Quote:
Originally Posted by brudy
But neither are ideal - if they're going to design for residential at street level, you end up with fortresses like some of those developments around 2nd and 3rd and Alameda (and others in the arts district). They create dead zones the same as empty retail spaces, with no hope of that changing.
|
I'd qualify that statement a bit. Residential at street level creates dead zones
when its built the way we tend to build residential in LA:
- Big lobby/entranceway with car-drop off area
- Hulking podium garage structure
- Large parking structure entry doors with security arm or rolling metal doors
Take away all the car storage crap, or at least put the garage entirely underground, and the first level of the building becomes a lot more inviting.
Something else I've never seen in LA that you see a lot in cities like Portland, Vancouver, and Washington DC are
real doors, meaning separate entrances for each of the apartments/condos on the ground floor. It makes the block feel much more human scale and comfortable to walk down, and increases pedestrian traffic slightly.
Real doors in Portland (Source:
GGW)
Real doors in Clarendon VA (DC Suburbs) (Source:
GGW)
Real doors in Portland (Source:
GGW)
The only place I've seen this in Los Angeles is the backside of Gallery Lofts in the Arts District, and those are not exactly inviting as they're seperated by tall security fences:
(Source:
Google Maps)
As per usual, urban design seems to be LA's big achilles heel. I really hope this starts to change soon.
Threaded Mode