Tag Archives: collaboration

LABC honors PBy with Design Concept Award

The PBy team was honored to receive an award for outstanding Design Concept from the Los Angeles Business Council (LABC) on June 20 at the 42nd Annual Los Angeles Architecture Awards ceremony. Through this awards program, LABC aims to “acknowledge and inspire a community-wide desire to enhance the complex urban fabric of Los Angeles” and honors projects that “demonstrate an extraordinary spirit of innovation and collaboration.”

Emcee Frances Anderton from KCRW and keynote speaker Michael Govan of LACMA both spoke of the connection between architecture, art and the urban fabric while Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa thanked LABC for its many years of design and community support. The room was crowded with talented designers, builders, clients and thought leaders both recognizing and being recognized.  It made the future of Los Angeles seem very bright indeed, and served as another vote of confidence that the Piggyback Yard vision would make it even brighter.

PBy exemplifies Bioclimatic Design

Over 100 people gathered at Woodbury University in Burbank today for the 2011 Advancing Sustainability Business + Design Symposium, which was organized entirely by cross-disciplinary Woodbury students.  The symposium featured a range of speakers highlighting intersections between design and business at all scales – from material to building to city – grouped into three sessions: Energy and Resource Efficiency, Bioclimatic Design, and Energy Conservation.

PBy’s own Leigh Christy was asked to introduce the topic of Bioclimatic Design, and used the Piggyback Yard as an exemplary case study.  PBy was a perfect introduction to the idea that not only is bioclimatic design a response to natural environmental climate, but it is also a result of human social, economic, political and historic climates.  Hence, any design is really an insertion into existing systems; the design process becomes more like systems engineering with the infusion of humanity and art; the result is necessarily a living organism codependent on it surrounds.

Subsequent speakers supported the idea of systems-based thinking at integrated levels, reminding attendees that adaptive, high-efficiency, multi-valent, long-term solutions are needed today – and tomorrow.

Thanks to the students of Woodbury for putting on such a refreshingly successful program.

The City Project supports PBy

 A recent letter of support from Robert Garcia, President and Counsel for the City Project, to Lewis MacAdams and Leigh Christy expressed “enthusiastic support” of the PBy vision and conceptual plan.

The City Project, a Los Angeles based nonprofit, seeks to achieve equal justice, democracy, and livability for all.  They carry out their mission by influencing the investment of public resources to achieve results that are equitable, enhance human health and the environment, and promote economic vitality for all communities.

 “The vision and conceptual plan for the Piggyback Yard Park reflects these diverse values,” writes Robert.  It also “reflects the resolution by the Los Angeles City Council requiring that River revitalization meet the needs of the people as well as the environment.”

The City Project’s participation in the PBy process encouraged the collaborative group to emphasize the needs of the people in addition to the needs of the physical environment.  Robert’s comments helped to bring the PBy purpose further into focus and led to the definition of our fourth principle: Community.

Robert closes the letter of support by saying that the City Project looks forward to “continuing to work with you to make the dream of the Piggyback Yard Park come true for all.”  Hear hear!

Activism & Collaboration

Jessica Varner, Michael Maltzan Architecture

Activism

As a young professional I ask myself everyday what I can do to change our city in a positive way. As citizens who care deeply about the urban environment, we can no longer wait for government officials or private developers to plan the future of our city. We have to get involved when we see opportunities to better our community with our ideas, our opinions and our actions. Continue reading →