Al f onz oOr t egaVi l l a f a ne I nt er di s c i pl i na r yS t udi o Ar c h403S pr i ng2015
Table of Contents Reading Response
Landscape as Urbanism
Where and How Does Urban Design Happen?
Concrete Jungle
Defining the Urbanisctic Project: Ten Contemporary Approaches
Project Responses
West Hollywood’s Urban Form and Social make�up Future of Urban Environments Critique of the Current Master Plan Approach to the urban design project
Reading Response on Landscape as Urbanism By :
Alfonzo Ortega Villafane 4th Year Undergrad SP15
Recently we being introduce to the complex world that takes in order to complete a project and the many entities that are involved. In the reading Landscape as Urbanism by Charles Waldheim, was written with somewhat of a bias tone speaking how the Landscape Architecture has become the key entity in the Urban Design process and the main influential factor in the urban environment. In my very limited interaction with landscape architects both students and professors, I think they have an idealistic view of the world and many times fail to be pragmatic issues. An example would be, one of the examples presented by the landscape professor where she proposed to re‐purposed a car dealership’s parking lot with landscape components and have the dealership occupied a small footprint through a vertical elevator going several stories underground. There is a lack of understanding of the economics involved in such project and the impact it would have on such business. Landscape architects seem to have a very well established vocabulary and communication skills but seemed to fail to realistically generate a project. In our class project, we have a landscape architecture student who poses a very limited modeling software toolbox, AutoCAD and SketchUP. In our group and as I can imagine happening in real life there a power struggles when it comes time to decide who’s project or ideas to incorporate into the project given that we all come in with our ego’s flying high. Unlike the reading where Waldheim goes to state that Landscape Architecture recently went through its renaissance after the death of modernism. In addition, the author describes how “Landscape Urbanism, [has] supplanted architecture’s historic role as the basic building block of urban design”. The statement is a strong statement and perhaps
true in the large urban developments, however, coming with such strong attitude would make the process and interaction very difficult. There seems to be a clear power struggle battle emerging between landscape architects and architects, but both need to understand that the individual with is usually the one decides.
Reading Response on Where and How Does Urban Design Happen? By :
Alfonzo Ortega Villafane 4th Year Undergrad SP15
After taking the Disney Imaginer studio I was interested in the Urban Design, how the build environment shapes the experience and affects the user and the community around it. In the reading Where and How Does Urban Design Happen by Alex Krieger, Krieger stated that two main definitions were derived from the 1956 conference, the first one being that urban design was the “part of the city planning which deals with the physical form of the city”. Given that many of the projects are generated and started by private developers who’s only goal is to maximize their profit and have little concern on urban the public benefit, if allowed they would not take into consideration the impact and importance of urban design. In a previous reading, Landscape as Urbanism, the author argue that Landscape Architects were the driving force, it is ultimately the city and community that initially encourage urban design and now are requiring it in order to create and maintain a standard of quality build environment that promotes livable and the physical character of the city and the community. In this reading Krieger outlines 10 different “spheres of urbanistic action” and perhaps the strongest one would number ten, Urban Design as Community Planning. There is nothing stronger that a community that gets involve in the development of the city, since they are ones that know what they stand for and what should be built in order to keep a certain standard of quality in reference to the build environment. The role of the community is important as to prevent harmful projects from coming into one’s community. On the other hand, how does urban design shaped the field and an interaction of architecture, landscape architecture and city planners? According to Krieger, urban design manages the interaction and collaboration between the
three in order to generate a strong project. In our project there seems to be disconnect between the landscape component, the build form and the direction we are currently headed towards. Our studio professor is pushing for developer approach as to maximize the site for retail while diminishing the experience and interconnectivity to the site. I believe that if we generated a build environment that with time becomes successful in bringing people it makes the project more valuable in terms of developer dollars rather than have a project that has large amounts of retail but fails to generate a hype and while people come shopping, there is a lack of excitement and its full potential will not be achieve. As is the case of cities like West Hollywood that with their community plan layout the foundation as what gets build in the city just like many other develop cities in southern California.
