EP.24 / Chris Torres and Eli Lipmen
Festival Trail
Can LA still build things that serve everyday people?
Chris Torres and Eli Lipmen think so, and their Festival Trail project is putting that belief to the test.
Festival Trail is a bold 28-mile mobility and culture corridor connecting neighborhoods from Downtown through Inglewood. Chris, founder of Agency Artifact, brings urban design expertise, while Eli, Executive Director of Move LA, has a track record of passing transformative ballot measures worth $120 billion over 40 years.
Their timing isn't coincidental. With 15 million Olympic tickets sold and LA's commitment to a "transit-first Olympics," the city faces what Chris calls "seven Super Bowls happening simultaneously every day for six weeks." The infrastructure challenge is massive, but so is the opportunity.
What makes Festival Trail different is its opportunistic approach—following existing transportation corridors and activating projects already funded rather than starting from scratch. The plan includes 28 new resiliency hubs along the trail featuring large screens for Olympic viewing, food, music, and local culture. These become seeds for future development and community investment.
The conversation reveals LA's fundamental challenge: a diffuse power structure where no single lever creates change. Instead of waiting for top-down coordination, Festival Trail builds on coalitions and momentum. The project also confronts LA's inequity head-on. Rather than concentrate investment in wealthy neighborhoods, Festival Trail intentionally follows corridors serving traditionally underserved communities. The goal isn't just throwing a party for the Olympics, but creating generational uplift and economic opportunity.
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify
About Chris Torres
Chris is an award winning landscape architect and urban designer creating public spaces that merge extraordinary experiences, everyday culture and resilient systems.
He has over a decade of domestic and international experience creating projects ranging from urban and ecological systems to site specific interventions. Prior to founding Agency Artifact, he was a co-founder at Superjacent and has lead projects at Rios Clementi Hale Studios, Walt Disney Imagineering, Skidmore Owings & Merrill and the public art program at LA METRO. Chris was a Design Principal at the Jerde Partnership and served as a Vice President for the organization with over a 100 designers working around the world.
About Eli Lipmen
Eli Lipmen joined the Move LA staff in August 2017 after working on the successful Measure M campaign in 2016. Eli was appointed Executive Director in 2022, having previously served on the Leadership Board for over six years.
Eli has dedicated his life’s work to social change, from hunger to human rights to climate change to affordable housing. As a board member of the nonprofit ClimatePlan and co-chair of the South Los Angeles Transit Empowerment Zone (SLATE-Z) Transit Work Group, he is leading efforts in Los Angeles and across California to create more equitable public transportation.
As one of five proponents of Measure ULA, Eli led the campaign for funding for affordable housing and tenant protections in the City of Los Angeles. Eli led Move LA’s campaign to successfully make LA Metro's ‘GoPass’ program permanent, providing fare-free transit for 1.3 million K-12 and community college students in LA County.
Topics Covered
The spark that created Festival Trail from Olympic planning work
Why LA is the right place for these big infrastructure projects
What Festival Trail looks like on the ground
Who's actually in charge of moving 15 million Olympic ticket holders?
Building coalitions without centralized power structures
How Olympic investment typically fails communities
Lessons from passing $120 billion in ballot measures
The unintended consequences of Measure ULA on multifamily development
Why American cities no longer pencil—and what to do about it
Festival Trail milestones and how to get involved
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Sam Pepper 00:00
Chris, Eli, welcome to Building LA. Today we're going to talk about a bold idea, Festival Trail. It is intending to reshape some of LA's major arteries. It's a not to put words in your mouth, but it's a mobility culture corridor, connecting neighborhoods from Downtown through Inglewood, and it's much more than a bike lane, and it's really actually hard to put it in a particular bucket. I think it's a bit of a test of whether la can still build things that serve everyday people and that the entire city can be proud of. We're going to talk a lot about the festival trail. I think it's an incredibly exciting initiative, but before we get to that, I want to understand a little about the two of you. And let's start with you, Chris, a little bit about you and the firm you lead, Agency Artifact.
Chris Torres 00:50
Sure. Thank you, Sam. It's such a pleasure to be here and be part of this podcast. So yeah, just to introduce myself, ChrisTorres, founding principal of Agency Artifact. We're urban designers and landscape architects based here in Los Angeles. So we're about a four year old practice, and we're really focused on city making. That's our goal. So the idea of an urbanism studio focused on Los Angeles, but also thinking about broader challenges that cities all over the world are facing. And so our work brings us into the spaces of real estate development, but also working closely with cities, city leaders, state, federal, county leaders, really trying to tackle some of the most complex urban issues we're facing today around housing, mobility and our relationship with nature. And so our work intentionally crosses boundaries. We think that's where it's most exciting. And so the Festival Trail is really a huge test of how those boundaries can not only be crossed, but could actually be catalytic, and could be an opportunity for city making here in Los Angeles in the 21st Century.
Sam Pepper 02:02
Fantastic. And Eli, a little bit about yourself and Move LA.
Eli Lipmen 02:07
Yeah, sure thing. Eli Lipmen, I am co-founder with Chris on this Festival Trail journey. I've been running a nonprofit now for close to three years. Prior to that, I was on the staff, and then prior to that, I was actually on the board. Move LA was founded in 2008 when the biggest thing on people's minds, the number one issue, was soul crushing traffic. And we built a rainbow coalition of business, labor, environmental, faith, affordable houses, seniors, persons with disability to pass transformative ballot measures in LA County that fund public transportation 100 and $20 billion over 40 years, which came through Measure R and measure m, as well as affordable housing and tenant protections through Measure A measure H, which is countywide, and measure ULA in 2022 and then we've worked on a number of other ballot measures. We work on all kinds of initiatives at the intersection of public transportation, affordable housing, climate change and clean air, both here in LA County and with our sister organization, Move California across the state.
Sam Pepper 03:16
Great. We're going to talk a little bit about some of those initiatives and ballot measures later on, but right now, I want to dig into the Festival Trail. So Chris Was there a particular moment idea which triggered the Festival Trail?
