LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 4.0

[inSaeculaSaeculorum]

Originally Posted by citywatch

I kind of know what you mean, & I have to admit that I've contributed my fair share of debbie downerism on occasion. however, I try to limit my own negativity to what I consider the really, really bad aspects of dt.....& not on things like new bldgs lacking what I might rate as award winning design, or being too short, or being too this, or being too that.

At what point do you stop accepting bad design simply because it fills in dead zones? Is there a certain point where you will say "Phew, that's all done now, LA is finally a 'complete' city so NOW I can start complaining about design flaws!"

There are always going to be surface lots in LA because the city is massive and the footprint of the infrastructure is designed for cars. There's no definitive point in the future where LA simply flips from "suburban" to "urban." The city is more complex than that and progress is always going to be continuing and ongoing.

In the meantime I will say design, parking space, street treatment and the like matter a lot, esp to people like me who don't have a car, walk/bike/take metro everywhere and live in K-town and are in DTLA frequently. Details matter at the street level to pedestrians--even if they are "common" people who are not urban hobbyists they will still subconsciously register these things in their minds--and there are LOTS of pedestrians in LA.

Besides this is Skyscraperpage page. This is a hobbyist forum for people with a special interest in design so of course we are going to critique it, and there's always a new project popping up so new and different stuctures to critique and evaluate. What is always the same though is that dead zones and surface lots make LA ugly. I mean, DUH that is obvious! So you can stop starting (literally) every single post saying the same thing. We don't need it mentioned on every page.

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by inSaeculaSaeculorum

At what point do you stop accepting bad design simply because it fills in dead zones? Is there a certain point where you will say "Phew, that's all done now, LA is finally a 'complete' city so NOW I can start complaining about design flaws!"

insacecula, bad design is like design in general. It's all a matter of personal taste. So what you might like, I might hate, and what I might hate, you might like. now, of course, I'm talking about design that fits within reasonable boundaries, & not where some new proj is designed in such a bad way that even a blind person would cringe.

as for ppl with bad eyesight, even they'll notice the full context of dtla....& its glaring weak points....& therefore judge new things, or things in general, within those boundaries. so the average person won't drop by dt & say "yeech, that new bldg is too short & its design isn't slick enough!!...no wonder more ppl don't care for dtla!"

What is always the same though is that dead zones and surface lots make LA ugly. I mean, DUH that is obvious! So you can stop starting (literally) every single post saying the same thing. We don't need it mentioned on every page.

by the same token, we don't need it mentioned on every page that some new proj doesn't fit a forumer's idea of great design, or is disappointing in some other way to him or her. I don't think there has been even one proj....or very few projs....in all the yrs I've been posting to this forum where at least one or more ppl will not complain about some aspect of a new proposal or new devlpt.

I try to see dt through the eyes of the typical person...or ppl who've I've visited dt with through the yrs....& I suspect that most ppl don't judge the hood the way that, as you call them, hobbyists do. IOW, they're gonna notice what you say I criticize regularly way more than the things that bother the hobbyists....or what I might label the 'fanboys'....or 'fangirls'.

btw, I personally favor postings to this thread that are like what brudy just wrote about...regarding the new apt proj at 2nd & san pedro st.....over the very generalized posts about urban design concepts, which could easily slot into any of the dozens of city forums here at ssp.com.