Measure ULA reform goes to the ballot, Remembering Lorcan O'Herlihy, and more

I was sad to learn this week about the passing of Lorcan O'Herlihy, whose firm LOHA is frequently featured in Urbanize. 

I only had the opportunity to meet Lorcan face-to-face once when we were on a panel together, and otherwise our communication was limited to exchanging pleasantries via e-mail on perhaps a couple of occasions. But if it isn't already obvious, I'm a big fan of his work. 

Arguably the greatest compliment that you can pay a musician is that they "sound like themselves." In a similar vein, I think that Lorcan O'Herlihy developed an architectural style that was so distinctive that you always know when you see a LOHA project, whether you're hanging around Westwood in Los Angeles or Brush Park in Detroit.

I've dropped images of a few of my favorite LOHA projects that I've covered over the years into the gallery (both built and not yet built). If any of you out there have some others that you'd like to highlight, please post them in the comments.

Here's what we're reading this week:

Effort to exempt new apartment buildings in L.A. from ‘mansion tax’ moves forward "Under the proposed ballot measure, the ULA tax wouldn’t apply to multifamily buildings sold within 10 years of construction. There would also be some more technical changes put before voters, including to allow ULA money to be spent on temporary housing for homeless people." (LA Times)

California won’t consider LA's request for extra time on $100M in street improvement projects "The exclusion of the request from the California Transportation Commission's June agenda spells an uncertain fate for the projects in Boyle Heights, Skid Row and Wilmington, which involve repairing sidewalks, adding bike lanes and installing traffic-calming measures to make streets friendlier to non-vehicular modes of transportation." (LAist)

New D Line stations help drive strongest rail ridership in more than six years; World Cup service starts strong  "About 8,000 to 10,000 rides were added per day after the three new stations at Wilshire/La Brea, Wilshire/Fairfax and Wilshire/La Cienega opened on May 8." (The Source)

After uncertainty, a positive sign for L.A. Olympics transportation funding "The transit agency plans to lease 1,700 buses, build three temporary transit depots and create dedicated traffic lanes." (LA Times)

Measure to put affordable homes on Santa Monica Airport land won’t be on November ballot "Voters in Santa Monica will not see a measure on the November ballot aiming to allow 3,000 affordable housing units on one-quarter of the land for the city’s soon-to-close airport." (LAist)

City Hall Reform Package Moves Ahead With Key Proposals Delayed "The measures moving forward would ask voters to approve changes to how City Hall operates. But proposals to expand the 15-member council, adopt ranked-choice voting, lower the voting age to 16, and split the city attorney’s office into two separate jobs were pushed off for further review." (Westside Current)

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