(Re)Designing LA, a public-events series led by Occidental College Professor of Practice Christopher Hawthorne, Los Angeles’ first-ever chief design officer, will call on a broad cast of experts and activists to explore how the city can promote innovative design while addressing climate change and guarding against displacement and the erasure of neighborhood culture and history.
As climate change intensifies and Los Angeles suffers through more days of extreme heat each year, shade is quickly becoming an equity issue of crucial importance. How can we coordinate efforts to increase the tree canopy and update street-furniture design with other improvements to create a comprehensive strategy for providing shade where we need it most? How can designs to increase shade be incorporated into other large-scale planning efforts across the city and region, including Metro expansion, efforts to reimagine the Los Angeles River and the 2028 Summer Olympics?
Panelists for this event (which takes its title from a 1942 book about Los Angeles by Timothy J. Turner) will include: Andy Lipkis, founder and president of Tree People; Sahra Sulaiman, communities editor for Streetsblog L.A.; Jennifer Pope McDowell, associate director of infrastructure in the Mayor's Office of City Services; and Gerdo Aquino, CEO of landscape and urban-design firm SWA Group.
(Re)Designing LA marks the fourth year of Occidental’s 3rd LA initiative, launched by Hawthorne in 2015 during his tenure as architecture critic of the Los Angeles Times. He was appointed last year as chief design officer by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. The series this year will be co-sponsored by Occidental and the Mayor’s Office.
This event is free and open to the public, .
