Broad-based Group of Citizens, Planners, Architects and Business Leaders to Organize Call for Ideas/Venues, Panel Discussion and Community Design Charette
LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles chapters of the American Institute of Architects (AIA|LA) and the American Planning Association (APA-LA), along with community members, business leaders, local governments and universities formed railLA to promote the California High-Speed Rail project and help advance a change in Los Angeles’ car-centric lifestyle.
“railLA is ultimately about transforming the way we travel and develop our communities in order to create more sustainable, healthy, and livable communities,” said Gunnar Hand, AICP, railLA Chair. “We are unveiling three events this summer that will promote and advance this mission: a call for ideas and venues, a panel discussion, and a series of community design charettes.”
Launching June 1: Call for Ideas and Venues
The Call for Ideas, commencing June 1, 2010, will be an open, international call to all interested parties to “think big” on the broad topics of high-speed rail and its implementation in Southern California. The Call is intended to create a wealth of information about high-speed rail from around the world to be exhibited at selected venues through a separate Call for Venues. Entrants are encouraged to submit new and existing ideas, concepts, designs, plans, papers, videos, models, and other studies.
A select group of submissions will be showcased at an opening exhibit in Downtown Los Angeles later this summer, on the railLA website (www.railLA.org), and in various publications. A $2500 prize purse for the top five submissions will be announced at an opening exhibit on July 29, 2010. The deadline for submissions is July 13, 2010.
Upcoming Events
railLA is planning a series of community design charettes and workshops to collect input from the general public on the opportunities that arise from a new high-speed rail station at Los Angeles’ Union Station. railLA is also planning a panel discussion to discuss best practices, lessons learned and innovative approaches to the design, construction, and management of a high-speed rail system and its stations.
Mission
railLA is a coalition of experienced professionals, passionate citizens and business leaders organized to ensure that the people of California benefit from the nation’s first viable high-speed train network. railLA will advocate, serve, and inform effected communities and other stakeholders as fast trains become a reality and transform the way we work and live.
About Us
railLA is a collaboration between the Los Angeles chapters of the American Institute of Architects (AIA|LA) and American Planning Association (APA-LA), which have joined forces to effect change and build public awareness of the benefits of next-generation bullet trains in California. The group develops creative and practical solutions to address the issues surrounding the construction of high-speed rail and the modern transit-focused developments that it will service – together expected to be the largest construction project in the nation’s history.
railLA has quickly become a growing partnership of architects, city and regional planners, and engineers working with business and community leaders as one voice to guarantee that the promise of high-speed rail becomes a reality.
Vision
Long considered the capital of American car culture and suburban sprawl, Los Angeles is the ideal American city to illustrate the positive impacts that high-speed rail will have on reducing traffic and carbon emissions, and innovating new sustainable urban design. railLA seeks to create a paradigm shift away from the car as the icon of our mobility and replacing it with a multi-modal society with high-speed rail at the pinnacle of public mass transportation. It is much more than just a fast train ride from LA to San Francisco.
By creating a realistic picture of the opportunities that high-speed rail will create, railLA will leverage public sector, private sector and grassroots support to ensure timely and efficient implementation of a statewide high-speed rail infrastructure with Los Angeles’ Union Station as the hub. The completion of this system will lead to the revitalization of communities throughout California and establish the state as a national example showcasing the benefits of the transition from the automobile to efficient and sustainable mass transit.
For a copy of our press release, click here. For more information on railLA and its summer 2010 programs, please visit www.railla.org.