Instant Parks Emerge Throughout City

LOS ANGELES-Progress and challenges facing land use in Los Angeles were explored at the recent “FutureBuild: Space Changers” conference Downtown, presented by Urban Land Institute, Los Angeles and Verde Exchange. Among the most-impressive revelations were technology that can create 3D printed homes in 22 hours and a series of instant parks unfolding throughout the city.

In discussing “Guerilla Planning and Urban Acupuncture,” activists advocated cheap and quick ways to upgrade livability by introducing urban gardens to lawns and parkways, restoring the L.A. River, redesigning Silver Lake Reservoir, creating instant mini-parks and temporarily closing boulevards to cars. Representing the parklets movement, Daveed Kapoor, director of Utopiad, previewed the City of Los Angeles's new People Street toolkit by the L.A. Department of Transportation, which allows communities to boost retail activity and pedestrian vitality through parklets. Kapoor said, “They can be created for no money at all if you are creative.”

The theme of this year's event was “the social trends, economic forces and influential people remaking real estate and urban living.” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti joined international real estate and sustainable-technology experts in presenting at the event. Garcetti explored initiatives to make L.A. a model city in responding to challenges such as climate change and California's severe drought.

Other speakers previewed dramatic changes in a broad range of sectors, from housing to creative offices to public spaces. The 3D printed home was unveiled in a video presented by USC director for rapid automated fabrication technology Behrokh Khoshnevis. Jim Anderson, CEO of Baru Investments, noted that cities and developers are barely catching up with automated parking, much less radical new 3D printing. “No one wants to be the first one to make a mistake and be blamed for it,” Anderson said.

Carl Muhlstein, managing director for Jones Lang LaSalle, spoke about the transformation of obsolete buildings and forgotten areas into thriving work environments from Pasadena to El Segundo. “L.A. is turning on a dime,” he said. “It's an exciting time. There's no such thing as a bad neighborhood anymore.”

FutureBuild chair Silvia Saucedo was pleased with the vast range of thinking and audiences' reactions at the event. “These are all people radically reinventing their businesses and the world around us. And many of these changes are already coming true.”