APA-AIA High Speed Rail Initiative
Last Updated: February 20, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
APA-AIA High Speed Rail Initiative
Initial Organizational Meeting
The discussion began as a general awareness building effort about High Speed Rail,urban design, and station configurations in California, particularly Union Station in Downtown Los Angeles. There are several design issues around station configurations, and as currently proposed, the California High Speed Rail system is not considering the potential opportunities to create vibrant, urban centers at these train station, like is done in Asia and Europe. The group agreed that whatever the approach, the APA and AIA should work toward creating a set of recommendations on the Union Station alignment and to generate a station area design plan. I think in the end, we all agreed that there was a lack of vision in the California High Speed Rail Authority, and that it was being run by engineers (for good or worse). This issue about generating a set of recommendations quickly focused the immediate discussion around Union Station as opposed to a more regional or Statewide scope for the initiative.
After a fairly extensive discussion, we decided to do three things. First, we want to bring together all of the student work in the region on High Speed Rail (Sci-Arc, UCLA, and we think USC have had design studios on this subject), and set up an exhibition to generate awareness. Second, we want to organize a panel discussion with experts who are working directly on the project (Metro, LA City, AECOM, High Speed Rail Authority), as well as representatives of successful high speed rail systems and stations from the State (Anaheim is moving quickly on their station, San Francisco has s vision as well) and internationally (High Speed Rail is not new and many Asian and European systems pay for themselves, are economic generators, and are centers of entire communities). Third, we want to host a design charette with James Rojas and others as a community-consensus building exercise regarding the future of Union Station. The overall idea is that the two preceding events will generate the buzz for the final charette. This community input would then inform our final step.
From there, we want to create a community-based set of recommendations as the APA and AIA's official stance on the Union Station alternatives. We want to do all of this by June 2010, when SCAG releases its set of alternatives for Union Station.
Our next meeting will be a week from today, Friday, February 26, 2010, at 8am in the 8th floor conference room of 515 South Flower Street (AECOM offices). At this meeting, we will start divvying up duties and working out all the details for each event. All interested parties who are willing to volunteer and help organize these events should attend next Friday's meeting.
It's short and sweet, but I think it gets the main points across. If you have any questions, please let me know. Thank you for your time,
GUNNAR HAND, AICP
LA-APA Vice Director of Professional Development
816.916.6304
![DESIGN[realized]](http://www.aialosangeles.org/uploads/sponsors/02edbad80432e6a4e3e2b7c2fc5b97957492311c-sponsor.jpg){kind=small}
