Design for Dignity Conference 2019

AIA|LA Design for Dignity: Housing an Inclusive Community

Presented By:  Egan Simon Architecture
Learning Units: 6 Health|Safety|Welfare

The fourth annual AIA|LA DESIGN FOR DIGNITY: Housing an Inclusive Community conference will serve as a forum to identify the key challenges impacting our housing crisis, as well as, an opportunity to highlight the capital, programmatic and human resources available to address those challenges. We anticipate an audience of about 200 to 225 architects, designers, urban planners, developers, housing providers, civic leaders, and community activists.

CHALLENGES
Our morning session will feature a series of ten 10-minute presentations – with each presentation analyzing a critical challenge centered around community outreach, empathy and reaction, mental health & supportive services, site selection, zoning, regulatory processes, procedures & fees, financial feasibility, the capital stack and alternative housing typologies.

RESOURCES
Then afterwards, we’ll convene a leadership panel to showcase and clarify the funding sources available through such sources as Measure H & HHH, Low-Income Tax Credits, Opportunity Funds and State of California’s Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities, Transformative Climate Communities and the Infill Infrastructure grant programs, et al..

CHALLENGES + RESOURCES = SOLUTIONS
We’ll break for lunch and then coordinate a series of twenty concurrent, moderated and interactive break-out discussions where each of the challenges will be examined through the lens of the numerous resources available to match-make opportunities and scale the solutions more quickly. Each break-out discussion will establish a policy recommendation to help overcome the specific challenges hindering rapid, healthy and effective housing production.

At the conclusion of the conference, each group will share its policy recommendation and establish an action plan for AIA Los Angeles and our community partners to execute.

Your participation in our 4th annual Design For Dignity will be fundamental to its success.

PROGRAM & AGENDA

8:00am   Breakfast & Networking

8:30am   WELCOMING REMARKS

Barbara Bouza, FAIA, IIDA, LEED AP, EDAC – Managing Director, Principal, GENSLER & 2019 President, AIA Los Angeles
Rev. Paul A. Hill – Interim Senior Pastor, Holman United Methodist Church
Rev. Oliver E. Buie – Minister of Community Engagement, Holman United Methodist Church
Darryn Harris – District Director, Office of Rep. Karen Bass (CA-37)

THE “CHALLENGE” PRESENTERS (10 minutes each)

8:40am   “New Supportive Housing in All Neighborhoods”


Becky Dennison – Executive Director, Venice Community Housing

8:50am  “Everyone In”

Tommy Newman – Senior Director, Impact Initiatives, United Way of Greater Los Angeles

9:00am  “On Financing, Pre-Development & Construction”

Lara Regus – Senior Vice President, Development, Abode Communities

9:10am  “Ten Practical Ideas to Put California’s Land Use Planning Process ‘Back on the Rails’”

Allan J. Abshez – Partner, Loeb & Loeb LLP and Housing Product Council Chair, ULI-LA

9:20am  “Finding Common Ground: Cultural Economic Infrastructure + Arts as Services”

Michelle Espinosa Coulter – Director of Artist Housing, Meta Housing Corporation

9:30am “Work-force Housing”

Al Grazioli – Asset Development Director, LAUSD

9:40am “Innovative Housing Typologies”

Kevin Hirai – Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer, Flyaway Homes and Founder & President, Bella Vista Property Management

9:50am “Housing for Health: Department of Health Services”

Sarah Mahin – Housing For Health, LA County Department of Health Services

10:00am “On How Housing & Services Come Together”

Bill Pickel – Executive Director, Brilliant Corners

10:10am “Why Sharing Is Caring: The Crisis Facing Group Homes for Those with Severe Mental Illness.”

