Symposium: LA-ND. The Future of Land Value in LA

Join UCLA Architecture and Urban Design for LA-ND. The Future of Land Value in LA, a symposium to explore land history, technologies, and design, hosted by the IDEAS Urban Strategy Studio / Jeffrey Inaba, Gillian Shaffer and David Jimenez Iniesta.

The event will feature presentations from renowned speakers including: Christopher Hawthorne, Chief Design Officer of the City of Los Angeles, and former LA Times Architecture Critic; Francesca Ammon, Associate Professor of City and Regional Planning and Historic Preservation at University of Pennsylvania, and the author of Bulldozer: Demolition and Clearance of the Postwar Landscape; and Débora Mesa, Architect and Principal of Ensamble Studio (Madrid and Boston). Conversations will be moderated by IDEAS Urban Strategy Studio lead Jeffrey Inaba and Professor Dana Cuff, with an introduction from Chair, Heather Roberge. 

LA-ND
LA’s past and future are tied to land—as in land development, land value, and landmarks. In other cities the grid dictates urban growth and buildings conform to its strict order. In LA the land rules: street grids buckle and dissolve along foothills, and structures and open spaces follow the principles of grading. Mountains, valleys, and water determine the shape of urban districts and the path of roads and freeways. Land is also the city’s primary material for construction. Every plot of earth has been moved and shaped, turning fields, hills, and canyons into neighborhoods, infrastructure, and popular destinations. The LA River, Mulholland’s reservoirs, Hollywood Bowl, Griffith Observatory, UCLA, Bunker Hill, the 101, 405, 5, Dodger Stadium, the Getty, and hillside enclaves from Pacific Palisades to Pasadena all were built by transforming the land into a new topography.

In the City of Angels, the more there is engineering the higher the land value. Cut and fill, and terracing have made it possible to build in locations desirable for their proximity to nature and elevated views. Reclamation has enabled development in low lying areas that have convenient access to water and coastal zones. But as the effects of climate change intensify, these engineered lands are at greatest risk of peril. They are literally where real estate economics and climate unpredictability have begun to collide. This practice of designing the land has increased the threats of fire, flooding, and landslides, but it is also possibly our best means to respond to the city’s new reality of extreme climate. LA-ND will explore the history and future making of land and urban strategies to improve the quality of life in LA.

Free admission with RSVP

About the IDEAS Urban Strategy Studio:
IDEAS Urban Strategy Studio is one of four concurrent studios offered as part of UCLA Architecture and Urban Design’s one-year post-professional Master of Science in Architecture and Urban Design (M.S.AUD) degree. This unique program offers students with a professional degree in architecture the opportunity to specialize their skills and apply architectural design thinking and capabilities to real-world challenges outside their field. 

The program is located at UCLA Architecture and Urban Design’s IDEAS Campus, a state-of-the-art incubator for collaborative, cross-disciplinary design research. Students and faculty work with partners across the fields of Entertainment, Mobility, Technology and Urban Strategy to apply the analytical and design processes of architecture and urban design to emerging developments in these industries. By engaging with experts from other fields, we can expand architecture’s field of influence and leverage design to propose alternative, more intelligent futures. 

The IDEAS Campus is located at 3691 Lenawee Ave, Los Angeles, CA, 90016. Ample street parking is available in the surrounding neighborhood.