Reading Response on Concrete Jungle By :
Alfonzo Ortega Villafane 4th Year Undergrad SP15
The concrete jungle speaks of the way nature reclaimed areas of the urban city of New York and created “urban wilderness” that amused scientists. Robert Sullivan in his article claims that nature exists in “places humans let be, either because they were mapped out or forgotten”. The same analogy can be seen in the cities across the United States but in reference to the concrete jungle of human reclamation of forgotten space. Cities like Los Angeles typically pour their funds into prominent areas and leave out areas that are either not lucrative or underrepresented. An example would be downtown Los Angeles adjacent to the Los Angeles River and Broadway Blvd where a large number of transients occupied the area along with criminal activity. Resources were limited to both areas, small businesses and industrial business endured and sustained the areas before the restructuring of the area happened. Just like in the reading, people were acting like nature, working of the radar and adapting and evolving with what was given. In an ecological approach, the importance of such natural wilderness is important not only to frame our urban space but to provide a healthier living. Trees and plants not only generated clean air by serving as “civic lungs” but also provide a psychological relief from hectic, fast pasting, lifestyle most residents of urban cities endure every day. Allowing an ecosystem to reclaimed and occupy our open space would create not only a urban environment, it will create a wilderness urban environment.
Reading Response on Defining the Urbanisctic Project: Ten Contemporary Approaches By :
Alfonzo Ortega Villafane 4th Year Undergrad SP15
“Cities are experimenting unprecedented level of transformation after been ostracized by deployment of functionalist urbanism of the war years.” They are looking to create a greater traction for the growth of business and the quality of the built environment experienced by the individual. In the reading Defining the Urbanisctic Project: Ten Contemporary Approaches, Joan Busquets introduces 10 taxonomies of urban design. The first taxonomy, Synthetic Gestures, describes our current in‐class project which is intended to trigger broader urban revitalization, this in part is achieved as a whole and not one single element can produce such effect, our diverse adjacencies have an their own anchor with various demographics, nonetheless, once within the project, the project through its porosity allows movement and exploration into the perimeter of the sites. At the same time we have to be careful not have a “fix it” approach that which history has shown not to be possible rather a project oriented acknowledging and being opportunistic of adjacent urbanistic projects like the park on the west, Santa Monica Blvd on the North, high end retail on the south. On the other hand city of Los Angeles has embarked in some large projects that intended to generate Urbanistic spaces. As the Los Angeles River improvements where forgotten and or neglected areas of the river are going to become “recycled territories”, at the same time the given the magnitude of the project, it also a high magnitude project or “synthetic Gesture” that has spurred many more projects to start because of it.
Project Response on West Hollywood’s Urban Form and Social make‐up By :
Alfonzo Ortega Villafane 4th Year Undergrad SP15
The city West Hollywood is a high density urban city that along with its location and demographics generate large potential for investment and built environment growth. The city has an area of about 1.88 square miles yet it is home to approximately 34,399 persons as per 2010 United States Census, the city currently holds the 16th spot in the list of population density. Housing in West Hollywood primarily consists of medium and high density apartments on all of the city with the exception on south east where low density is dominant. West Hollywood borders city Hollywood Hills on the north which create spectacular views from the hotel, on the east site it borders city of Hollywood, which is considered the entrainment capital of the world. On the south it borders City of Los Angeles and on the west it borders the notoriously high rich city of Beverly Hills. The location of West Hollywood as an entertainment for the wealthy who are within proximity thus creating opportunity for retail and entertainment development. The current demographics consist of predominantly younger population with 60 percent of the population being within the age group of 20 to 45 years old. Furthermore, almost 60 percent of the population has a college degree, which means the city has large median income and the potential for retail and entertainment also exist from within. West Hollywood is known for artistic and tolerance atmosphere where there is a large population of homosexuals and transgender locate in. West Hollywood hosts several events throughout the year that bring tourism from all over the world and turn the city into a large entertainment hub. Residents of West Hollywood are very involve in the politics and in the entitlement process.