Chris Torres 03:34
Yeah, very particular moment. So our practice at agency artifact was fortunate to be part of the team that created the vision plan for the Sepulveda basin, which is a 2000 acre park owned by the City of LA and managed by the Department of Recreation and Parks. And in the vision plan, our job was to understand how the Olympic venue that's going to be built there for BMX and skateboarding and potentially a few other sports would integrate with the long range planning. And so that was really my like deep dive into the Olympics and how do mega events work? And so as we worked through this project, that it was a fantastic opportunity to understand what LA 2028 is committed to do and what they're not committed to do. And so we quickly came to understand that LA 2028 role is really to put on this incredibly complex, multi billion dollar sports event is to put on the event is to provide housing and transportation for the media and the athletes.
Chris Torres 04:35
Everything beyond that is actually really on the host city to deliver. And so that's totally different than how I thought Olympics worked. I thought they came to town and suddenly dollars fell from the sky and cities got fixed up. Absolutely not the case, and absolutely not the case for the last few Olympics, which is kind of a growing trend where it's really on the host city to be organized, to be entrepreneurial, and to really be engaged with their communities. And so fast forward to 2025 here in Los Angeles, we're in an unprecedented challenge across our budget deficit, across the devastating fires that have unhoused 10s of 1000s of folks here, and we're really not in a position to be able to capitalize upon this event, unless we come together. And so that's really where the festival trail was sparked from. It was really a way to say, how can everyday Angelenos support and uplift our government leaders to make the most of this opportunity. How do we work hand in hand as partners to be able to really take claim of what we want our city to be? And so the trail is a series of projects, but it's really an idea that we hope will live on for many, many decades to come, long after the games.
Sam Pepper 05:58
What is your confidence level right now, because I think there's a perception, maybe just amongst people I talk to on a daily basis, but there's a perception that LA is not good at big public infrastructure projects. There's some and I understand the irony a little bit when we're building a lot of miles of Metro, but there's a sense that we're not good at developing big ideas. There's a sense that the Olympics and there's some anxiety around how the Olympics is actually going to get pulled off. What makes you have faith that festival trail can actually be realized?
Eli Lipmen 06:36
We at Move LA jumped in on this because we like to do the big stuff, we actually have found that when you step back, I'll tell a little story. You know, back in 2007 Mayor Villaraigosa, at the time, was pitching this idea for a subway to the sea, right? It was going to go down Wilshire, and it was going to go all the way to the sea, to Santa Monica. And the folks on the east side said, and in San Gabriel Valley said, Hell no, we're not paying for your subway to the wealthy west side. And so we had to take a step back and look at all of LA County. And when you start to think, well about how everybody can have a piece of this, when you start to think bigger picture about this incredible county, which in many ways, is the size of, you know, we're the 24th largest economy in the entire world, right? So we're the size of a major country. And so when you think about it like that, and you bring in this rainbow coalition of constituents that represent big constituencies, you really start to be able to do that big stuff and connect the dots in a bigger way.
Eli Lipmen 07:42
And that's why I measure our past in 2008 because there was something in the plan for every sub region in the Los Angeles area. And that's what really, I think, is transformative about festival trail, is that it is this big picture idea that connects a bunch of disconnected projects in a unique way, and really resonates with people who are looking for that we're looking for, something that they can really say, wow, like I can get from where I am to where I need to be without having to be in a car. And that is really transformative. And Angelenos are like big thinkers, we move quickly. Our culture changes dramatically here, and I think they're looking for that big idea around these mega events, and that's why we've been getting such momentum. I mean, I think, Chris, you said, What is the phrase, a multitude of...?
Chris Torres 08:36
Oh, yeah. I mean, I like to say that Los Angeles is a city of infinite multiplicities. That is our secret sauce. That's what makes us so unique. Sam, we've been fortunate to meet with around 300 organizations over the last two years. So we've talked to every leader, and it's put us in rooms with folks that really care about the city, really care about the region, something we learned when meeting with leaders in the tourism industry is that when projects happen that are good for Angelenos, it's good for tourism, not always the other way around. So when you start with projects that actually fuel local culture, that fuel local economies and innovation, that's really the story that tourists want to see now. They want to see the real LA. They want to have the best tacos of their life. They want to have the best pupusas of their life. They want to see the best music and art. The challenge in LA isn't so much creating culture, it's just getting people there and so that soulless commute, or that soulless day with that out of town visitor, when you're trying to drive to three different places in one day, we can't let that happen, and we logistically can't make that happen, given the magnitude of folks that are going to be here.
Sam Pepper 09:53
Do you feel like the effort you have to put in to convince people that they actually can. Can connect with a public space before you even convince them of the idea and specifics of festival trail. Do you need to justify the point of even trying to create a public amenity on the scale of this that goes through multiple neighborhoods? How are those meetings going?
Eli Lipmen 10:22
There? Is interesting, but I like to remind folks that there was not a single rail line in Los Angeles during the last Olympics, right? And in that time, we've been able to fund and build all those. And I also like to remind folks that we actually now have the second highest ridership in the entire United States, behind New York, we have over a million people, a million rides every single day in the LA Metro system. We beat Chicago, we beat San Francisco. We are huge. And that's that is sort of transformative when people think about that, because they don't think about LA as a transit city or region. But when you start to think about like, how many people we have here, how much we have actually built, and some of the incredible projects, I mean, we are about to open a nearly $1 billion lax station that everybody has been talking about for decades, that will rival stations that you Find in Europe, with the type of grandeur and scale that you really only see in major European hubs, and that is a big deal, and really says something about where we are in transportation here in Los Angeles. But that being said, we have these incredible jurisdictional challenges that you find in housing as well that really make the system very difficult to navigate. And what we are proposing with the festival trail, and why people are really like, wow, this is the answer. Is making it more seamless, making it more intuitive, making it something that is actually much more usable on a day to day basis. And that's where this thing is really kind of taken off. Maybe
Sam Pepper 12:01
talk a little bit about what the festival trail looks like, because it's an incredible expanse of miles different roads, but let's take an area, What would someone see as the product of the festival trail idea? And maybe it's in phases, you tell me,
Chris Torres 12:17
Well, I'll maybe tee up the whole story, and then we could kind of dig into a particular node. So when we started the project, we said, okay, look, we only have a few years. We have no money falling from the sky. How do we create a project that is really telling the story of the whole city? So we know that regardless of what coordination or planning happens at early 2028 or at the city or the county or any other jurisdiction, Angelenos are going to show up. They're going to put on their own party, right? They're not just going to let this thing slide by. And so when we looked at all the mega projects that are getting built in terms of transportation for Metro, LA, D, o, t and Caltrans, we realized that there's actually a trail that could connect all the major venues. So we mapped all the major Olympic venues that are coming, all the transportation projects that all these agencies are leading, and realized that there's actually just a few gaps that need to be closed or projects that need to be accelerated, but most importantly, this whole trail has to be activated. So our job is not necessarily to build capital infrastructure. It's to activate, to expedite, to rethink the delivery model of infrastructure that's already being funded, that's already been committed to and talked to. So when we go to pitch. For example, with an elected we're not convincing someone to start a new transportation project. We're finding ways to finish things, but we're finding ways to celebrate them. And I think that is the big shift is this is a project in the millions, not the billions, but has the impact of 28 miles. So the festival trail starts the minute you land at LAX and takes you all the way to the Rose Bowl, and takes you all the way out to the Sepulveda basin, and then creates connections that'll get you actually down the Long Beach on a bike or by train.
