Call for Action: “House All Angelenos” Panel Discussions

Presented by: AIA LA Government Outreach (GO!) Committee

This is a virtual series of panel discussions. RSVP directly to each zoom link below.

On May 25, 2021 the AIA LA Board put forth a series of concrete recommendations directed at our City’s leadership to facilitate the building of affordable housing and promote social justice. To read the text in full, CLICK HERE.

As a follow up to this “Call for Action,” the AIA LA Government Outreach (GO!) Committee has organized three panel discussions for AIA LA members and the greater LA design community to discuss and clarify the recommendations from the AIA LA board. The three panel discussions will each be led by architects Chava Danielson, AIA, Rick Corsini, AIA, and Tracy Stone, AIA, and will include policy experts, academics, and architects/urbanists.

For more information on each panel, see descriptions below.

Panel #1 = Reinventing Los Angeles’ Boulevards – Finally!
Tuesday, October 26 (8:00am – 9:30am) = RSVP #1 HERE.
Panel #2 = Housing as a Civil Right and Exclusionary Practices: The Way Forward
Monday, November 1 (9:00am to 10:30am) = RSVP #2 HERE.
Panel #3 = Rethinking the Los Angeles Housing Paradigm, or How to Make the System Work For Us, and Not Against Us
Tuesday, November 9 (8:00am – 9:30am) = RSVP #3 HERE.

Reinventing Los Angeles’ Boulevards – Finally!

October 26 (8:00am – 9:30am) = RSVP #1 HERE.

Are the boulevards the key to achieving our housing goals?

As we move toward new models of mixed use zoning, support for affordable housing and the increases in density these require, is it possible to imagine transit rich, pedestrian friendly boulevards traversing our thousands of miles of city streets? How do we get there?

Speakers:
Angela Brooks, FAIA, LEED^TM Accredited Professional, BD+C, ENV SP – Principal, Brooks + Scarpa
Chava Danielson, AIA – Principal, DSH // architecture (moderator)
Jenna Hornstock – Deputy Director of Planning & Land Use, SCAG
John Kaliski, FAIA – Principal, John Kaliski Architects
Max Podemski – Planning and Transportation Director, Office of Council President Nury Martinez, Council District 6
Zev Yaroslavsky – Director of the Los Angeles Initiative, UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs

• What has been lost by the downzoning that occurred under Prop U?
• What are some of the ways the City and Planning Department has mitigated those effects and to what degree do those succeed?
• How do we move forward to get the results and the city we all want to live in?

RSVP HERE.

BIOS:

Angela Brooks, FAIA, LEED^TM Accredited Professional, BD+C, ENV SP – Principal, Brooks + Scarpa

Angie is a recognized leader in the field of environmental and social-equity design and is responsible for her firm’s development in the area of housing and policy, leading sustainable initiatives and overall design staff management. In 2020 Angie received the AIA National and Local Citizen Architect Award and the AIA State of California Maybeck Award for exemplary achievement in architectural design and ‘a different kind of legacy’ as an advocate for issues that move beyond buildings.

Chava Danielson, AIA – Principal, DSH // architecture (moderator)

Chava Danielson, AIA, a practicing architect for over two decades, is Principal of DSH // architecture with specialties in design, project advocacy, and serving non-profit organizations. She focuses on imparting beauty and sensitive programming to recharge underserved neighborhoods through educational, therapeutic and residential projects for non-profits committed to the community.

Danielson teaches design studio and courses in urban history and theory at both Otis College of Art + Design and the Executive Master of Urban Planning program at USC’s Price School. She holds a M.Arch. from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University and a B.A. in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Berkeley.

Jenna Hornstock – Deputy Director of Planning & Land Use, SCAG

Jenna Hornstock, Hon AIA is currently the Deputy Director of Planning for Land Use for the Southern California Association of Governments and a City Planning Commissioner for the City of Los Angeles. She has spent 20 years working in local land use, affordable housing and public/private real estate transactions, including 7 years at the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles and 8 years at LA Metro as the Executive Officer for Transit Oriented Communities. Jenna holds a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and a BA in Rhetoric from UC Berkeley. She is a former AIA/LA Public Director, was awarded the presidential honorary AIA in 2018 and the APA/LA John Chase Visionary Award in 2019.

John Kaliski, FAIA – Principal, John Kaliski Architects

Since founding John Kaliski Architects in 2000, John’s work has included design guidelines for the Hollywood Boulevard District, a vision plan for Los Angeles’ Crenshaw community, the Ocean Park Boulevard Complete Green Street, design of affordable small lot subdivision townhomes for Enterprise Foundation, continuing design of non-profit medical clinics for Mission City Community Network, the urban design of Metro’s East San Fernando Valley Transit Corridor project, six automobile dealerships, private homes, and over 400 units of multi-family housing. His design work and writings have been recognized with awards from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the American Planning Association (APA).

Max Podemski – Planning and Transportation Director, Office of Council President Nury Martinez, Council District 6

Max works on a variety of issues involving transportation, parks, and land use for Council District 6. Max previously worked for Pacoima Beautiful where he led the Pacoima Wash initiatives, among other projects. He has a bachelor’s degree in urban and environmental policy from Occidental College and a master’s degree in urban planning from Columbia University. In his spare time, he enjoys walks throughout Los Angeles with his wife and son.

Zev Yaroslavsky – Director of the Los Angeles Initiative, UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs

Zev Yaroslavsky served on the Los Angeles City Council from 1975 to 1994, and on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors from 1994-2014. In a 40 year public service career, he was at the forefront of many of the major issues facing the city and county, including transportation, the environment, land use, health care, and cultural arts. He is currently the Director of the Los Angeles Initiative at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and the Department of History, focusing on the intersection of policy, politics and history. He is also affiliated with the National Democratic Institute in Washington, D.C. engaging in election observation and democratization projects in new and emerging democracies.