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Written by Christopher Hawthorne
The pioneers of the green-design movement, in the 1960s and 70s, fled from cities. In retreating "back to the land," they pursued a new kind of life in better balance with nature and the rhythm of the outdoors and the seasons. The first experiments in sustainable architecture were mostly hand-built houses far from city centers. With their sod roofs and retaining walls made from old tires, they made a polemical statement not only about living more lightly on the land but also about the benefits of moving far from the crowded streets and sidewalks of the world's big cities.
These days, though, a growing body of research and design energy is making the case that cities -- or at least well-planed cities -- are among the most efficient ecological organisms ever devised by man. In helping residents share resources, in promoting walkability and in making transit economically feasible, cities can be more efficient than rural areas and far more efficient than sprawling suburbs.
Los Angeles, of course, remains in many ways more suburban than urban. The city is organized not around the apartment house, the subway or the sidewalk but around the car, the boulevard and the highway. To develop into a truly green city, Los Angeles must reorder not only its physical design but also its mindset. Residents will have to realize that sustainability requires some tradeoffs, such as exchanging short car drives for longer trips on mass transit and paying more in taxes to fund new subway, light rail and bus lines.
Smaller cities adjacent to the behemoth of Los Angeles have, not surprisingly, so far proved the most nimble in adjusting to these new realities. Santa Monica, West Hollywood and Pasadena, in particular, have pursued growth strategies that emphasize the interdependency of transit and multifamily housing in helping cities become more sustainable. But Los Angeles is catching on, too, with a new green-building ordinance and regulations that aim to streamline the process of building denser single-family and multi-family development.
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