Long Beach-based design studio and nonprofit City Fabrick—the same firm responsible for the beautiful Spark at Midtown affordable housing complex—has taken home three awards from this year’s California chapter of the American Planning Association awards for their work in both Los Angeles and Orange Counties.
Considered among the most respected of planning and architectural honors, City Fabrick was the sole organization to walk home with this many awards, with both their tangible work and for their comprehensive and grassroots planning.
Achieving the Award for Merit in Implementation, La Placita Cinco in Santa Ana largely represents best what City Fabrick does on a physical level: Transforming an expansive parking lot into a multi-service neighborhood entity, complete with added outdoor space, nonprofit offices, and affordable housing units.
This has been done, mind you, while retaining the two primary commercial buildings as well as the existing small businesses in the area.
Two expansive visioning plans—one for Cambodia Town in Long Beach and another for the veterans community in West Los Angeles—were also honored.
The team behind Cambodia Town Thrives was an impressive collaboration, connecting City Fabrick with Long Beach Forward, the United Cambodian Community, and Walk Long Beach, to create an overarching plan that the community can point to in order to advance necessities it deems the most important, from affordable housings and safety to economic development and art.
The West Los Angeles Veterans Community Plan is one of the nation’s largest projects related to veterans and supportive housing, hoping to transform the northern campus of the VA space in West Los Angeles.
The plan, like its smaller scale sister in Cambodia Town, was a massive collaboration between City Fabrick and the US Department of Veterans Affairs, USVets, Century Housing, and Thomas Safran and Associates.
City Fabrick Executive Director Brian Ulaszewski and volunteers coordinate in West Los Angeles to work on a visioning plan for the Veterans Affairs northern campus. Courtesy of City Fabrick.
