GREEN TO THE PEOPLE: URBAN STUDIO

The architectural type most directly associated with Los Angeles in the public imagination -- the single-family house, surrounded by extensive private gardens -- has not over the years proved to be a particularly effective mechanism for promoting community or advancing the notion that a city is made up of spaces that we all share. L.A. has not only been a private city but also a Balkanized one, made up in large part of enclaves connected by boulevards and freeways.

But that critique of Los Angeles overlooks two things. One is that before World War I the city was actually quite adept at building housing that was affordable and that promoted the idea of collective space and collective values, particularly in the handsome group of courtyard apartment house and bungalow courts built in the first decades of the 20th century by architects including Irving Gill, Richard Neutra and others. In addition, a growing population in L.A. County, which will have to absorb another 1.5 million residents by 2020, means that density is coming whether we like it or not.

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