California High Speed Rail Thread

[M II A II R II K]

Preparing the Automobile City for High-Speed Rail


http://www.aia.org/practicing/AIAB086429

It’s up to Roger Sherman, AIA, to find a way to make high-speed rail mass transit work in car-obsessed Los Angeles.

Principal of Roger Sherman Architecture and Urban Design and co-director, with Dana Cuff, of cityLAB, an urban design think tank affiliated with UCLA, Sherman has made a career out of tackling thorny, seemingly intractable urban conundrums and making sense of them. One such project involves urban design strategies for California’s planned high-speed rail network.

Through careful research and analysis, Sherman is attempting to re-assert the urbanizing force of public transit in a city whose history, development patterns, and urban fabric is based almost entirely on the automobile. With $2.25 billion in federal funding, California is moving forward with plans to lay down tracks, linking San Francisco with San Diego. This effort is the leading edge of the Obama Administration‘s $8 billion plan for a nationwide high-speed rail network. Through cityLAB, Sherman was awarded part of a $250,000 grant from the Haynes Foundation to study the urban implications of high-speed rail.

“We always use a research-based approach to design,” explains Sherman. “This allows us to understand the particularities of each site.”