News

January 31, 2024

The Dodgers’ Janet Marie Smith on the Future of Stadium Planning

In this interview with Janet Marie Smith, EVP of Planning and Development for the Dodgers, Janet Marie offers urban planning context for the evolution of Dodger Stadium over the past 11 years guided by Stan Kasten’s original challenge to her: to create a place where all 56,000 fans may enjoy a pregame celebration, linger, find food, and have kids run around. Smith also discusses her U.S. & global stadium projects, comparing insightful differences in planning British football venues with U.S.-based work, emphasizing the unique aspects of baseball's casual cadence. Looking towards the future of stadium planning, Smith also introduces her new development firm - the Canopy Team, promising a continued focus on integrating sports venues into urban development, including an emphasis on flexibility of developments and multiple uses beyond sporting events.

January 31, 2024

After 14 Terms, Portland’s Congressman Earl Blumenauer Has Had Enough with Congress

Earl Blumenauer, in an exclusive and instructive interview with The Planning Report, surveys his distinguished 50 years in elected office, including 14 terms of representing Oregon's 3rd Congressional District. A political veteran trailblazer in bipartisan collaboration, Blumenauer, who recently announced his retirement rather than seeking a 15th term, reflects on his decision-making process, noting a desire going forward to focus on impactful civilian work outside of Washington, DC. Our conversation spans his truly prolific livable communities & transportation legislative achievements, including last session’s Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, which he rightfully believes signify a transformative era for American infrastructure.

January 31, 2024

Los Angeles DA Candidate Jeff Chemerinsky on Restoring Confidence in Public Safety

TPR shares this excerpt from LAist AirTalk’s recent interview with one of those candidates, Jeff Chemerinsky, former Chief of the Violent and Organized Crime in the US Attorney’s Office. In it, Chemerinsky talks of Gascon’s failures, wanting citizens to feel safe, and his level-headed approach to criminal reform.

December 14, 2023

Mayor Karen Bass Reflects on First Year in Office

This week, Mayor Karen Bass held a press conference to reflect on her first year in office as the City of Los Angeles' Mayor. TPR here shares a transcript to the Mayor’s full address and comments. In her address, the Mayor offered a progress report on her many initiatives: the Inside Safe program, her office’s executive directives “streamlining” affordable housing development, the commitments being made to building a green economy, as well as her many public safety initiatives.

December 4, 2023

Brenda Levin Gives Career Spanning Interview at ULI Luminaries Reception

Recently, the Urban Land Institute hosted one of their Luminaries receptions honoring famed Los Angeles architect and historic preservation expert, Brenda Levin. The career spanning interview, given by friend and former Executive Director of ULI, Gail Goldberg, traces Levin’s path from her life and schooling on the east coast to the ‘architectural wasteland’ of America; 1970s Los Angeles. Levin talks of her many iconic projects, beginning with a career-defining moment in Bob Hope’s home in Palm Springs, to the Oviatt Building and her partnerships with Wayne Ratkovich, to LA City Hall and Griffith Observatory, to her still ongoing work at Dodger Stadium. Levin also speaks of the now changing landscape of Los Angeles, and the importance of not compromising on good design in the name of building at any cost.

December 4, 2023

LA 2028 Olympics Cultural Opportunities: Aaron Paley

TPR spoke with Aaron Paley of Community Arts Resources, one of the letter’s signers, on just what such a victory should look like & include. Paley also speaks of the unmet challenge of past Olympic games, and the need for much greater transparency and communication with LA28, the Olympic planning commission.

December 4, 2023

John Onderdonk on Decarbonizing Caltech’s Entire Campus

Caltech, which has long been at the forefront of science & innovation, has been investing for years in its campus’ sustainability. TPR spoke with John Onderdonk, working out of the Linde Center for Global Environmental Science, on his role as Caltech’s Assistant Vice President of Facilities Operations and Services at the campus and the many efforts underway to modernize their grid and prepare for the future realities of climate change. In the interview, Onderdonk speaks of the challenges of meeting the demands of a “small city” (Caltech) and the challenge of, literally, building the airplane while you’re flying it.

October 27, 2023

Linda Dishman Reflects on Thirty-Plus Years of Leading the L.A. Conservancy

TPR here interviews Linda Dishman, the Conservancy’s President and CEO, for more than three decades. Her TPR exit interview affords an opportunity to share her greatest successes, painful losses, legacy initiatives, and the stories “told” by the historic buildings preserved. TPR also speaks with Adrian Scott Fine, Dishman’s successor and the Conservancy’s head of advocacy for more than a decade, about the future of the Conservancy given a changing metropolis, one in which both a housing and homelessness crisis have rightfully consumed the attention of political and civic leaders.

October 27, 2023

SOMOS’s Alfred Fraijo on Creating a More Inclusive Residential Real Estate Market

TPR spoke with Alfred Fraijo, the founder of SOMOS Group, a multi-disciplinary law firm that creates impactful solutions to build and sustain community resilience, promote economic development, and advance social equity to create a more inclusive residential real estate market. Frajio also advocates alternative methods to promoting equitable communities by supporting BIPOC-owned manufacturing and developers to address the demand for development and related material sourcing. In this interview, Fraijo shares his long-term goals and his view on the impacts of current state legislation on housing supply and demand on the future of the residential real estate market in Los Angeles.

October 27, 2023

11th Street Bridge Parks' Scott Kratz on Community Engagement with Public Projects

As the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill looks to revitalize infrastructure in the United States, a number of infrastructure reuse projects are being reimagined , aimed at avoiding the wasteful practice of demolition and instead reusing retired structures by breathing new life into them. One of these projects, within the network of the highly successful High Line project in New York, is the 11th Street Bridge Park in DC. Scott Kratz, Director of Building Bridges Across the River, spoke about the project on a panel during Bloomberg’s CityLab conference. In his comments, Kratz addresses the importance of community and local engagement when it comes to altering the built environment, as well as the many community directives and overall mission of the bridge reuse project.

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