A People Place in L.A.’s Heart

In August, the city of Los Angeles announced it had selected the Related Companies to revitalize Grand Avenue by developing 3.2 million square feet of housing, stores and restaurants, offices, entertainment venues and a hotel in the area surrounding the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The $1.2-billion project will include the transformation of Grand Avenue into a pedestrian-friendly boulevard.

Downtown Los Angeles is currently enjoying one of its biggest real estate booms in years. New landmarks -- from the concert hall to Staples Center -- are bringing more people and new vitality to downtown. Long-dormant Spring Street and Broadway office buildings are being converted into apartments and condominiums. Optimistic investors are readying plans for a long-needed hotel near the Convention Center and the construction of more apartments and offices near Staples Center.

But before Angelenos congratulate themselves on the long-overdue renaissance of their downtown, they should remember their city’s disappointing track record. The 1950s Bunker Hill urban renewal project, for example, was such a failure that some of the building sites sat empty for decades. The much-touted 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s building boom along the Flower and Figueroa corridor never attracted the necessary mix of uses and pedestrian activity to become a genuine regional hub. After 5 p.m. and on weekends, the area remains a ghost town.

What went wrong? Los Angeles’ developers and architects have suffered from myopia. They created a downtown that was safe and convenient for the automobile but hostile to pedestrians. Fortunately, the time is right for change. The planned redevelopment of Grand Avenue is a start in the right direction, but it is only a beginning.

We must reclaim the streetscape for people, not just on one part of Grand Avenue but throughout downtown. Several urban design principles can help make that goal a reality.

First, the city must rethink how people and vehicles use the street. At its core, a street is an urban room for human beings where face-to-face interactions take place in front of storefronts, cafes and offices. The pedestrian environment must take precedence over the car.

Reduce the unnecessarily wide roadways and use the leftover space to widen sidewalks and give the streets a more human scale. Slow the traffic by turning select one-way streets back into two-way streets.

Don’t just widen the sidewalks; use that additional space to reinvigorate an area, such as allowing cafes to add outdoor seating. Wider sidewalks also allow the installation of good, human-scaled landscaping, which introduces nature into the city center. Plant trees, lots of them. Select large, mature trees, not the puny ones Los Angeles has been planting of late. Trees beautify the streetscape better than anything else for the money.

Mandate that new buildings meet the sidewalk, creating a “street wall” that frames the public realm, gives it a recognizable edge and a human scale and provides ground-floor shops and restaurants.

Within that street wall, construct plazas to bring light and air to densely developed areas, like the gardens at the Los Angeles Public Library. Avoid a barren, unwelcoming environment by giving those plazas features like a splashing fountain, shaded benches and landscaping that includes usable lawns.

Make essential streetscape elements like streetlights, benches, bus stop shelters and subway entrances both human-scaled and attractive. Be sure that their placement does not clutter the sidewalks or block views into store windows.

Transform downtown’s few alleys from intimidating or barren truck delivery locations into what they really are, ready-made pedestrian-scaled environments, by giving them an attractive streetscape and uses like cafes and shops.

Create new pedestrian-oriented alleys. Though it is impossible to introduce mixed-use alleys in already developed downtown blocks, the alley model can be used to break up some overly large, usually empty blocks, like those south of 7th Street. Finally, Los Angeles must identify, restore and promote its one-of-a-kind attractions that will lure people onto the sidewalks, creating an active, vibrant streetscape all day and night, seven days a week.

Los Angeles has always been a place of visionaries, where creativity and imagination have fueled an economy like no other. So, it goes without saying that the dream of reviving downtown is not beyond reach. But it will take strong political will, significant private investment and enlightened architectural and planning measures. Creating a downtown for people -- not just cars -- is an essential step in its long-hoped-for renaissance.