INT 184ZQ • The Gentrification of Downtown LA

18 October

Downtown LA: Rise and Fall

25 October

Understanding Gentrification

• Neil Smith, The New Urban Frontier: Gentrification and the Revanchist City, Routledge, London and New York, 1996, ch. 3 (just read pages 49-71).

• Bianca Barragan, "This map shows where gentrification is happening across Los Angeles" (Curbed LA, 30 August 2016), which is based on this academic research project.

1 November

The Beginnings of a Change (1970-2010)

• Deener, Andrew, Steven P. Erie, Vladimir Kogan, and Forrest Stuart. "Chapter 14: Planning Los Angeles. The Changing Politics of Neighborhood and Downtown Development." In New York and Los Angeles: the uncertain future, edited by David Halle and Andrew A. Beveridge, vol., 385-412. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013 [skip or skim p.392-top of 396, which concern a case study of Venice].

• Downtown Strategic Plan Advisory Committee; Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles, Plan submitted by the Downtown Strategic Plan Advisory Committee in cooperation with the Community Redevelopment Agency, Los Angeles: Community Redevelopment Agency, 1993 [don't read every word, but try to get a sense of the main arguments; spend maybe an hour with the text].

• Cara Mia DiMassa, "Downtown Housing Demand Feeds a Bloom in High-Rises" (LA Times, 8 August 2005).

8 November

Phase 1: The Adaptive Reuse Pioneers

• The Adaptive Reuse Ordinance [for reference]

• The City of Los Angeles Adaptive Reuse Program Handbook (second and current edition, 2006).

• Cara Mia DiMassa, "Ordinance brings new life into downtown L.A.'s Main Street" (Los Angeles Times, 11 June 2009).

• Peter Y. Hong, "A cooldown in downtown housing" (Los Angeles Times, 13 March 2008).

Research these local developers (group work to be assigned in class): See the email I sent out on 3 November for details about this assignment.

• Ira Yellin (Million Dollar Building; Bradbury Building; Grand Central Market): Julia and Penny

• Tom Gilmore (Old Bank District; Saint Vibiana Cathedral; Palace Theater; LATC): Haley and Brittany

• Barry Shy: Matan

• Linear City (Leonard "Len" Hill, Paul Solomon, and Yuval Bar-Zemer; Biscuit Lofts; Toy Factory Lofts): Danielle

• Eli Broad: Tia and Melissa

• Geoff Palmer: Daniella and Jordan

• Izek Shomof: Kendell

Use the following resources:

LA Times

Curbed LA

LA Downtown News (and their adjacent site of photographic documentation: LADowntownDevelopment.com [which isn't the actual URL!])

urbanize.LA

DTLA Rising with Brigham Yen

Department of City Planning, City of Los Angeles

Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council

The Architects Newspaper

Planetizen

KPCC; for content up to 2013, search their excellent archived pre-2013 blog, blogdowntown

The Los Angeles Conservancy

These two much longer doctoral / masters theses are not required reading but rather are optional references for anyone with a deeper interest in the subject:

• Imani Brown, "Adaptive Reuse as Economic Development in Downtown Los Angeles: A Resource Guide for Start-Up Developers, Community Based Organizations, and Stakeholder Groups." PhD. University of Southern California, 2009.

• John Forrest Chamberlain, "The Smart Growth Implications of the Los Angeles Adaptive Reuse Ordinance." Masters Thesis. California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, 2015.

15 November

Phase 2: The Outside Money Moves In

• Ryan Vaillancourt, "With Adaptive Reuse Options Limited, Developers Adapt" (Los Angeles Downtown News, 28 January 2013).

• Roger Vincent, "Downtown's historic office buildings, once abandoned, are again drawing tenants" (Los Angeles Times, 8 October 2017).

Research these non-local developers (group work to be assigned in class):

Holland Partners (Vancouver, Canada)

Omni Group (Vancouver, Canada)

Oceanwide Real Estate Group (Beijing, China)

Greenland Holding Group (Shanghai, China)

Hanjin International (South Korea)

Equity Residential (Chicago)

Carmel Partners (San Francisco)

Trammell Crow Residential (Dallas)

ST Residential (Chicago)

CIM Group (Los Angeles)

SunCal (Irvine)

Use the same research resources as last week

17 November

Field Trip to Downtown Los Angeles

22 November

Resistance and Future Prospects

• "City Rising", KCET (one-hour public television documentary about gentrification and resistance in LA).

Research "Boyle Heights" and "Gentrification" using these resources:

LA Times

Curbed LA