With almost half a million inhabitants, Long Beach is larger than many well-known urban centers, including Atlanta, Cleveland, and Miami. Unlike many of these similarly-sized cities, however, Long Beach lives within the incredible gravitational pull of an even larger neighbor—in this case, Los Angeles. One consequence of this is that Long Beach is somewhat underserved by the collective “brain trust” associated with any metropolis. While the Los Angeles-Orange County Region is largely considered polycentric because of its multiple commercial centers and competing municipalities, the intellectual energies of the area tend to focus on Los Angeles itself. This is certainly the case with regard to architecture, planning, and urban design: the creative focus is Los Angeles and many involved in these activities see the remaining region as a mere backwater.
A few cities surrounding Los Angeles can successfully unite community leaders, commercial interests, and elected officials so as to muster the creative capital needed to develop more inspired visions for sculpting their urban fabric. Most other cities muddle along, relying upon hired consultants, private developers, and random happenstance. Too often, this means trickle-down planning principles and watered-down results.
Among those more “provincial” cities is Long Beach. Despite its significant size, the gravitational pull of nearby Los Angeles means that the city is home to just a couple dozen architectural firms, a local chapter of the American Institute of Architects shared with other cities, and no local chapters serving planners or landscape architects. There is no active group supporting better practices in urban design, planning, and architecture with the city, leaving such advocacy to a self-chosen few. Because there are so few publicly engaged creative professionals in Long Beach, diversity of opinion is limited and involvement is inconsistent.
The upshot of all this is clear: progressive urban design and architecture has simply not been a priority within Long Beach for the past few decades. This can be seen, for instance, in concerted efforts by the city to recreate a rather superficial “art deco” look in much recent development, as well as the cookie-cutter standardization of municipal structure design. Unbelievably, during many crucial periods of their existence the city’s Redevelopment Agency Board and Planning Commission have had no members coming from the fields of architecture and planning! At present, the Planning Commission is lucky to have one licensed architect and one landscape architect, while unfortunately the only certified planner on the Redevelopment Agency Board has recently resigned.
Beyond these two commissions, numerous other bodies exist that would benefit from having members with a background in design or planning, including the Housing Development Company Board and the relatively new Sustainability Commission. Only the Cultural Heritage Commission has consistently had at least one licensed architect among its fifteen members, though this may change as the commission has reduced its size by more than half.
Less than four years ago, a number of local architects under the banner of the “Long Beach Design Forum” had managed to raise the level of discussion within the city regarding architecture and planning. Members of this loosely organized group participated in various advisory committees, as well as the Redevelopment Agency Board and the Planning Commission. They lobbied for the creation of a Design Review Board and the short-lived City Urban Design Officer position. At present, the Long Beach Design Forum remains but is largely dormant, as many members have had no choice but to concentrate on their everyday work during this turbulent economic period.
Long Beach deserves more. Whether under the banner of the local American Institute of Architects (AIA) chapter or independent of any formal organization, the city would be well-served to have the coordinated involvement of local architects that can share their expertise, experience, and creativity. Ideally there would exist both official and unofficial groups focused on architecture and urban design. Starting and sustaining any group is laborious, but the current economic climate might make the benefit of greater local networking salient for local professionals.
About a month ago, the inaugural steering committee meeting took place for a Long Beach Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council. The initial members of this group include city staff, local college faculty, and private sector professionals: the increasing enthusiasm for sustainability will likely grow their ranks. Over the past year, the Public Space and Mobility Group has been discussing planning for bicycles, pedestrians, and public transit within Long Beach. The group has met monthly, organized film screenings, and participated in University by the Sea, working to communicate to the public the importance of maintaining public rights-of-way and open space.
Another new group is Context+Discourse, a forum for dialogue about urban design, transportation, and architecture in Long Beach. A blog was created as part of this effort, helping to remedy the striking lack of online sources regarding urban design in Long Beach. The group has organized a series of salons to bring professionals and enthusiasts together for informal discussions about a variety of topics related to the urban fabric of the city. Additional events and forums will likely emerge as more persons become involved and additional resources become available.
This is a call to arms for interested parties to become more involved in the crucial debates regarding the built environment of Long Beach. I have discussed a few groups with which you might get involved, but there are countless other ways to share your talents. The city is rich with opportunity: it lacks only a vocal constituency of creative minds to help develop that opportunity. We have the “brain trust” we need, if we only take advantage of it. In doing so, we can help Long Beach step out of Los Angeles’s shadow and be seen as the great metropolis it truly is.