall design to adapt to the unique characteristics of the site, the weather and the client’s program.Expected time from design approval to move in is 6-9 months. A Porch House uses considerably less energy than a typical house and can be designed for”net zero energy consumption” with the addition of photovoltaic panels. Current projections for hard building cost range around $150-225 per square foot.”

Architects in Mexico Design Homes that Help Women and Families.


While America enters what seems like a permanent decline, Mexico, long poor and often derided, is moving ahead with progressive architecture and social innovations.

Adobe for Women is constructing twenty sustainable houses in  San Juan Mixtepec, in the south Mexican state of Oaxaca.

Read more about the project here.

“Walkville” Opens in North Hollywood


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One of the most exciting developments in San Fernando Valley urban planning is nearing completion in North Hollywood near the Red Line Terminus. Walkville is a 5,000 unit housing development which is entirely green. Landscaped bike and walking trails wend their way alongside apartment buildings where children, seniors and families live.  The goal is to encourage walking, which explains the wonderful name:  evocative of health, fresh air and friendliness.

Locally-produced and sustainable materials, from Burbank, Sylmar and Pasadena were given priority during sustainable housing construction; roofs are commonly equipped with solar and photovoltaic panels, and make Walkville one of the largest home solar energy districts in Southern California. To encourage carbon reduction, a program supports tree conversation and planting. As far as water is concerned, a system for rainwater infiltration into the ground covers 80% of the residential area. A new ecological sewage system has been invented too, that reuses organic household waste and generates energy.  The LADWP offers Walkville residents a 35% discount on their water and electric rates.

Councilman Tony Cardenas, builder Eli Broad, architect Frank Gehry as well as architecture supporters Brad Pitt, Robert Redford (who grew up in Van Nuys and feels a strong connection to the town), Nancy Reagan, Michael Eisner, Barbra Streisand, Jennifer Anniston (who grew up in Sherman Oaks), Comedian Jay Leno (“If it’s made in Burbank I’m for it!”) and Maria Shriver all contributed both financial and public support to the $250 million dollar undertaking.

A five-acre orange grove, the first such agricultural planting in the San Fernando Valley since 1939, will produce over 500,000 oranges a year. Herbs, walnuts, organic milk and free-range chickens may be introduced to produce locally grown foods for consumption and sale. 1300 Valley Oak trees, native to Southern California, will shade the development. Small stores, selling everything from coffee to groceries to housewares, are planned on the Vineland Avenue side. The best news is that 70% of the people who have moved to Walkville have given up their cars. They will ride the Red Line train to Hollywood, downtown LA and Pasadena and take the Orange Line bus to Woodland Hills.

The article you have just read is a satire. None of it is true, at least for the City of Angels.

Minus the celebrities, it actually and accurately describes a real town, called Vauban,  in Southern Germany.

Here is the way things really are in LA, a city where the NIMBY needs of Brentwood and Beverly Hills outweigh the greater good for all.