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If You Build It, We Will Post (and then re-post)

If You Build It, We Will Post (and then re-post)

Sorry, this post was accidentally erased last week.

Finally, the public events for AN’s New Infrastructure competition have ended! (there’s one more at the AIA/Mobius Conference in June, but that’s not exactly public..) The final event- also one of the last at GOOD magazine’s space at 6824 Melrose Avenue, which is moving down the street in the coming months (more details to come as they emerge)-  included a workshop led by Metro planner James Rojas, in which the audience was asked to build their own transit systems out of found materials like beads, legos, wooden and foam blocks, plastic figures, chess pieces, and much more. The ideas, concocted in just minutes, were stunning in their beauty and creativity, revealing a public desire to make LA’s transit systems more efficient, user-friendly, and most of all fun.

A few schemes incorporated transit along the LA River, with trains, boats, and (in one case) jet packs running on the along the existing infrastructure. One plan incorporated public plazas around transit stops as well as a system of car and bike sharing to supplement public transit. Another aligned itself along two concentric circles united by a long spine to increase efficiency. And quite a few incorporated green space into the system, changing development to increase park and wildlife space, lowerering auto-friendly space,  encouraging local work and production, and reducing the need for transit in the first place.

The event also featured an intelligent, and sometimes contentious, panel inspired by the winning designs, and by the future role of transit in LA. Led by design goddess Alissa Walker, its participants included urban designers John Chase and Simon Pastucha, LA METRO officials Rojas and Michael LeJeune, and architect and SCI-Arc Graduate Director Ming Fung. Debates raged over how great a role the public should play in transit decisions and how much power METRO should have in development. But most agreed that planning and transit should be developed together, not on in reaction to each other.  Chase and Pastucha have pledged to make their way through all 75 entries to the competition, sorting them by category and culling for the best ideas. Good luck guys!


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