Sam Pepper 14:11
So you say that there's you're expediting some infrastructure projects which may already be in progress, have been approved, things like that. But is there also an esthetic identity to festival trail, like whether it's temporary or permanent?
Chris Torres 14:27
Yeah, so the idea is there has to be harmony amongst all these transportation projects, so that it's really intuitive and easy for someone to go from a bus and rapid transit corridor to getting on an E bike on a protected bike path, for example, that's one piece. The connectivity is kind of the baseline. Then you have to activate it. And so the idea is to create 28 new what we call them resiliency hubs along the festival trail, that'll be new public spaces where you could come watch the games the. Be large screens there where you can watch Olympic events and Paralympic events. There'll be food, there'll be music, there'll be shade, there'll be water, there'll be restrooms, and really become new parks, essentially, here in Los Angeles, the goal is to build as many of these as permanent as possible, but potentially some as temporary, that would then become permanent after the games, but those 28 hubs are essentially seeds. So those are seeds of development to come. So the idea is that we would then want to see, how do we pull all the red tape out of building affordable housing along these corridors so that folks in these neighborhoods could actually, long term, invest around these hubs and really be part of a city making process. So the esthetic, the storytelling, needs to be legible across a whole region, but needs to be hyper local to each community. And so as part of our work, we've been doing a tremendous amount of outreach through some of our partners, including la commons, including Lonnie, including the California Community Foundation, to try to understand who are the organizations that are already doing work in these communities, and how do we uplift them? So that you could, for example, see a local artist from South LA working with a world renowned architect on one of these hubs. And so that's the idea is, how do we connect the dots between all these collaborators and also funding to make these things happen?
Eli Lipmen 16:30
There's examples of this throughout like LA. I mean, even though the city might be going through a budget crisis right now, there are funds set aside for particular projects, like you have the LA River bike path, there were funds in measure m specifically to deliver on that project. We're just saying is like, hey, this project, just like the Downtown Connector project, kind of connected to rail lines and now has created the longest light rail line in the world, like this project becomes the connector for this huge network. A network connects everything. And then we see these examples of activated spaces all around the region. In Culver City, for instance, for the closing ceremonies for Paris, they put up a screen, and they had entertainment for kids and families, and they activated the Culver step space, and that became a watch party for Culver City residents who walked and biked, and some drove to that space to be able to share it really, with neighbors and families, and that's really what we want to do on scale throughout the region, but also create the connective tissue so that people are able to get there safely and without necessarily taking their car.
Chris Torres 17:43
And Sam, I just want to tee up the challenge here, because I don't think we have well articulated what's coming. So when I think about how many people are going to be here during the games, if you imagine the Super Bowl happening, right, remember the Super Bowls at Sofi, that was a huge deal, right? That affected traffic patterns throughout the whole west side, right? So the magnitude is going to be seven Super Bowls happening at the same time in Los Angeles every single day for six weeks. That's the magnitude. So it's 15 million tickets sold. We've also committed as part of winning the games to make this a car free Olympics. There's now some backtracking, saying maybe transit first, not car free, but we know that the single vehicle is not going to be the primary mode of how folks are going to get around. So in a way, there's not that much convincing that needs to happen. It's more just kind of laying the facts. Out of 15 million tickets we have 36 months. What are we going to do? How are we going to make this happen?
Sam Pepper 18:54
How are you integrating with the rest of the planning that's happening? I've heard that they're bringing in fleets of new busses from other parts of the state and maybe other parts of the country, you tell me, but there's all these initiatives who is coordinating everything and making sure that everything is working seamlessly. And how do you fit into that coordination and that effort that hopefully is getting clearer and clearer by the day.
Eli Lipmen 19:24
There's kind of two efforts that are happening. One, you have la 28 who is planning this transportation system in collaboration with Metro and Caltrans, and they're essentially responsible for getting the athletes, the VIPs, the journalists, to their location on time to get to the venue to compete, and then Metro is also is responsible, specifically for getting individuals, customers, ticket holders, to and from their destination, right as well as all of the folks who already need to get to their job to make food. Include clean uniforms, clean stadiums and everything else that needs to happen for large events of this scale, right? So there's a whole back end that we don't really see, and those folks need to get to their destinations as well. And many of them don't live very close at all to these stadiums. And so those are the two things that are happening. But for you and I, how do we get from, say, that train station or where we're directed to park the car? You know, because you may drive in from Orange County to go to a venue, but you'll be directed to get off the freeway and park at a lot that is going to be very far away from the freeway. And so how do we get people to and from those locations to where they want to go. And you just take like, Figueroa, right? There's going to be 15 or so events, basically, from the Coliseum all the way up to crypto.com almost every single day. So you're going to have a million people who are just getting between these venues. You're not going to want to have be driving on Figueroa during those times,
Sam Pepper 21:00
I get the sense that people have bought into the idea that it's a car free or car limited Olympics, because intuitively, it makes sense, even in a city like LA. I think the what is less clear is how all the separate agencies are coordinating to create a seamless transit experience. And there's a history of many, many events, not just here, but all over the world, where there's not a sufficient test case scenario, and when the real thing happens, it kind of breaks to a certain extent. So I'm kind of curious. It sounds like La 28 Metro, is there an individual who is, who is really calling the shots and leading the coordination of all the transportation for the Olympics, or is it, is it a series of committees, which is, candidly, my fear a little bit.
