Downtown LA

Back in January, the LA Downtown News reported on exciting new design standards for new development in the Downtown which will lead to wider sidewalks, landscaped parkways and medians, and bring additional streetlights, trees and street parking to Downtown.  The standards, approved last week by the City Council, will require that as new development comes to the Downtown, that developers will be required to come up with pedestrian plans for the development.

Last night Metro, kicked off a week of public outreach for the environmental studies for the Downtown Connector,aka Regional Connector, with a meeting at the University of Southern California.  This marked the first time that they held a meeting at USC as previous efforts had focused on the Downtown and Chinatown.  For those new to the project, this project will connect the Blue, Gold and Expo Lines providing one-seat rides from Pasadena to Long Beach and vice-versa.  The connector could save riders up to 21 minutes if a rider from Long Beach needed to get to Pasadena and had to transfer multiple times and buy multiple tickets.  For more details of the project, go to the project's official website or check out this great article from Blogdowntown.

Yesterday morning, the LA Times unveiled Rios Clementi Hale's new design for the Civic Center Park, which will be under construction in the spring of 2010.  Reaction to the plan, be it from the LA Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne or downtowners at Blogdowntown has been more negative than positive.  Before jumping into your own analysis, make sure to read this synposis of changes at Curbed, the story going over the basics at the Times and the collection of images at Blogdowntown.

As part of their efforts to revitalize the commercial corridor along Broadway, Bringing Back Broadway wants our help to tell them what streetscaping and pedestrian amenities are needed to spruce up this iconic boulevard.  While Broadway is still a place teaming with pedestrian life, Broadway itself is one of those mis-designed Los Angeles streets that place a premium on moving cars and not creating a safe and enjoyable place for people to walk, talk, and, not least of all, buy things.

The Planned New Genesis Apartments Will Comply with New Proposed Pedestrian Standards

Via Blogdowntown: Metro's Proposed Below-Grade Route