Los Angeles-Area Developers, Architects Taking Steps To Avoid Being Left Behind On Sustainability
With California leading the way on a few climate-focused policies, Los Angeles-area architects, designers and developers are trying to make sure they're not stuck playing catch-up.
The best way to do that is to accept the direction the state is going and make investments that align with where regulations are headed, panelists said at Bisnow’s Los Angeles Architecture and Design Summit Tuesday.
“I think smart developers, like Related and others, are really looking at where policies are headed” and acting accordingly, U.S. Green Building Council of California Executive Director Ben Stapleton told the audience at the event, held at the Omni Hotel and Resort Los Angeles.
That goes for architects as well, panelists said. Gensler has mandated that more than 90% of its projects will be net-zero by 2030.
“Our industry has to step up and understand our responsibility toward the 40% of CO2 creation” generated by the built environment, Gensler Global co-Chair Andy Cohen said, calling climate change “the moral and business imperative of our lifetime.”
Related Senior Vice President of Design Peter Garofalo pointed to the push to eliminate gas appliances in new residential construction. Several municipalities in California are already preventing the use of gas appliances, and rather than tackle the change one city at a time, Garofalo said Related is moving to put electric induction cooktops in all new units, even in places where it isn’t yet required.
While electrification decisions have been “jurisdiction by jurisdiction” so far, Stapleton said that is where the statewide code and air board regulations are moving, so for developers, it isn't a matter of whether to include these types of appliances but when to do it.
Tenant expectations are also aligned with these climate-conscious tweaks, Garofolo said.
“We think we have responsible and sophisticated tenants in our buildings who want to be on the forefront of helping to sustain this planet,” Garofalo said.
Tournesol Siteworks President Chris Lyon agreed.
“I'd say we're fortunate in California because there's an awareness, not only at a developer level, but customers understand what it means to move into a building that's a quality building, that's built to last, to be efficient,” Lyon said.
It isn't just urban professionals who have these expectations anymore. As more people move from urban cores to suburban areas, they bring the same expectations with them of performance and sustainability, Garofalo said. They also have suburban expectations around open space and green space that developers have to contend with.
“When it comes to technology, those buildings need to perform just like they do in an urban setting,” Garofalo said.
“We want to provide that same level of luxury at some of these other markets,” he added.
Related has a project in progress near the South Coast Plaza in Orange County where it is trying to create a dense, walkable mixed-use neighborhood with 13 acres of open space out of a 40-acre strip mall. The goal is to meet all these would-be resident needs while taking away “our collective reliance on cars,” Garofalo said.
“I'm a New Yorker, and it seems like that's second nature, but down in Orange County, it's really quite radical,” Garofalo said.