Chris Torres 21:53
It's closer to that, and that's not done in any way by neglect, or that it wasn't like, it's not like it's a poorly designed process that's by design of how power works in LA County. So I think to answer that question, you actually have to unpack how decisions get made, but it's the crux of what we're talking about, because there is not a single lever of power, and because there is not a centralized coordination, it's a diffuse power decision making process. It's a process of lobbying. It's a process of coalition building. And so traditionally, you'd have the boosters, you'd have the real estate speculators on one side trying to push forward their projects, and then on the other side, you'd have the activist response. And then politicians would kind of live in between this dynamic, and this is how we've built Los Angeles for call it 120 years. What we're saying is that doesn't work.
Chris Torres 22:47
That isn't working. It's caused a tremendous slowdown. It's at the brink of actually really slowing down our local economy and how we build here, and that we cannot lose this opportunity to think differently, to really say, what does a new type of partnership look like, and how do we work? How do we work as engaged citizens and professionals and really utilize our talents? And I think that's what folks are yearning for. I mean, like hundreds of engineering firms and designers and architects are reaching out and saying, how do I engage? We need to move away from this sense of citizens being consumers of services, where our job is to consume city services and really more about collaborators of culture. That's, I think, the mentality shift that has to happen. But that only works if government is able to meet us halfway, and so festival trail is really a test to say, Look, guys, we will build the coalition, we will sell the dream, we will execute the dream, but we need to find new ways to actually collaborate and fund infrastructure, because the way it's working right now is going to just end up with committees.
Eli Lipmen 24:01
And I think it's definitely doable. And the reason I say that is because we've done this five times before with our ballot measures, right? This is the model that we use. We built a big coalition of organizations that said, Yes, we have to do this, and we sort of presented it to political leaders and said, We need you to lead, right? We need you to lead, but you're gonna have a whole band behind you who's gonna come behind. Zev Yaroslavsky key former council member, former supervisor, wrote a book, and he tells this great story of when Prince Charles was in town, and Prince Charles asked him to explain LA's form of government. And he said, Well, we've got this group and this group and this committee and this board and this thing. And he said, Well, hold on, please stop. So you're explaining this to me, and what you're basically saying is that it was made not to work like pretty much you understood it within a minute. Prince Charles, so you know that's the challenge that we're fighting against and the inertia that we're fighting against, but there's. Nothing better than a deadline, and that's what we have. You can't move this event right? You can't move the deadline and the timeline. And so that creates a crucible moment by which we can hopefully move this forward and really create the infrastructure that Angelenos have been craving.
Sam Pepper 25:17
So two questions, a the deadline is reasonably close, and projects like this take time. So how confident are you in effecting change and making something happen that's tangible during that period of time? And what do you need in order to get the clarity or get the certainty that this is achievable. Is it directive from Karen Bass? Is it funding from a particular private organization? Are there multiple avenues where this can work? I'm curious, what are the steps you need and what's the threshold you need to get over in order to say this is happening?
Chris Torres 25:59
So I think the short answer is that this will happen. It's just a matter of how extensive it'll be, right? And so, because the core essence of the project is about communities engaging themselves, that's going to happen no matter what it's just is it going to be really legible? Is it going to really be intuitive, especially if you're not a local and so in this search of who holds the lever of power, when no one is actually there to pull that lever, it's not so much a question of permission, it's a question of inertia. So how much inertia can we build? How many different organizations can all be swimming in the right direction, in the same direction. How much funding can we raise, how much can we coordinate? Is really going to tell the difference of what becomes of the festival trail.
Chris Torres 26:51
So in a way, it's on us to instigate, but it's really on all of us to embrace it and really say this is something that we want to see happen. Would an executive directive from the mayor's office help? Fantastic, that would be great. But at the same time, we've built incredible coalitions at the county level, within our city council, within our congressional leaders as well, all saying, Hey, we really believe this needs to happen, and how can we help? And so the implementation piece of this is really critical, and it's really different than how infrastructure has been funded in the past. We know that there's not enough time and there's too much uncertainty to try to get federal dollars to really make this happen. We, of course, are going after different funding applications at the state and federal level, and we were very hopeful that we could be successful in those applications. But the opportunity here is really philanthropy. It's the private sector, and it's sponsorships, and so that is really our theory of change. Is, how do we connect folks that want to invest in LA during these games with projects that actually benefit Angelenos the most.
Eli Lipmen 28:03
When Chris started out designing this, he wanted to center it around the place he knew best and where he really grew up, which is South LA. And on May 17, Metro opened up its rail to rail project. This was 5.5 mile active transportation corridor that converted an old rail line into a walk, bike and roll corridor that goes from the K line in Inglewood all the way connects with the J line, which is the bus line that goes on the 110 and goes all the way to the A line, the blue line that goes down a long beach. It's the longest light rail line in the world goes out to Azusa at slawson, and so that becomes the core corridor for this trail, because it's a really great piece of infrastructure. $150 million invested into it, and it becomes this opportunity for people to connect across South LA, and for that community in particular, to have a really good piece of infrastructure, and well, the discussions right now are like, how do we keep that activated? And so it's going to materially improve the lives there, but it also creates and what we're trying to do is create an opportunity for small businesses big mega events like this always a nerve to mega corporations, right? Who get, who are able to pay the big sponsorships and get the big contracts, and that's what we're seeing time and time again. But we have all these amazing small businesses here, and how do we give them the uplift that really they're being promised? Of like, you know, there was a conference where they had, you know, all these small businesses come and say, This is how you can get business during this and by driving people locally and saying, Hey, there's actually this really cool thing happening at Slauson in Vermont, where you're going to have the best pupusa of your life, like it drives people to those local businesses.
