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 Livable Places
a New Urban Home.com exlcusive
Architects, policy reformers, environmental advocates, professors, planners, nonprofit housing developers, engineers, come together in Los Angeles to create more livable places in a city notoriously unsustainable. At the New Urban Home, we cite a plethora of examples of sustainability, but could simplify this standard into two main philosophies. One paradigm of sustainability is that which appeals to scientists, engineers, and material developers: use new technology to create smart buildings and materials that use less or replenish energy, and create a building that works for its user. This is the sort of thinking that has brought us photovoltaic cells, or the ‘living skin’ that C2C architects have proposed, the efficient EnergyStar appliances, and buildings that collect and store energy. This sort of sustainability creates a livable home that primarily betters the lives of it inhabitants, though, if for no other reason than its reduction of pollution, can benefit the populous at large. As important as these practices are, they do nothing to create a cohesively sustainable society. This organization has a mission to create healthy communities in the often alienating city and region of Los Angeles, California. Their efforts are threefold: to design and develop sustainable and affordable communities, to reform public policy to be more supportive of smart growth, and to educate the public about the importance and impact of their efforts. According to their mission statement, a healthy community is one with:
Another project, called Fuller Lofts, will expand and re-use the existing W. P. Fuller building in Lincoln Heights to create flexible loft-style living. This project will also include commercial spaces and creative workshop spaces. Additionally, both projects will use environmentally-preferred materials, site themselves along existing public transit lines, and include energy-efficient appliances where applicable. This is the most tangible application of Livable Places’ mission. But among the physical manifestations of their goals, there are more dogmatic issues at hand. Livable Places works closely with the LA Inclusionary Zoning Coalition, whose goal is to make affordable housing a component of all new communities in Los Angeles. They also co-founded the Alliance for a Livable Los Angeles in 2002, and they recently reconvened to discuss affordable housing measures, inclusionary decision making among, especially, low-income Angelenos, and to advocate for more and better public transit. Also, they work closely with the Southern California Association of Non-Profit Housing to advocate for public policies that support development of affordable housing, including planning incentives and new funding sources. And, Livable Places is popularizing infill development in Los Angeles as they re-use vacant industrial buildings and underutilized commercial sites to develop new housing into the existing infrastructure grid.
Developers, architects, and urban planners are realizing that sustainable design is a combination of structural efficiency, environmental responsibility, and community enablement. Indeed, more people must be made aware of the importance of their cooperation in smart growth—and this will come through public education. Livable Places is using their city, Los Angeles, as a laboratory on-display for Angelenos and the rest of us to learn, from their examples, to create Livable Places everywhere. © 2006 New Urban Home
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Another way of designing sustainably is low tech, indigenous, and time tested. Siting a building strategically can have a very positive impact on its sustainability. There are ways to orient a building and shape its roof which will effortlessly heat and cool the building by its relationship to the sun. Furthermore, by placing new homes along existing transit lines or creating walkable passageways, developers encourage a behavioral sustainability. This is the thinking that brainstormed 
Indeed, Livable Places is fulfilling this intent. Firstly, this is evidenced by two new communities that will support a more sustainable, community oriented Los Angeles, by including a wide range of consumers. Homes are being built in a variety of sizes and layouts, and thus target a diverse cross-section of LA’s economic and social groups. One of these new developments, called 
Finally, their informational website serves to educate those who may not realize what these policies and ideals mean to the greater community. Livable Places.org serves as an articles resource, with links to other organizations that advocate similar theories in urban planning, transit-oriented developments, affordable and ecologically sound housing, and smart growth. Among the resources is a link to a website Livable Places created for the City called