CCA White Paper Adaptive Reuse Reimagining Our City’s Buildings to Address Our Housing, Economic and Climate Crises April 2021 In Partnership With: Central City Association Cover image: Fabric on Los Angeles Street in Downtown Los Angeles, an Omgivning project. Image Source: Urban Offerings, by Nephew and Lynch Eisinger Design. CCA would like to offer special thanks to Karin Liljegren, Roberto Vazquez and Alex Prictoe of Omgivning for their time, insights and feedback that were instrumental in preparing this white paper. We also would like to acknowledge Jane Blumenfeld with CityLab of the University of California, Los Angeles; Con Howe of Cityview; and Donald R. Spivack with the University of Southern California’s Price School of Public Policy for their generous review and input that helped shape our work. This white paper was prepared by: Central City Association Jessica Lall, President & CEO, [email protected] Marie Rumsey, Vice President of Public Policy, [email protected] Michael Shilstone, Director of Economic Development, [email protected] Clara Karger, Director of Public Affairs, [email protected] Lily Rosenberg, Communications Associate, [email protected] About CCA 626 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 850 | Los Angeles, CA 90017 Established in 1924, Central City Association of Los Angeles (CCA) is the premier advocacy organization in the region and leading visionary on the future of Downtown Los Angeles. Through advocacy, influence and engagement, CCA enhances Downtown LA’s vibrancy and increases opportunity in the region. CCA represents the interests of over 300 businesses, nonprofit organizations and trade associations. www.ccala.org Graphic Design by: Kellie Liu, kellieliu.com Reproduction of this document is prohibited without the permission of CCA. 2 Adaptive Reuse Letter from Tom Gilmore and Karin Liljegren owntown Los Angeles (DTLA) is a much more exciting, compelling and livable urban center than it was two decades ago. This transformation is largely due to the City’s Adaptive D Reuse Ordinance (ARO) that was spearheaded by Central City Association (CCA) and signed into law in 1999. The ARO opened the door for Downtown’s beautiful, but obsolete, Beaux- Arts office and bank buildings to take on new lives as housing and hotels. As developers and architects who have played leading roles in revitalizing many of DTLA’s historic buildings into much-needed housing and community amenities, we are proud of all that the DTLA community has accomplished and that it has become an international model for adaptive reuse. Like cities around the world, Los Angeles and DTLA were greatly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which required people to socially distance, tamping down the daily economic, social and cultural activities on which all downtowns thrive. With routines upended during the pandemic, it is natural to question how people will use offices and other commercial spaces in the future. On top of these uncertainties, we continue to struggle with housing and homelessness crises in Los Angeles, as well as impending climate change. While we face many challenges, urban centers like DTLA continue to welcome innovation. With the right tools, including expanding adaptive reuse, we know that DTLA and our city can fully recover from the pandemic’s impacts. We are pleased to partner with CCA on this white paper to highlight the benefits of adaptive reuse and provide concrete steps the City of Los Angeles can take to allow for new uses in existing structures. We look forward to seeing CCA’s proposed recommendations implemented to meet the needs of our time. Sincerely, Tom Gilmore Karin Liljegren, FAIA CEO, Gilmore Associates Principal + Founder, Omgivning 3 Central City Association S 01 Introduction he COVID-19 pandemic has created great disruption • Improving environmental sustainability by updating older, worldwide, but its impacts have been particularly acute less energy efficient buildings to contemporary standards T for cities and urban environments. Health orders to and promoting walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods socially distance and stay home, as well as perceptions that urban through infill development and making use of already in lifestyles contribute to virus spread, have fostered uncertainty place and often under-used (in terms of capacity) urban around how we will continue to live, work and visit in cities. Even infrastructure. before the pandemic, many cities, including Los Angeles, were facing deep and persistent housing and homelessness crises, The reuse of obsolete or underutilized structures has produced as well as navigating how to address the climate change crisis some of the most unique and cherished urban spaces around the confronting the globe. world, like Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco, the