The city itself has generated a Master Plan that is intended to create a unique environment reflective of its culture and ideals. The city has implemented a series of approaches that are meant to generate a urban built environment that incorporates ecology, energy management, land use, both public and private. Some of the moves are incorporation of dressing up the existing center and creating place makers that anchor urban growth. Furthermore, the city is being more flexible with bending zoning ordinances in order to generate what Joan Busquets in Defining the Urbanistic Project: Ten Contemporary Approaches, calls “Synthetic Gestures” which consist of high profile projects that trigger broader urban revitalization. In addition in Alex Krieger article Where and How Does Urban Design Happen? West Hollywood incorporates the “form‐based category of public policy where entitlement process requires developers to create projects with urban design qualities that enhance the built urban environment. Overall West Hollywood is a high density city with large potential of entertainment and retail growth that will be a pioneer as framework for other cities to follow.
Project Response on The Future of Urban Environments By :
Alfonzo Ortega Villafane 4th Year Undergrad SP15
The future of Urban Environments, factors in many factors and many individuals. To argue one universal approach or idea is to repeat the mistakes made in the past. In the article titled Where and How Does Urban Design Happen, Alex Krieger makes the bold assertion that American Planning is reactive to Real Estate rather than prioritizing public benefit. The city of Los Angeles is not an exception to the statement, although Los Angeles have an entitlement process that include both a Design Review Board and Planning Commission, there are many projects with an autonomous presence on the site and are hostile toward the growth of the urban environment. An example of this are the various projects that have been constructed and those that are currently under construction in downtown Los Angeles brought by Geoff Palmer. These projects have no concern for public benefit, rather prioritized a return in investment theme. While the need to understand pragmatic issues involved in the process of the construction of a project referring to the balance between the developer, the client and the city as seen in the Hotel Lecture where a similar power struggle occurs. Given that we had the Great Recession in 2008, the mayor at the time, Antonio Villaraigosa, continuously lobbied investors to invest in new development in the city as well as he lobbied the federal government for infrastructure which included public transportation, upgrades to traffic management and other initiatives that will improved the live environment in the city. As Los Angeles began to restructure itself, there has been an influx of businesses that relocated into the city and into downtown. The restructure of Los Angeles generated new image and experienced of Los Angeles and created an additional influx of
individuals into downtown and its close periphery creating a change in the demographics, new higher income individuals began moving into the city while pushing out the low income families through the gentrification of the communities. With the recent approved hike in the minimum wage, we will be seeing the relocation of small business that will not be able to afford the hike and being replaced with corporate businesses or higher end boutiques/ stores owned by individual of higher income moved into retail areas that have been occupied for years if not decades. As Los Angeles’ development kick into gear, gain leverage and began to required and to implement a new approach to the urban and built environment. In Krieger article, he describes “Ten spheres of Urbanistic action” that promote viability, livability, and the physical character of the city. Perhaps the greatest implementation of ten spheres was the number seven, The Infrastructure of the City, which included the transformation of open and public space, transit and highway improvement and the transformation of streets and blocks as is the example of the case in Broadway Boulevard where car lanes were re‐appropriated for pedestrian use. With these moves we see the shift from approach of the 20th century where the car was seen as the means of access as outlined in the Retail lecture. Los Angeles seems to be adapting some of the elements of the Santa Monica Blvd West Hollywood Plan, by creating a pedestrian friendly, the implementation of mix‐used development to cut traffic and to promote community engagement. Los Angeles and surrounding cities are experimenting an exponential growth that gives the cities an opportunity to create meaningful and livable urban environment.
