WHAT’S YOUR PRIORITY FOR LOS ANGELES?

Douglas Hanson, FAIA, NOMA – Design Director & Founding Partner, HansonLA

The Challenge: How do we clean up Los Angeles?

We live in one of the most beautiful natural landscapes of any large city in the world. From high above, we have it all – the ocean, beaches, hills, freeways, rivers, density and open space. On the ground, it is a different story. There is trash, broken infrastructure and dumping on the freeways, streets, sidewalks, beaches and in open spaces. Graffiti is rampant. There are many public agencies responsible including the City of Los Angeles, the County of Los Angeles and the state of California that are not doing their job.

The Solution:

• Hold the landowner or agency with jurisdiction accountable for maintenance. 
• Start with the neighborhood. Create a sense of pride and ownership in the Neighborhood Councils and the Council office. Develop and invest in a high-profile public awareness campaign. e.g., billboards, transit, social media, radio, and TV.
• Change laws that prevent cleanliness and regular maintenance, e.g., Washing down the sidewalks. 
• Create a nonprofit much like Heal the Bay that would be a voice and an active participant.

Douglas Hanson, FAIA, NOMA – Design Director & Founding Partner, HansonLA

Douglas Hanson is a Los Angeles based architect who has worked with some of the world’s leading architectural firms designing major cultural, commercial, and residential projects in Asia, Europe, and North America. With over three decades of professional experience, Hanson launched his eponymous firm, HansonLA, in 2010.

Early in his career at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, Hanson collaborated on major European projects from design through construction. In Barcelona, Hanson managed Vila Olimpica, a collaboration between SOM and Frank O. Gehry & Associates. Hanson then joined Frank O. Gehry & Associates in 1992 as a Senior Associate and Project Architect for the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.

He worked closely with the Guggenheim Foundation and the local Basque developer as the project took shape. Hanson then had the opportunity to collaborate with the Renzo Piano Building Workshop on the California Academy of Sciences. In 2004, Hanson became principal at DeStefano & Partners and led the Los Angeles office in designing and building a number of cultural, commercial, and residential projects. In Hanson’s current role as President of HansonLA, he is the Design Principal on various residential and commercial projects and is the Master Plan Architect for City Market of Los Angeles—a 10-acre, mixed-use development in Los Angeles’s Fashion District—and for the Mail Order District—a mixed-use complex anchored by a historic Sears Warehouse located in Boyle Heights.