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Originally Posted by HunterK
No
Seeing whats going up around DTLA is so depressing. Even our most beautifully designed building pale in comparison to MUCH smaller cities. It's baffling to me. I can only assume city planners/developers dont bother trying because theres no outside desire for them to. LA has always had spectacularly low architectural standards. Why spend more now when Angelenos are generally happy with shit quality?
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Well it's commonplace knowledge that the best architecture in the city has historically been private residences. I wouldn't say that the city is lacking in architectural ambition or integrity. Within the U.S., the most relevant city in terms of architectural thought (i.e. theory) is L.A. It's relevance is based on the idea that it was essentially a tabula rasa with development patterns unlike what you'd find in more traditional urban centers. Much of the problems the city face are based on the way government is set up and cultural backlash towards a changing demographic. It's just now in another era in defining a identity and sensibility regarding density vs. pure architectural form.
I wouldn't go so far as to say it has always had low architectural standard because again that's lazy and very broad thinking. The problem is a subset of people tend to complain yet they don't question WHY things are this way and even worse they offer no new solutions. And when solutions are proposed it's decried as superfluous and unnecessary simply because it's a different idea. Or it's derided as being this normative unchangeable culture that's always been--that's not helping anyone.
And so the question remains as to why there is no design standard in DTLA or why the process is so slow to get this design-review board started? Questions have been posed by architects and planners (that L.A. Times article). The other cities are irrelevant to be honest.
I don't have a planning background but I do have an architectural one. Don't get me wrong, I get upset and it's a large part why I moved out of L.A. over a year ago. But the changes taking place especially downtown I wouldn't have even imagined a year ago.
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