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Healthy Building Design
August 11, 2020 @ 11:30 am - 12:30 pm PDT
AIA|LA & LACP Urban Design Studio Present…
Healthy Building Design: roundtable discussion
Tuesday, August 11 (11:30am to 12:30pm)
A virtual platform.
As part of our bi-weekly design review sessions with the LACP Urban Design Studio, architects and designers are invited to join this virtual roundtable to share your ideas on healthy building design.
Our neighborhoods and physical environments are a social determinant of health and have far-reaching influence on life expectancy, physical and mental well-being. This pandemic has highlighted how vulnerable low-income communities and communities of color in Los Angeles have suffered disproportionately – lacking adequate schools, parks, and community centers, and often living in overcrowded conditions.
In Los Angeles, we have a responsibility to pay greater attention to the details of design that matter and affect the way people live. The overlapping crises of systemic racism, environmental injustice, a global pandemic, and climate change demonstrate that steps must be taken to create healthy communities at all levels of City Planning, from the General Plan to Community Plans, to the Zoning Code, and at the granular level of project review with the thoughtful design of places for living.
LA City Planning staff would like to hear from design practitioners on ideas and best practices for incorporating climate-adapted, and healthy building design into new projects. What are the greatest challenges and opportunities to create safer, healthier, and more resilient places to live and work in the future?
Presenters:
Ken Bernstein, AICP – Principal City Planner, Office of Historic Resources and Urban Design Studio, Los Angeles City Planning
Michelle Levy – Senior City Planner, Urban Design Studio, Los Angeles City Planning
Landy Joseph – Student Professional Worker, Urban Design Studio, Los Angeles City Planning
Ken Bernstein is a Principal City Planner for Los Angeles City Planning, where he directs the Office of Historic Resources and the Urban Design Studio. He serves as lead staff member for the City’s Cultural Heritage Commission, has overseen the completion of SurveyLA, a multi-year citywide survey of historic resources, and has led the creation of a comprehensive historic preservation program for Los Angeles. He has previously directed other policy planning initiatives, including work on General Plan and Community Plan updates, housing policy, and transportation planning. He also served for eight years as Director of Preservation Issues for the Los Angeles Conservancy. He has a Master’s Degree in Public Affairs and Urban and Regional Planning from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs, and a B.A. in Political Science from Yale University.
Michelle Levy leads LA City Planning’s Urban Design Studio. Her team promotes a more vibrant, walkable, and sustainable city through project design reviews and long-range planning. She has directed citywide and neighborhood-level policy programs including the City’s first Citywide Design Guidelines, the update of the Open Space Element of the General Plan, several mobility/complete street plans, as well as affordable housing and Transit Oriented Communities projects. Prior to joining the City of Los Angeles in 2006, Michelle worked for Environmental Defense Fund and the City of New York, and as a Project Manager for Studio Benavente Architects in Northern California. She has a Master’s degree in Urban Planning from Columbia University and a B.A. in Architecture from UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design.
Landy Joseph has a Bachelor’s in Architect and Design from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of California Los Angeles. Landy also has a background in Facilities Planning and Design, and in Construction Management. As a Student Professional Worker at the LA City Planning- Urban Design Studio Landy is helping to produce guidelines for improved public realm design, conducting research to support the LA River Master Planning and developing the Healthy Building Design Toolkit. Her research interests are at the nexus between design and policy, land use policy and real estate development; and community and economic development.
