North Hollywood Field Study: Suburban Transit-oriented Town Center Redevelopment

North Hollywood’s town center sits at the junction of the subway to downtown Los Angeles and the bus lines serving the San Fernando Valley. North Hollywood is expected to receive the greatest amount of growth over the next twenty years of any of the suburban nodes in the City of Los Angeles. This field study is devoted to creating a concept plan for the town center. Students will visit Los Angeles in February or early March to meet with stakeholders including property owners, developers, community groups, and planning officials. Concept plans and visions will address transit connections, open space, real estate markets, commercial, residential, office, retail, and industrial uses, affordable housing, sustainable design, parking, and other elements that create an exciting and viable downtown. For the latter part of the term, students will prepare more detailed visions for the first phase of proposed development, working at the urban design scale and taking into account real estate markets and financial considerations as well as public-private arrangements for joint ventures, in addition to, affordability, place-making, and other considerations vital to building a viable suburban town center. Students will also coordinate with the land use/transportation model being developed through the REAI’s Los Angeles – Shanghai Urban Modeling Project. Interim and final projects will be presented to the stakeholders and planners for North Hollywood as well as faculty, design, and real estate professionals in juries at Harvard.

Travel – Students enrolled in this course will be term billed $200 for travel costs. Students can only enroll in 5212 OR 5232.