The Art of City Building through Civic Engagement

I am installing an interactive public project inviting participants to develop and envision public and civic amenities in a 3-dimensional model form. Participants will be provided with a medley of recycled materials and invited to create their ideal urban form on an oversized urban plot of streets, parcels and parks. This City-building installation allows participants to think of planning goals in physical terms, creating a platform for diverse voices. Playing and visualizing with the 3-dimensional forms engages children and adults of all ages. This model will be constantly changing as participants’ work builds upon the contributions of everyone. Participants will be able to understand the city as not only a place but as a comprehensive urban art form. The purpose of City-building is to use interactive arts to help people think about urban design and planning. It shows participants the challenges and excitement of building through a multidisciplinary process involving everyone.

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NoHo Art Scene: With an Interactive Model Building

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Develop an imaginary "Little NoHo" of parks, bridges, bike paths, plazas, streetcar lines, public art or anything you can imagine using recycled materials! The "Little NoHo" art installation, brought to you by the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles and well-known Los Angeles urban planner James Rojas, is an interactive art project […]

“Hollywould Festival”: With an Interactive Model

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Freewaves’ 11th festival, HollyWould, will fuse media arts and Hollywood Boulevard, transforming it into a massive, multifaceted screening room. Spectacular international videos will explore "what could be" plus "what is." "Hollywould Festival" is an effort to get people out walking the boulevard trough a series of tours, and an interactive model building exercise. Hollywould: Interactive […]

Imagining A Sustainable Downtown through a Model Building Excercise

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As part of Downtown’s LA Open House, James Rojas will create a sustainable model for downtown LA.  Imagining Downtown is a weekend long interactive public project inviting participants to imagine, and develop innovative land use and transportation elements in a model form based on their personal experiences. Participants will be provided with a medley of […]

Sustainable Sundays at the Natural History Museum

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Local urban planner/community activist James Rojas is Building Sustainable L.A! His interactive urban planning art project allows participants to reinvasion a green LA by using a medley of found objects.  Participants are invited to place these objects on a plot plan of the city and become part of the constantly changing urban environment.  This project […]

Pushing Planning Boundries in Santa Monica with James Rojas

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(editor’s note: This story is written by James Rojas, who’s sustainable transportation models have been featured here at least three times in the past.  His most recent model, one of a Santa Monica geared towards cyclists and pedestrians, can be viewed at the 18th Street Art Gallery in Santa Monica until March 27 as part […]

Urban Planning in a Tijuana Colonia

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On August 5th and 6th I facilitated a high-energy, successful community visioning activity for Camino Verde, a colonia in Tijuana organized by Reacciona Tijuana. This project started as a collaboration between Giacomo Castagnola, architect/artist and myself as part of an urban planning art exhibition being organized in October for the Museum of Latin American Art. I wanted […]