Behind L.A.’s Most Revolutionary Projects
Martha Welborne is working with HR&A Advisors to work on Los Angeles’ most transformative projects.
GlobeSt.com: Why was HR&A a good fit for you personally and your career path?
Martha Welborne: The folks at HR&A and I share a passion for tackling the most complicated public/private projects that seem impossible to pull off, but we always do. Over the course of my career, I have taken on increasingly more complicated urban projects. I started working on individual building design as a young architect, but over time I became more interested in the challenges and potential impact of the larger scale. To actually implement complex urban projects, actually bring them to life, is getting more and more difficult. Knowing how to do this is almost a skill set all unto its own. My career has developed in this direction and HR&A has been expert at this for a long time. We also share a passion for improving life in cities. For me, that usually means focusing on transportation systems, parks, and mixed-use projects. HR&A shares those interests but the firm also has expertise in real estate economics, financing strategies, planning for resilience, affordable housing, policy analysis, governance structures, among other areas. The common thread in all of this work is implementation. We don’t feel we can adequately judge our work unless a project is actually built or a program is put in place and it has made a difference.
GlobeSt.com: Tell me about some of the transformative projects you will be working on in your new position. How will these projects impact Los Angeles and the city’s current evolution?
Welborne: The first project I am focused on is creating an aerial gondola that will link Los Angeles’ Union Station to Dodger Stadium. I am simultaneously acting as the Project Director of Aerial Rapid Transit Technologies, LLC and as a Senior Advisor to HR&A. The gondola project will provide the long-awaited transit link to Dodger Stadium. It can carry 5,000 people per hour per direction, so it will not just be like a theme park ride or tourist attraction, it will be true urban transit. People often start arriving at Dodger Stadium two hours before a game, so if the gondola is at full capacity, 10,000 people could arrive via gondola rather than driving. That is almost a quarter of the attendance of an average baseball game and translates into 3,000 or so cars that will not be clogging the streets trying to get in and out of the stadium grounds. For Dodger fans and for neighbors of the stadium, that is transformative.
Given my background in transportation, and given the extensive workload at Metro, I see a lot of work on the horizon that will focus on urban transportation and its impacts. Whether it is exploring funding sources that will allow for the acceleration of transit projects, working with communities on land use and density issues near stations, Transit Oriented Development projects, urban design issues, or improving the integration of the bus and rail network itself. Los Angeles is currently undergoing an enormous transformation with the infusion of tax dollars that are targeted for transportation improvements. Over the next 40 years, $120 billion will be spent to extend the rail system, improve the bus system, and upgrade city streets and highways. Since development typically follows transit investments, the Los Angeles region will be dramatically impacted. It is critical that we do this right.
GlobeSt.com: In general, and in your opinion, what are the transformative urban projects that you hope to see in Los Angeles and what do you think the city needs?
Welborne: In addition to the transportation and land use transformation that is already underway, there is a great opportunity to improve the Los Angeles River. Currently, the river is primarily a flood control channel that runs for 51 miles through many different cities in the County. The planning, engineering, and design work is underway to determine different approaches appropriate to each section that will improve livability along the river while also making it more beautiful. Some sections are actually navigable and other sections can be capped to create parks and playfields above. It will take many years to implement these improvements, but they have the potential to radically improve life in the neighboring communities.
In terms of what the city needs, two of our biggest issues currently are the lack of sufficient affordable housing and homelessness. Over the last 24 years since I moved to Los Angeles, I have seen a remarkable investment in development in the city. Areas of downtown that were once largely surface parking lots have transformed into projects such as the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Staples Center, the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, and more high-rise residential buildings than any of us imagined would be built twenty years ago. That success has had ripple-effects on the economy and has created issues of equitable development for us to now solve.
GlobeSt.com: In addition to the projects that you have already discussed, are there any future projects that you are planning to work on that will shape the city of Los Angeles, or other markets outside of Los Angeles that you are working on?
Welborne: Currently, I am primarily focused on work in the Los Angeles area because there is so much to do here. However, I am very open to projects in other cities as well. American cities currently share some common problems that we need to address: aging infrastructure, congestion, insufficient funds to maintain our parks and playfields, gentrification, the need for affordable housing. While that may look like a depressing list of problems, I actually look at it as a list of opportunity areas where we can dig in, go after the tough issues, and improve people’s lives as a result. In some cases, I may even create my own projects, find funding, and identify a client to get the work done. Whatever it takes!