Project Response on West Hollywood Master Plan By :
Alfonzo Ortega Villafane 4th Year Undergrad SP15
The Santa Monica West Hollywood Master plan was a derivation of collaborate work between city officials and the community. The overall vision of the Master Plan is to generate and utilized Urban Design in order to create a city wide Place Maker that incorporates the diverse rich culture and create an ecological city garden‐open‐place maker space that is designated to be enjoyed by the public sector. In the reading Defining the Urbanistic Project: Ten Contemporary Approaches, by Joan Busquets, one of the ten approaches speaks of the “Reconfigured Surface” which is what is been done on West Hollywood, where the open space is being restructure to create a pedestrian friendly, intimate, mix‐used built environment. This is intended to create a new “lease on [West Hollywood’s] life and serve as an “anchor of urban growth”. There is also emphasis on public transportation and how to break the noise of vehicles that access the city both visual and auditory noise that they generate. The use of ecological elements plays important role as they are the elements that break down those noises and help create an intimate enclosed friendly and ecological environment. Perhaps one of the changes that West Hollywood would begin to implement if not the residents will begin to push is going to be energy and resources conservation. New regulations will begin to emerge regarding water conservation and reclaiming for watering of large ecology of the city as done in other southern California cities with large green open spaces. An example is the city of Ontario California who currently has reclaimed and recycle water program that utilized reclaimed and recycle water to irrigate its large open green space as well as for other needs. As of 2010 the reclaimed and recycled water covered close to 7,000 acre‐ feet per year, which accumulates to almost 6
times the total area of West Hollywood. Given in southern California we are facing a severe drought such a move is guarantee to be implemented. Relating the current plan and analyzing the ongoing conditions on with close proximity to our site we see a clear creation of a continuous mixed‐use adjacencies that are framed through the ecology. There is a large implementation of Landscape Urbanism, where more and more open space are design as landscape. In our approach we decided to continue the existing connector that begins from Pacific Design Center through the park and into our site, at the same time create an anchor from Santa Monica Boulevard. Our Master plan incorporated and extended that hybrid adjacencies of retail and entertainment that is predominant in West Hollywood. Understanding the strong love and pride of the community for art we placed a secondary district on the south west edge, where a series of mixed‐use studios lofts rendered new life into an area that otherwise would lack exposure and could be a liability to the success of the overall project. We also created openings on Robertson Blvd that are meant to engage Robertson, which in future would be converted into an entertainment hub and an extension of the park. The overall plans has an element of porosity and interconnectivity into the all sides thus pushing for pedestrian exploration, in an attempt to generate interaction between the community the circulation and plazas are created as to generate interaction while keeping a sense of personal space.
Project Response on Approach to the urban design project
By :
Alfonzo Ortega Villafane 4th Year Undergrad SP15
In our design approach we looked to create a project that responded to the needs of the community and the needs of the developer. Our projects consists of a main paseo that creates the required connection to the park on Robertson Blvd while engaging both pedestrian and vehicular audience on Santa Monica Boulevard traveling both ways. Our group decentralized the site to create a central hub and secondary hub, porosity is created through the circulation moving people among the site and out to the streets. On the primary Hub located on the northern part of our site we placed retail and entertainment which is a continuation Santa Monica Boulevard, we brought in Santa Monica into our project. On Robertson Boulevard we continued the high‐ end retail that is existing in addition we generated openings that allow the movement of people into our project given that in the future Robertson Boulevard will be close to host community events, thus creating opportunity for people to come into the project. On the far south‐west area, we placed vehicle access to underground parking and hotel drop off given that Roberson will be close from time to time. Just north of the vehicle entrance we realize given the location retail would be a difficult sell so we incorporated the West Hollywood’s community love for art and created the Artistic Lofts where a series of artistic studios with a living component are located. We reference the retail lecture where the guest speak of proper placement of retail in order for them to be successful. Furthermore, the front hub served as “synthetic gesture” where a high profile project triggers broader urban revitalization. The hotel followed the guidelines that were covered in the hotel lecture. Our hotel is double loaded corridor with one side of the
corridor looking into the project and the other side looking out into the park, Santa Monica Boulevard and Hollywood Hills. Given the renounce and future development of Robertson the Hotel entrance and lobby is located on Robertson Boulevard. The hotel includes 210 units, which include 15 suites, a gym, a sky restaurant, a sky pool and bar, conference rooms, meeting rooms and ball rooms. The mass consist of an L shaped starting at south end of Robertson side traveling parallel until reaching Santa Monica where it turns west to run parallel with Santa Monica Boulevard where it terminates. In the termination we have all the hotel amenities like the pool, ballroom, restaurant and bar. Given that we have multiple levels, we placed elevators in areas that face into the project and enclosed them in glass to allow view into the different retail and the ongoing atmosphere. The intention of this project is to respond to and become opportunistic of the site by creating a project generates an urban built environment that is derived from the community while creating opportunity for retail and entertainment to flourish.