Eli Lipmen 29:53
And so it's going to materially improve folks not only how they take public transit, not only ensure. How they use public space, but also small business. The last thing that I think is really important to think about is the current environment that we're in. There is huge fear in all immigrant communities, regardless of your immigration status, regardless of what papers that you have, and that will be more acute as we hit these mega events, because they're going to be federal agents here all over, particularly those large events to protect, you know, athletes, VIPs, but for immigrant communities, that's really scary. If we create a really decentralized idea of Los Angeles, one that really uplifts these communities and provides a canvas for them to have culture, arts, music, food, that is culturally relevant and a safe space where they know their neighbors and can be with their with family. That's going to really change the inertia and the way that Angelenos think about this event, instead of it being something where maybe we need to stay away, maybe we can celebrate, but in our own unique way, in our own culture. I remember when the World Cup happened a couple of years ago, and I lived in palms, and there's like a little Brasilia community there, you know, with some restaurants. And when Brazil, like, won the semifinals, they basically spilled onto the street and shut down Venice Boulevard with music and culture. And that's the feeling that we want, is sort of this love of the sport, this love of your country and your athletes, and being able to do it with people who also share that affinity.
Chris Torres 31:30
I mean, Sam, I still want to underscore, like, the amount of wealth we have in this city, and for all the challenges we have, at least a very blessed city, we also, I mean, the city, okay, so there's, there's 200,000 multi millionaires in the city of LA, and there's 50 billionaires that live here. Like, how are these folks engaging in their communities? We have to ask the question, like, the public realm is only going to be as successful as we invest in it, and that's both with our time, but also our resources. And so I think that, like for me, and I don't know if you felt the same way, Sam, but like 2025 really felt like a definitive end to the 20th Century American city. I felt like the combination of coming out of covid, the election and the fires was like, What are we doing here? What are we pretending we're building the city like it's urban form, the financial models that we use to build our relationship with nature are rapidly in flux, and so I feel like there is a new urbanism emerging. It has to emerge, because right now, nothing pencils. So we typically have been able to move between this flow of capital, between public and private. You'd be in a bullish economy. You'd be able to do more speculative work. If you were in a recessionary environment, you would invest in infrastructure. But what happens when both sources of capital are no longer abundant, like what happens when the American city no longer pencils? That's where we are today, and that's really the essence of the work we're trying to do, is really build this new model of partnerships.
Sam Pepper 33:06
So I was going to ask you about just your funding strategy for this. I'm fearful, and I want to understand how you're approaching this. I'm fearful that even a festival trail that is interconnecting wealthier neighborhoods with slightly poorer neighborhoods, with whiter neighborhoods, with more immigrant neighborhoods. How do you ensure because it's happened many, many times over the decades. How do you ensure that the investment isn't concentrated in the wealthier neighborhoods and it then dissipates once you get to the poor neighborhoods.
Chris Torres 33:43
So in a way, our project is purely opportunistic. So we are following transportation corridors so the neighborhoods, those connect there, that's kind of out of our hands, in a way, and it helps that those corridors have been focused on traditionally underserved neighborhoods. So I think that is one step towards ensuring equity in terms of investment. I think the question is not so much the party we're going to throw, which is going to be the most incredible party LA has ever seen, it's going to be what happens in the decades after. And so that is really where the rubber is going to hit the road. Is okay? Are communities actually going to be able to see generational uplift, economic uplift, by seeing development happen in their neighborhoods, or are they going to be pushed out? And I think part of what's making development so hard right now is we're in this super antagonistic environment where communities feel like they're on the defensive, so they need to come out in mass and try to stop projects from happening. And so you create this like litigious environment that isn't helping anyone. So I think about corridors like Adams, for example, or Crenshaw right now, and what. Look like if there was actually a partnership brokered with communities in those neighborhoods to say, hey, look, we're going to be deploying a tremendous amount of capital here. It is going to change your community. But what ways can we create uplift? What are the opportunities like? Let's coordinate. Let's build parks together. Let's not spend money on lawyers. Let's spend money on investments that'll actually help this neighborhood. But that kind of idea of coming to the table, I don't think it really exists that much. It's a pretty rare chance, I know. I mean, the lot of the work you're doing is some of the few work projects that are actually asking those questions in a meaningful way. But I think one of the challenges we have in LA is we don't have the platform to have that conversation. The platform for that conversation is in the courtroom. It is right.
Sam Pepper 35:46
Yeah, not my favorite environment.
Chris Torres 35:48
No, no one wins. And so again, that's asking this bigger question of how we build American cities, like when, if we had to build an American city from scratch today, you couldn't, it wouldn't pencil, and you couldn't create the consensus. And so this, in a weird way, this Olympic event, it's a little test, in a way, of all these challenges we're facing all crammed into one environment where we get to actually try something.
Sam Pepper 36:15
Here you mentioned, sort of the 50 billionaires that live in Los Angeles. And, I mean, I think everyone, including me, is sort of devastated by the lack of investment that our billionaire class is making into infrastructure, rural development, you know, you name it. But when we are at a position where institutional capital seems to be pulling away a little bit from real estate development, particularly in Los Angeles, because of construction costs, high price of land, taxes, et cetera. And then you have a city that has a huge budget deficit and is going to potentially be entering a period of austerity in a moment that is somewhat unfortunate. Where do you see that money coming from for something like festival trail where, I mean, who are you asking? Because it's out there. That money is out there. There is the potential for someone to create generational change in underserved neighborhoods. I mean, the selling point seems to be pretty damn clear.
Chris Torres 37:22
Absolutely. So we've been fortunate to meet with some major companies that are excited about participating. I think what they're really looking for is clarity in terms of how projects like the festival trail will engage with the kind of more traditional official transportation projects, right? And so that's why we've done so much work to build strong relationships with key electeds to make it clear that we're really working together. We've built an advisory committee with supervisor Solis, with council member ramen, with Congressman Jimmy Gomez and Congresswoman come Walker dove Laura Friedman's office to say, hey, we're going to work together on this. This is the funding strategy. I'll like being totally open book with you about how we're approaching this. So and if anyone's listening, call us. We want to chat.
Chris Torres 38:14
So we're starting with a group of really committed Angelenos excited to see big change come to get us to seed capital, we need to really reach foundations and philanthropic partners, where we're really lucky to have the California Community Foundation as our fiscal sponsor to help us guide through that process. But we think we're going to really win big with sponsorships, right? So strategically, this is not an LA 2028 project. This is not a metro project. This is not a City Ballet project. This is a community led initiative. And so our job is to go find sponsors that want to participate, want to be here in LA during the games, and are willing to connect their ad dollars and their kind of experience dollars to projects that also benefit communities. And so it's a win win for everyone. And that's the only way, and the only reason we're pushing so hard on this is that we have this opportunity where we know capital is going to be coming to LA and wants to participate in a meaningful way. And so our job is to really kind of serve up the perfect project for groups to engage.