High Line and Domino Sugar Refinery in New York City and the Highbury Square These are immense and complex challenges with no single redevelopment and King’s Cross gasholders in London, as just a solution, but one of cities’ best and most powerful tools few examples. Locally, the revitalization of Downtown Los Angeles to tackle these issues is adaptive reuse: reimagining and over the past few decades is due in large part to the conversion repurposing existing older structures and spaces to meet of old office and bank buildings to apartments, unlocking the today’s needs. Adaptive reuse has a wide range of benefits value of these buildings and bringing a wave of new residents, for cities, including: which was made possible by the adoption of the Adaptive Reuse Ordinance (ARO) by the Los Angeles City Council in 1999. The • Supporting recovery from COVID-19 by converting vacant ARO was also greatly supported by coordination among the Los and/or underutilized spaces to be active uses that better Angeles Department of City Planning, Department of Building contribute to the health of neighborhoods, which fosters and Safety, Fire Department, and Bureau of Engineering as well jobs and tax revenues and can create new opportunities for as the appointment of a designated adaptive reuse lead in the housing and meet other community needs. Mayor’s office. • Proactively preserving both historic and background structures through reinvestment and generating revenues by changing in alignment with real estate trends. Highbury Square in London, a professional soccer stadium reused as Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco, a chocolate factory converted apartments. to a retail and dining complex with a hotel. Image Source: HOK Architects Image Source: joe.co.uk 4 Adaptive Reuse The High Line in New York City, an elevated freight line repurposed as a public open space. Image Source: Dansnguyen - Own work, CC0 Despite the ARO’s successful history in Los Angeles, its application is limited to only a few areas of the city and contains numerous other restrictions that hinder its ability to be fully leveraged. Recognizing the opportunity and need to expand the ARO, the City has several initiatives to revisit its provisions: • City Planning is currently revising rules for adaptive reuse within Downtown through the DTLA 2040 Community Plan Update. • City Councilmember Gil Cedillo introduced a motion to consider how hotels might convert to micro-unit housing. • City Councilmember Paul Koretz introduced a motion to study expanding the ARO outside of the areas where it’s currently available but limits new housing to rent-restricted units affordable to moderate income households. Eastern Columbia Building in Downtown Los Angeles, a former department store converted to condominiums. Image Source: Los Angeles Conservancy In this white paper, we highlight the many benefits of adaptive reuse, and detail the limitations of the City of Los Angeles’ existing ARO. We conclude with recommendations to comprehensively align various City efforts to update and enhance the ARO and design the policy that will have the greatest impact. Farmers and Merchants Bank Building in Downtown Los Angeles, a historic bank and office complex converted to housing. A Gilmore Associates project. Image Source: Alossix – Stephen Friday, CC BY 3.0 5 Central City Association S Benefits of Adaptive Reuse daptive reuse can be a powerful tool to address urgent hotels in the future. CoStar estimates that about three quarters of challenges including economic recovery and resilience, office workers among major US metropolitan areas can work from creating new housing, preserving historic structures and home and do not need to work from an office; in Los Angeles, A 5 promoting sustainability. approximately 80 percent of office workers can work remotely. While workers will likely return to working in offices as vaccines are more widely available, questions remain over how demand Economic Recovery and Resilience for office space may evolve over the long term. For instance, The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated how quickly and workers may shift to a hybrid schedule where they split time abruptly economic conditions can change, and has created between working in an office and working from home long after uncertainty about how people will use offices, retail spaces and the pandemic due to a desire for greater flexibility. Image Source: CoStar Group, Inc. 6 Adaptive Reuse The Pegasus Apartments in Downtown Los Angeles, the former Mobil Oil/General Petroleum Building built for office use in 1949 and converted to 322 housing units in 2003. Image Source: Equity Residential Image Source: Security Pacific Collection/LAPL Demand for office space will likely be diminished for some time Housing Creation