A fascinating Thinkage question from a reader. What's hot and what's not? And most importantly, what will sell in today's market.
"I have a debate with my father about developing a spec house in Ocean Park: Do people these days want those modern houses with all the steel and glass and openess, or a more traditional styled house such as a craftsman, but with some more modern touches on the inside like open rooms, larger windows, skylights, etc.? Do brokers have an opinion, is there a survey out there about what style house most people go for? I’ve heard about what aspects are trendy on the inside of the house, I guess formal dining rooms are coming back, etc., but I haven’t found anything on the overall outside design. Certainly modern houses get more press, but does everyone really want that?"
We spoke with two local architects for their take on what's being built today and what's selling. Their take is after the jump, but please feel free to give us your feedback in our poll below.
CityWatch has a non-dramatic telling of the planning history of Los Angeles that has led us to today's battles over density, affordable housing and Zev Yaroslavsky's mustache -- long may it live. Planner and architect Bill Christopher recounts the disconnect that occurred in the 1970's, when Community Plans were instituted that failed to update the existing zoning. "So we had the dis-jointed situation where the actual legal zoning was set up for a city of 10 million, while the advisory “plans” would limit the City eventually to 4.2 million people. Since, at the time in the 70's, the City had fewer than 3 million residents, 4.2 million inhabitants still seemed to many like a recipe for Bladerunner, which, in 1982, provided the imagery for the Los Angeles of the future." [CityWatch]
Forget the subprime mortgage meltdown for a moment. The Atlantic Monthlywarns us tomorrow's tenements are today's McMansions. Burglaries, gang activity, "renters of dubious character" are all plaguing the large-lot cul-de-sacs. Jim Kunstler will be pleased. Quick, someone call Joel Kotkin for a rebuttal! [Atlantic Monthly]
Today's lunchtime thinkage looks at an idea proposed by Kevin Fry, president of Scenic America, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit that works to fight urban blight, particularly billboards. Currently, the city is considering putting electronic, blinking boards off the highway downtown (seen to the right), a proposal that wasn't well-received on this site. But some people are also concerned about the problem of illegal billboards. Of the estimated 10,000 billboards around the city, an undetermined number are illegal.
Thanks to new lobbying restrictions, the long tradition of developers, consultants and architects flooding city departments with candy during the holiday season has been brought to an end. No longer can sweet confections be used to manipulate the dim witted planner into bending to the will of the evil developer looking to bulldoze over old people and puppies. Naturally, a planner emails us to complain:
I wonder if you fine folks at Curbed LA can help out the Planning Department this Holiday Season--I know a number of developers and real estate folks read this blog and I'm hoping to reach them with an important message. WE HAVE NO CANDY. As you may know there are very few perks to civil service; if a developer wants to offer free Laker tickets or great seats at the Nokia Theatre opening we have to say "Oh no, I couldn't possibly." There are no schnazzy lunches, no gold pens, and no comped convention tickets. If it costs more than $25 bucks or can't be shared with the general public we have to decline.
A commentary piece in this week's LA Business Journal (subscription) by Mary Leslie, president of the Los Angeles Business Council, cites an interesting statistic from the Los Angeles Housing Department: "Last year... more than 14,000 housing units were built in the city. Twelve thousand of those units were priced for people making $90,000 or more per year. Unfortunately, in the same period, only 1,300 of the 8,000 units needed for people making between $29,000 and $90,000 per year were built."
[visual via the LA Times. All pictures are now in color!?!]
The Santa Ana Winds have long been apart of Southern California history. Today, we take another step in understanding the winds that blow us about each year. The reader submittals were sparse, but the pictures we did receive were very, very entertaining and informative.
A reader points us to BLDGBLOG's effusive love letter to Los Angeles. Why does he love LA? Simple - LA doesn't love us back. And that's just fine with us. It's a Didion-esque discourse on LA's bleakest, most alienating facets...and it's all good:
L.A. is the apocalypse: it's you and a bunch of parking lots. No one's going to save you; no one's looking out for you. It's the only city I know where that's the explicit premise of living there – that's the deal you make when you move to L.A.
The city, ironically, is emotionally authentic.
It says: no one loves you; you're the least important person in the room; get over it.
What matters is what you do there.
An indifferent lover we only grow more fond of, the more they ignore us? Sadly, we're all too familiar with this pathology.
· Greater Los Angeles [BLDGBLOG]
Some Northern Californians enjoy looking down their noses to the south, especially toward Los Angeles. Rarely can they articulate why. From a Berkeley Daily Planet column by Neil Mayer:
At the front, East Los Angeles--a prototype for urban ills of every type, where low-income people, often recent immigrants, crowd multiple families into a single home or apartment in order to afford the rent. Second, Inglewood, another Los Angeles-area concentration of poor people--this time African Americans--rivaling in social problems largely Hispanic East L.A.
Mayer was the founding director of Berkeley's Office of Economic Development. Perhaps he ought not wander too far from there?
· Facts About Density and Development [Berkeley Daily Planet]
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From the studio lots to the downtown lofts. From the beachfront bungalows to the canyon views. From the south bay to the valley, from the westside to the eastside—Curbed LA covers our sense of place, and the neighborhoods we call home. Read more about Curbed LA...
Forget the subprime mortgage meltdown for a moment. The Atlantic Monthly 
Today's lunchtime thinkage looks at an idea proposed by Kevin Fry, president of 
Thanks to 