Sam Pepper 39:24
Perfect. And Eli from your perspective, with your experience getting big initiatives across the line, what are some lessons that you've learned just as you've gone through the process in how To navigate this Byzantine structure that we have, maybe in city government?
Eli Lipmen 39:44
The lessons we've learned is that fortune favors the bold meaning. When you have a bold idea and a big idea, it actually resonates and drops when people view it and see it, you. Much better than sort of an incremental approach, you know, okay, let's fix this one street or this one block. We're trying to fix a bigger narrative about this city and about this region. You know, as like to say that when you ask what people know about Los Angeles who maybe have never been here, they think of palm trees, Hollywood, and traffic? Well, some don't really love the palm trees. Everybody wants Hollywood to succeed and be the linchpin of our economy here, but we could all get rid of the traffic. And so what we're trying to do is like, really reframe the way that we as Angelenos, think about how we get around this region and the way the world views us in terms of our transportation decisions. And so, you know, when I say fortune favor, this is the bold like we're looking at a really bold vision, one that people can really appeals to them, but also just changes the way that we as Angelenos view ourselves in the world views us.
Sam Pepper 40:58
I'm going to change tack here a little bit and talk more broadly about how we promote development in LA and I mean development quite broadly, right? So affordable housing, spec, office developments, market rate, multifamily, you name it. I think I'm amongst the two of you that believe that we do need to figure out how to build more in Los Angeles and build not only in the wealthy areas, but also in the underserved communities as well. I think everyone can get on board with that. Eli, I'm going to put you a little bit on the spot here, so I know you supported. I'm a proponent behind measureULA. Obviously you can see where I'm going with this. I am a commercial real estate developer. Tries to build a lot of multifamily, and that has been a big burden and a big prohibitor to developing market rate multifamily, even even if it has exclusionary, affordable. So I'm curious about that, the genesis of ULA, and why it was determined that multifamily would be included within that because, again, I think we're all trying to build more, but you see that, see that as a big hurdle that's been set up, which has had unintended consequences potentially. But I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Eli Lipmen 42:19
Yeah, for sure, and things are bringing it up. And, yeah, I mean, I think it actually, you know, Chris was talking earlier about how the American city is facing really, a real crisis moment, and what we saw when we started developing the idea behind measure ULA in 2019 is that the funding for affordable housing in particular was going to dry up, right? We had a 10 year measure in the city of LA that was a bond measure, $1.2 billion to build affordable housing. It was going to end. And we also saw the impending crisis as we were developing this, as covid came, what would happen when tenant protections would expire? Right? And all the protections that went in on covid, and we said, Boy, we really need to find a way to keep people housed, because the housing crisis was really just getting out of hand. And so that's really where we developed the idea of measure Ula. It actually came, well, we did a lot of research to determine which would be a good funding source, and we saw other cities like San Francisco, and actually they just implemented their documentary transfer fee. It's now funding a great thing, childcare and now increasing the hourly wage for childcare workers with the documentary transfer fee. Culver City has used it to help their general fund, and they're doing much better. And so we knew that the city just didn't have the resources it needed to build more affordable housing, and we needed to help them out with that. And so what we were trying to do is actually supplant what the city used to get in terms of redevelopment.
Eli Lipmen 43:47
I mean, today, it's been about two years right since ULA started. It's raised over $600 million is provides 80% of the city's locally generated affordable housing funding, and it's funded almost 800 affordable housing units, and with the goal of funding many, many more, and we've been able to help many, many tenants stay housed and keep them housed. And you know, we know that it's much less expensive to actually keep per person in their house than to help them once they're actually on the street, and we are seeing a measurable decrease in homelessness, but it's only been two years in and we recognize like there are some challenges that we're having with the multifamily apartment development. I mean, yes, ULA has an impact, but there are many other factors that have kind of come together between the covid, our interest rates going up, our construction rates going up, as well as the fact that if you look at the City of LA versus other cities, the city of LA is one of the last cities to actually implement zoning, rezoning reform. So if you're in the multifamily housing business, and you can build a building on a property. 34 and build 100 units versus 150 units, you're gonna wait till the city rezones, right? So we've seen a real lag. I think in the city of Los Angeles, we saw a real lag, obviously, when ULA went into into place, and we're hoping that we can have more of a conversation. I mean, yeah, we agree 100% with with those who are building with multifamily housing. We need more housing now and as quickly as possible. But you know, as well as us, just like building infrastructure takes a lot of time, building housing also takes a lot of time. We had, we need to reduce that time. I think everybody in the ULA community and the folks that worked on ULA want to see that accelerate as quickly as possible, and want to be partners in trying to make that happen.
Sam Pepper 45:43
It's good to hear the amount of money that's been generating and the number of units that's that have been created because of it. I think in my world, it's often a factor that breaks sort of the model, and I would hope that there's a way to amend it where there are projects that we've had on on deck that are looking at, you know, workforce housing that may try and mitigate some of the missing middle that we have in Los Angeles County. And I'm not saying that ULA is the one factor that's making it challenging, but it definitely adds to the series of elements that are making the list of projects that have hit the reject pile like absolutely enormous. And again, I just I'm hopeful that there's conversations happening about replacing some of the income that would be generated by multifamily that it probably, I would imagine, is a smaller portion of that, because there aren't that many happening right now, and that there's another source of that income that could be generated that would be that would have a less impact on development in general. Are those conversations happening?
Eli Lipmen 47:00
They are when we've started to analyze the data. I know there's been some recent reports and we've looked at the data too, you know, we we chose a documentary transfer fee because we knew it was a one time thing, right, that it was going to be, you know, when you sold the property. And we sought to define as few exemptions as possible, right? We made a few exemptions for governments, nonprofits, schools. We knew it was going to have an impact, particularly on merchant field, especially those who build the project and then and then sell it to an owner operator. We knew it was going to have an impact on that. And I think we want to find solutions that will generate the revenue we'd like for the the industry, you know, the real estate industry, to help us in finding those revenues, because we need funding for more publicly owned affordable housing. And you know, I think the thing that people don't recognize about ULA is it's not just affordable housing.
