Los Angeles Thinks Big

kernals12

Banned
1930
967190241_cfa20ab562_c.jpg

Los Angelenos were realizing that their city was on the way to greatness. In the last decade, its population doubled and it was now the 5th largest city in America. But if their city was to be truly great, it needed to be a pleasant place to live.

Olmsted Associates, an architectural firm founded by the sons of the great urban planner Frederick Law Olmsted, drew up plans for an extensive system of parks for Los Angeles County. In total, 163,000 acres of green space were to be added. Mostly along rivers. This all made LA a much more attractive place.

In 1938, a series of dams were placed in the San Gabriel Mountains to control the floods of LA river. This opened the river's banks to park development. The part that ran East of Downtown soon became a tourist magnet and just like the areas surrounding New York's central park, it became the most desirable part of the city. Luxury high rises became home to most celebrities in the area.
8f9df6b3393ace88165c93b39f5d052d--california-vintage-california-history.jpg

With the war and its aftermath, LA grew even bigger and its streets were becoming snarled with traffic.
20110810_sidewalks1.JPG

The solution came in 1946 with a system of elevated walkways downtown. This would allow 2 extra lanes of traffic to be added to each street by moving parking fron the curb to the ground floor of each building. And it would enable pedestrians to cross streets without having to wait for signals or worry about being hit by oncoming traffic. Initial plans to narrow the sidewalks were scrapped due to safety concerns.
20110810_sidewalks10.JPG

It was implemented in a vast portion of downtown.

1954_express_buses_subways2.JPG

In addition, LA implemented a highly unique system known as the "Bus Subway", tunnels underground where only buses could travel. Compared to a traditional subway system, it was much less expensive, and the buses could leave the tunnels to serve ordinary city streets.

The plan was approved by LA voters in 1950. They were swayed by advertisements showing how all the passengers in cars in a jammed city street could all be accommodated in one bus.
screen-shot-2019-11-01-at-8-59-23-am-png.498990

At first, the system was modest, with only 4 lines.
Screen Shot 2019-11-05 at 8.03.57 AM.png

But over the years, it proved extremely popular and was expanded.
 
Last edited:

kernals12

Banned
What I'm trying to do is turn LA into a more traditional city where downtown is a major center of commerce. Right now, it contains a negligible portion of the jobs in Greater LA. By raising it, it means, among other things, mass transit works better as a lot of people are going to and from one place every day.
 

kernals12

Banned
How do those elevated roads and pedestrian ways take earthquakes into account?
After the 1989 earthquake, the BART system had no damage. It is perfectly possible to safely build elevated and underground structures in earthquake prone areas.
 

kernals12

Banned
In the 50s and 60s, LA's famous freeway system came about. Ribbons of 6 lane roads came to dominate the landscape
mainfreewaymap.jpg

This included one through Torrance
1964_route_map.jpg

Another through Beverly Hills
proposed-170.jpg

And one through Laurel Canyon to LAX.

Screen Shot 2019-11-05 at 7.02.23 PM.png

And a lot of freeways accommodated Bus Rapid Transit, either through elevated lanes or lanes in the median.

When combined with the Downtown Bus Subway system, LA would wind up with the best bus system in the world. Today, a full 50% of downtown commuters go by bus.
 

Attachments

  • Screen Shot 2019-11-05 at 6.55.55 PM.png
    Screen Shot 2019-11-05 at 6.55.55 PM.png
    315.2 KB · Views: 109

kernals12

Banned
That's where Earthquakes are most likely to happen and thus must be taken into account when building anything in a seismically-active area.
Tokyo's subway system has withstood some very nasty earthquakes. LA will be fine. The San Andreas fault is not capable of producing an earthquake greater than magnitude 8.3. Perhaps Northridge will expose some problems and they will be fixed.

I thought you'd be happy that I was making LA less car dependent.
 

kernals12

Banned
I think that if LA is to be a remotely affordable city, the rich should be housed in luxury skyscrapers, opening up space in Santa Monica and Beverly Hills for the middle class. Buildings become more expensive per square foot as they get taller, you need stronger supports and more elevator shafts and stairwells, so it's best for high end housing, plus you get incredible views of the city.

I plan on having the Fashion District and Skid Row become gentrified.
 

kernals12

Banned
1972

boom.2013.3.4.46-f08.jpg

The "Silver Book" plan to redevelop Skid Row was unveiled, named after the silver book the plan came in. The plan was to cover the impoverished neighborhood, known for its large homeless population, with new high rise apartments, office buildings, and a new park. To accommodate the homeless population, the city built a ton of new homeless shelters.
 

kernals12

Banned
I thought everyone would be more enthusiastic about this. I've made Downtown LA much bigger, I've greatly increased transit usage, and I've created a big network of parks.
 

kernals12

Banned
1955
5bcabe42-0bc0-4d04-a862-16f733eee8eb.jpeg

The public housing complex known as Elysian Fields was built in Chavez Ravine. In 24 13 story towers and 163 2 story garden apartments would be housed 3300 families. Mayor Fletcher Brown made the improvement of the city's housing stock a big initiative of his.
 
Top