Caroline Kelly, JD – former Chair, Los Angeles County Mental Health Commission

10:20am “Community Mosaic Pilot Project: Preserving Affordability and Creating Tenant Control”

Oscar Monge, MPL – Community Development Manager, T.R.U.S.T. South LA

10:30am “The Economics of Housing as a Human Right”

Molly Rysman – Housing and Homelessness Deputy, Office of Supervisor Sheila Kuehl

10:40am “The In-Between: Bringing New Flexibility and Affordability to L.A.’s Low-Rise Housing Stock”

Christopher Hawthorne – Chief Design Officer, City of Los Angeles; Public Director, AIA Los Angeles Chapter

11:00am   COFFEE BREAK

11:15am   “ENSURING EQUITY & CONNECTION:  The Resources Available to Address Our Housing Crisis”

a panel discussion with…

Amy N. Anderson – Executive Director, PATH Ventures
David Ambroz – Commissioner, Los Angeles City Planning Commission
Patrick D. Spillane – Senior Vice President, I D S Real Estate Group & Board Chair, Skid Row Housing Trust
Tunua Thrash-Ntuk – Executive Director, Los Angeles Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LA LISC)
Jacqueline Waggoner – VP & Market Leader, Southern California, Enterprise Community Partners, Inc.

12:15pm   LUNCH

1:00pm    CHALLENGES + RESOURCES = SOLUTIONS

Concurrent break-out table discussions facilitated by…


TOPIC 1: On Financing, Pre Development & Construction
Kishani De Silva – FUSE Executive Fellow, Los Angeles County Development Authority
Brian Lane AIA, LEED® A.P. – Principal, KoningEizenberg

TOPIC 2: Innovative Housing Typologies #1
Elizabeth Selby – Housing Innovation, Sr. Project Manager, Office of Mayor Garcetti
Mark Oberholzer, AIA, LEED AP – Associate Principal, KTGY Architecture + Planning

TOPIC 3: Innovative Housing Typologies #2 = (Volumetric, Commercial Modular Sector)
Dafna Kaplan – Founder/CEO, CASSETTE
Jose Herrasti, AIA – Principal, M U T U O

TOPIC 4: The In-Between: Bringing New Flexibility and Affordability to L.A.’s Low Rise Housing Stock
Charly Ligety – Housing Innovation Coordinator, Housing on Merit
Holly Harper, AIA – Urban Design Studio, Los Angeles Department of City Planning

TOPIC 5: New Supportive Housing in All Neighborhoods
Sarah Lorenzen, AIA – TOLO Architecture & Board Director, AIA Los Angeles
Rene Rodriguez – Director, EGAN | SIMON architecture


TOPIC 6: The Economics of Housing as a Human Right
Ismar Enriquez, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP – Torti Gallas + Partners
Navneet Grewal – Senior Attorney, Western Center on Law & Poverty

TOPIC 7: Community Land Trusts
Roger Sherman, AIA – Design Director, Gensler
Helmi A. Hisserich – Housing Director, Housing Strategies & Services Division, Housing + Community Investment Department of Los Angeles

TOPIC 8: The Nexus of New Housing Typologies, Their Communities and Opportunities for Distributed Supportive Housing
Aaron Vaden-Youmans – Associate, Grimshaw & Board Director, LA Forum for Architecture & Urban Design
Christina Tung – Associate Principal, Grimshaw

TOPIC 9: Workforce Housing & The Missing Middle
Anne Cotter, AIA, LEED AP – Principal, ZGF Architects
Richard Prantis, AIA – Principal, The Architects Collective

TOPIC 10: Common Unity: Elements of Community
Kathlena Gagnon –  Partnership and Development Consultant, Project Ropa

2:30pm   SESSION SUMMARIES // Policy Recommendations

Will Wright, Hon. AIA|LA – Director, Government & Public Affairs, AIA Los Angeles

3:20pm   CLOSING REMARKS

Greg Verabian, AIA, LEED AP – Principal, Design Director, HKS, Inc. & Vice-President/ 2020 President-elect, AIA Los Angeles

3:30pm   ADJOURN