Eli Lipmen 47:56
It funds tenant protection efforts. It funds emergency assistance, so if you have an accident, a major car accident, or some other major incident in your life, you can get a couple months of rent so that you can get back on your feet. It also for supports, social housing and other forms of creative types of housing. And so we're really kind of it's a comprehensive solution. And so if we can identify more funding for all those purposes which we need. And it also includes a, you know, funds, basically a right to counsel for tenants who are being evicted through no fault of their own by a landlord who, you know, is can and sometimes be really problematic landlord. And so ultimately, like, at the end of the day, Sam, like we need you, right? Like we need you to be building, and we need you to be designing, and we need you to be producing more housing, because we just need it. And so at the end of the day, it's it's going to take that partnership to do that.
Sam Pepper 48:53
Yeah, my hope is that we're able to solve the budget deficit in a manner that is not detrimental to business interest. The simple fact that a building takes time means that there's so much added risk. And when you've had the past five years like we've had, that have been so up and down with covid, fires, Trump, Biden, it's a roller coaster and financing a project where someone moves into it four or five years from now, is a risk alone, and so there needs to be a little bit more incentives to take a no to a yes, and developers speak to Capital Partners. And Capital Partners are often conservative, and they are fiduciaries, and they're they are looking out for their interests, but they also may be managing the money for a pension fund or something like that. So there needs to be an environment where those capital sources can look at LA and say, this makes sense to build. And I think right now. So there's obviously the ton of demand and the constraints make it so that when you are successful, you're more likely to be for more likely to have your business plan work. But it's just it's incredibly difficult to make that happen.
Eli Lipmen 50:02
Our hope, and it hasn't materialized, but our hope with ULA was to put a lot of public capital on the street, so that there would be public sources of financing for your projects, right? And that you could access that capital, be able to build projects without having necessarily to go to the private capital market, obviously, affordable housing projects. That was the hope and the goal with the way that we structured Ula, we'd still like to get to a place where it is a major source, you know, just in the same way, where we put public dollars out there for infrastructure, for our transportation system, and it's brought all this private capital into the region. We want to see that with affordable housing. But how do we get there is, is really the big question right now. And, you know, frankly, I mean, there's a citizens oversight committee that we created with ULA. Sounds like Sam, maybe you or some of the folks on this podcast might be good folks to be on that, because they get to make the decisions on how this money is distributed. But ultimately, it's the mayor and their budget that needs to put more public dollars onto the table so that we can move these and finance these projects quicker, and that that ultimately was the goal, and what we'd like to see going forward with with ULA is just a lot more affordable housing. I mean, I would say that, you know, we've looked at the numbers too, and even with, with the amount of money that we've been able to generate with ULA, you would not be able to do that with an inclusionary zoning, you would have to build 9000 units to match what we're generating with ULA. And so just to do inclusionary isn't going to get us to where we need to be with affordable or even, as you were saying, you know, we need housing for hotel workers and, you know, teachers and nurses and all the folks who are sort of in that middle as well.
Chris Torres 52:03
Sam, I can't help but feel like we're still kind of like we're looking at the crumbs here. The bigger picture challenges are, it's the fact that the city doesn't build, that public doesn't build anymore, that it's all on the backs of private developers to somehow fix a multi decade housing crisis. I found this book from this group called California tomorrow, and they were, I don't know if you've heard about this organization, but they were in the 60s, and it was like it was actually founded by one of the founding partners of som, and it was a group of environmentalists and designers and business partners that came together to create this organization to fix California, and they talk about how they are now entering into a housing crisis in California, and this was in the 1960s so like we're like, 70 years into a crisis. Come on, like we're missing the big picture here, like we're not doing this right. And so I feel like what we really need is bold leadership to step up and say we're going to enter into a period of building in California, and we're going to do what we need to do to make it happen. And I know on the advocacy side, folks will get on board with that. They'll actually say, hey, we understand this is going to benefit everyone. I just feel like we're stuck in this, still in this kind of litigious circle.
Eli Lipmen 53:33
That's why move la got involved with this. People were like, Why is move la involved with housing? Well, the reality was, was that we were building a transportation system, which we helped to fund, and the very people we were building it for could no longer afford to live next deletion, we said, oh my god, like we need to put more public dollars onto the street to ensure that the person who makes your coffee in the morning is able to walk down from the Building, the same building that maybe you live in, to be able to work at that coffee shop, right? Or just take the train two stops, or just bike from their neighborhood. But we basically forced people to drive until they could afford and then figure out a way to get back to their the jobs that they had, and that just, you know, it's, it's broken this state, in a sense, and broken our market. And so, yeah, I think I agree with Chris, like, we just need a new paradigm where it's like, okay, maybe something is going to have to give, but we just need to start building, and it's going to build, and it's going to get us out of this crisis.
Sam Pepper 54:33
It's interesting because, you know, we're obviously in an administration right now that is moving fast and breaking things. And I, for one, I'm not, not a big fan, but the one thing that is, I think, admirable about the current federal administration is the energy at which they're attacking things. It's something that I do think that to your to a kind of earlier point, there's the structure of leadership in LA. A is not conducive to moving things quickly. There have been examples of projects getting through it very quickly when there is a public need for something and wow, oh boy, suddenly your report comes in next week, rather than taking nine months.
Eli Lipmen 55:18
Yeah, we were able to reopen the 10 freeway in 10 days, right? And they worked 24 hours, and they, you know, said, we're going to do it. And that that was also the frustration and the reason and the impetus between behind measure HLA, which we were very deeply involved with, which was the ballot measure in 2024 in March for safer streets, and it was less than 5% of the city's mobility plan had been implemented, and it was just like, we need to quicken the pace. And so that was also the frustration behind that, and the goal of measures like that. But we can't continue. You know, we've looked at transportation as well, right? We compared to places like Spain or Germany or the Scandinavian countries, the cost per mile of our rail projects are staggering, and we have to, we can't that can't be acceptable anymore, and we really need to find ways. We really need to, and we've been pushing as advocates every day to accelerate the projects. And that's really the impetus behind the festival trail, big vision. Let's take these projects which we know we need to do that we planned and in most cases, have either gotten funding or environmental reviews done, and let's get them done. Let's build them. And they might not be the Cadillac project that was originally planned, but we can get to that. We're California. Like, we will get there, but like, let's just get that infrastructure in the ground and make sure that people can get connected. And that's really, you know, what we're trying to do here.
