WHAT’S YOUR PRIORITY FOR LOS ANGELES?

Michael H. Anderson, AIA, NOMA – Principal, Anderson Barker Architects & Board Director, AIA Los Angeles

A CALL TO ACTION FOR LOS ANGELES TO ADVANCE OUR QUALITY OF LIVING

THE CHALLENGE:

Los Angeles is challenged on multiple fronts in the areas of housing, infrastructure, transit, and deferred maintenance, and lacks the human and financial resources to successfully address each area simultaneously. Homeownership is unattainable for seventy percent of our workforce, especially for Black and Brown individuals who top the list of Angelenos who aspire to live the American dream and raise a family. 

THE SOLUTION:

The Accelerated Wealth and Transit Development (AWTD) program is designed to be an all-encompassing private-public partnership for underserved community modernization aimed at bridging the racial wealth divide among residents in urban Los Angeles. Through the utilization of federal executive orders, grants and private equity funding, this initiative seeks to generate a significant impact by rejuvenating these communities. 

Recommendation:

Implement the AWTD program to achieve economic empowerment and equity for Blacks and Latinos in urban Los Angeles through targeted interventions in three key areas: transit infrastructure, wet and dry utility infrastructure, streets, sidewalks, parks, and open public spaces, and familial ownership of multi-family income bearing properties.

Strategies:

1. Transit Infrastructure Revitalization: AWTD improves existing transportation infrastructure, enhancing accessibility, and increasing connectivity to job centers, educational institutions, and essential services in Black and Brown communities. This promotes equitable access to transportation and reduces disparities in mobility options.
2. Wet/Dry Utilities Infrastructure Modernization: AWTD modernizes electrical grids, incorporating sustainable water and wastewater systems, and enhancing communication networks to upgrade the power grid and overall infrastructure of wet and dry utilities in underserved neighborhoods. These improvements will increase sustainability, reliability, efficiency, and resilience, ultimately improving the quality of life for residents and businesses.
3. Increase Homeownership of Income Bearing Property: AWTD utilizes existing housing stock to serve as a catalyst for the accrual of generational wealth in Black and Brown communities by converting “Mom’s House” into a multi-family property and using the revenue to sustain the family while laying the foundation of wealth building for the next generation.  Additionally, financial assistance, educational resources, and supportive services will also be provided. By partnering with financial institutions, down payment assistance, affordable mortgage options, financial literacy training, and access to credit counseling can be made available. Using this model, AWTD aims to help families build wealth while also creating stable housing environments for underserved populations.

The CEO of a local Community Development Financial Institute stated, “AWTD is perhaps the most creative and original neighborhood revitalization strategies I have seen in my 30-plus years working in low/moderate income communities. It offers many unique potential benefits including increasing homeownership, community revitalization/stabilization, and generational wealth accumulation for communities of color. This impressive concept utilizes existing housing stock in underserved communities and transforms them into sustainable community assets without gentrification. The emphasis on metro transit station development provides greater environmental and social benefits for these community residents.

Michael H. Anderson, AIA, NOMA – Principal, Anderson Barker Architects & Board Director, AIA Los Angeles

President and CEO of Anderson Barker Architects looking to transform the underserved parts of our cities into great places. As an architect & urban designer focused on the economic development and modernization of Black & Brown underserved communities. With 40 years of experience as a registered architect working on transit, aviation, schools, urban design, and redevelopment projects across Los Angeles, San Diego, and Philadelphia.

Michael has developed a strategy called Accelerated Wealth & Transit Development (AWTD) for private equity and federal funds to help address the gross inequities in the availability of income-generating properties in underserved communities. AWTD will address the unhoused crisis in the great City of Los Angeles by developing existing parcels of land, it will create generational wealth in these Black & Brown communities.

SELECTED PROJECTS

LAX Northside Development

The LAX Northside Development is sixty-nine-acre biotech and sports destination for the Westchester community on property acquired decades ago as part of the airport noise sound mitigation program. The project was a ground lease to eventually be owned by LAWA. Anderson Barker served as associate architect to Johnson Fain Architects and assembled the entire master developer, finance, executive architect, urban design, engineering, and traffic mitigation team for Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA).

Grand Panorama, Los Angeles, CA

Grand Panorama is a multi-story mixed-use development of 584 residential units, including a significant affordable housing component. Additionally, approximately 8,000 square feet of shared amenity space, 30,000 square feet of ground-level commercial space, and 630 parking spaces are provided. Parking is designed for adaptive reuse as commercial space in a later phase. The project is designed to emphasize activation of the street-level space and to provide amenities and landscaped plaza space that will complement Metro’s Grand Avenue Arts /Bunker Hill Station and the implementation of Transit Oriented Community

LA Clippers Intuit Dome Event Plaza Development, Inglewood, CA

The Inglewood Event Plaza is a key component of the Inglewood Basketball Entertainment Center that consists of a sports arena, a landscaped plaza, outdoor basketball courts, and an outdoor community space shaped by an articulated composition of three buildings and a sculpted entrance gateway. Using extended canopies inspired by mid-century modernism, the architecture establishes a datum that provides a scale of transition between people and the monumental arena that is set back from Century Boulevard.

Inglewood Parking Structures, Inglewood, CA

The parking structures serve the IBEC and are comprised of three facilities near or adjacent to the arena. The West Parking facility is a multi-level parking garage with several access points. A pedestrian bridge at the second level across Prairie Avenue provides direct access to the Event Plaza.

Crenshaw / LAX Transit Corridor Station Area Planning and Joint development Study, Los Angeles County

For 8 proposed Stations along the 8.5 Mile Transit Corridor in Los Angeles up to one-quarter mile radius around each station.