The 11th Annual AIA|LA Design For Dignity:

From Crisis to Construction — Building a “City of Yes”

Los Angeles has spent years naming its housing and homelessness crisis. The data has been cited, the urgency declared, the grief documented. The 11th Annual AIA|LA Design For Dignity Conference arrives at a different moment — one of hard-won clarity. This year, we are done describing the emergency. We are here to build the solution.

Themed “From Crisis to Construction: Building a City of Yes,” the 2026 conference is structured around a single, urgent argument: that policy, capital, and design have operated in isolation for too long — and that the only path forward is what we are calling “The Great Realignment.” That is the deliberate, disciplined integration of those three forces into a single operational fabric, applied at every scale from the building site to the City Charter.

Across two half-day sessions — May 29 and June 5 — eight panels will bring together architects, developers, housing advocates, city officials, financiers, and community residents to do what Design for Dignity has always done best: move the conversation from aspiration to action, and from action to advocacy.

2026 Sponsorship Opportunities are now available! Partner with us to highlight your firm and brand, and showcase your commitment to the important work we are doing to make a positive impact in our communities.

Please click HERE to support Design for Dignity.

Keep scrolling for more event details; including the speaker lineup!

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

AIA CES: TBD

By the close of both conference sessions, participants will be able to:

1. EVALUATE LOS ANGELES’ COMPETITIVE POSITION IN HOUSING PRODUCTION
Articulate the specific regulatory, financial, and political barriers that prevent Los Angeles from being competitive as a place to build housing with dignity — and evaluate reform strategies, from Executive Directive #19’s Development Services Streamlining to City Charter amendments, most likely to dismantle those barriers in the near term.

2. APPLY CONVERGENT DESIGN PRINCIPLES FROM THE ST. VINCENT BEHAVIORAL HEALTH CAMPUS
Apply the design, financing, and community-engagement lessons of the St. Vincent Behavioral Health Campus to their own projects, identifying the partnerships, inclusive-design protocols, and phased delivery strategies that made the “village” model replicable across the behavioral health and supportive housing continuum.

3. DISTINGUISH HOUSING FIRST AS PHILOSOPHY FROM HOUSING FIRST AS OPERATIONAL PIPELINE
Distinguish between Housing First as a philosophical commitment and Housing First as a structural delivery system — and specify what changes in funding, permitting, inter-agency coordination, and design are required to implement the model at scale, including under conditions of federal policy volatility.

4. ASSESS LAHD’S STREAMLINING REFORMS FOR NEAR-TERM PIPELINE IMPACT
Evaluate LAHD’s proposed streamlining recommendations — including covenant approval reform, concurrent agency review, and case management enhancements — and identify which interventions would have the greatest near-term impact on affordable housing timelines in Los Angeles.

5. ANALYZE PLACE IDENTITY, STEWARDSHIP, AND DESIGN ETHICS AT WILLIAM
MEAD HOMES
Analyze the relationship between place identity, community stewardship, and housing design at William Mead Homes, and extract principles applicable to the equitable redevelopment of other legacy public housing sites across the region, including best practices for resident engagement and design ethics.

6. ASSESS THE TYPOLOGICAL AND FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF SINGLE-STAIR REFORM
Assess the typological, life-safety, and financial implications of single-stair reform under AB 2252, including its potential to unlock new mid-rise building forms on infill lots currently rendered unfeasible by dual-egress requirements, and identify the design standards needed to ensure the typology delivers dignity alongside density.

7. CRITICALLY EXAMINE MEASURE ULA’S DUAL ROLE AND EVALUATE REFORM OPTIONS
Critically examine Measure ULA’s role as both a rent-relief funding mechanism and a production disincentive — including current research on its suppression of multifamily construction — and evaluate precision reform options for the November 2026 ballot that preserve the fund’s mission while restoring the production pipeline.

8. APPLY CENTURY HOUSING’S OPERATE-AND-MAINTAIN FRAMEWORK FROM PROJECT INCEPTION
Apply Century Housing’s operate-and-maintain approach to the earliest stages of project design, understanding how long-term stewardship considerations — including unit mix, material selection, capital reserve planning, and service-delivery integration — should shape decisions from concept through construction.