Chris Torres 56:49
I mean, what blows my mind about LA is, like, We're such a young city, like, none of this existed 200 years ago, right? Wherever you're in, Sam, you're like, in on the west side, you were like sitting in like an oil field. And so the idea that the built environment is fixed, and we must kind of metal in these processes, to me, feels absolutely insane. And I think what I hope is that when the pressure is so extreme, as it is today, when the challenge is so big, the response needs to be just as big. You need a dream just as big as the challenge. And so, I mean, I think about like the 1930 plan that the Olmsted Brothers did for Los Angeles. You're familiar with the greenways plan. That is a regional plan. And what if we could use this strange moment of mega events to align momentum, to align inertia, to make projects like that real? And so I think what we've done very intentionally as a group around the festival trail is try to model what we're preaching. And so like I run a design studio. We work with real estate developers. We work with government entities. We build housing, we build speculative projects. We're in the construction industry. We have folks that have been growing coalitions at a state level, like Eli. We have Hillary Norton, one of our co founders, that was the president of the California Transportation Commission. And so when you look at the folks that are endorsing this project, you have the Realtors Association, and you have community groups in South LA both saying, this is how this is going to happen. And so that is really the lever of power. It's not one person, but it's about momentum, and it's about inertia and creating the expectation that we are going to spend our money differently, right? And so that all comes back to the budget, and this, like, very challenging moment where, in a city right now, where, like, incredibly tough decisions need to be made. What are the priorities that we're going to make to frame those decisions?
Sam Pepper 59:07
It's a big question, but it's the right one, right? It's the right one. And these are the kind of conversations that we cannot have enough of, because we need to be in a position where we understand the goals, we understand the dreams that we're trying to hit. And instead of bickering on the sidelines about this, politicians not doing exactly what I want them to be doing, we just need to be in action mode. I think too much of the populace that are quote unquote engaged are still on the sidelines and not actually jumping in and putting their money where their mouth is. And I'm hoping that, going forward, I hope you're right, that these series of events do enact change, and we do have leaders that step up and say, Look, we're not comfortable with the way we've been doing things over the past one. Years and these laws we put in place, maybe they're not doing the right thing, maybe they aren't providing us the solutions that we want, or maybe there's not doing it quickly enough, and so we needed to rethink it in a bold way.
Chris Torres 1:00:12
And I wonder what would a five year moratorium on certain restrictions look like in California? Let's get through the Olympics. Let's rebuild our communities. Let's experiment. Let's try things. Maybe things won't always work, but that's okay. I think a spirit of experimentation, that's my biggest fear right now, is that I know that unless we find a way to fund projects, to fund design, that's what I do. I'm a designer. If we can't be creative as developers and designers, we're going to lose a spirit of experimentation. And that is our value proposition. This is where innovation happens. Go back to the case study homes, right? Like, how do we rethink that kind of project? But at the scale of needing to build 600,000 units across the state? We're very fortunate to be working right now on a project that does ask some of these big questions. So we're master planning the Pomona fairgrounds and proposing 10,000 units of housing on that site. So it'll be one of the largest urban infills in the state of California, where we're having to tease through these questions of governance and financing, and how are we actually going to make this happen? But I think a spirit of experimentation is our biggest risk right now. And so how do we catalyze these challenges to make it clear that Los Angeles and California is a place for you to come try things, not to be controlled and stifled by processes.
Eli Lipmen 1:01:41
We do have this kind of, like, unique opportunity right now. We've always sort of said, like, let's go out and do it. We're not gonna, you know, we're gonna ask for permission, I guess, at some other point. But really, like, we've come with this big vision and said, hey, you know, we think this is possible, and we think that that that folks in LA will say yes to it, and eventually, everybody does, you know, and that's why we've been able to ourselves, pass five ballot measures, all with more than two thirds support of voters. Well, most of them, but the last two were still 58% that's a huge majority of people saying, Yeah, this is what we want, and in some cases, it's taxing them on their own selves. But to do something big in one of the other big lessons that we learned is we can only we only have ourselves to rely on. We started Measure R, and it was we passed it during the depths of the Great Recession, when the federal government was pulling out its support. And we're seeing the same thing today, right? We're federal support. We can't rely on the federal government. And so by being able to say, like, the only folks that we can trust are ourselves, and we can do this locally, but yeah, we have to get creative, and we have to experiment, and we have to move quicker, and we have to say, You know what? You're not a partner. So we're going to do it ourselves and we're going to do it our own way. That's the time we're living in, and that's the way that we kind of have to operate, is like we're just going to do this because we know we need more affordable housing, more reliable public transportation, cleaner air, and all these things that are going to make our quality of life better.
Sam Pepper 1:03:20
You made a quick comment there, which I think is very important, which is, if people know what they're paying for and they understand the benefits of what they'll see, I think most people wouldn't mind paying a little bit more in order to see that tangible change. It's just that the process is often convoluted and the results are not tangible enough people to see this is a tax that I'm paying, and this is what I'm getting out of it. That's a communication issue, but it's also a vision issue, and it's something that I think, for some of these big projects, is something that we really need to think about how we're communicating with people so they understand what they're buying 100%
Chris Torres 1:04:05
Absolutely.
Eli Lipmen 1:04:07
That's, I mean, when we, when we did measure, our measure M, we said, these are the projects that are going to fund it, and this is when we'll see them, right? And people are like, Wait, so you're actually going to do a project through this moment of has, right? You're actually going to connect transit to the airport. Yeah, we're into that, right? Like it was very clear and very specific, and obviously now the challenge is implementation and delivery. But that was what got people to yes.
Sam Pepper 1:04:30
We're coming a little bit to the end here. Do you want to just talk about, just tactically, what are the milestones that people should be looking out for, for festival trail over the next 6-12, months. And critically, what do you need from people who maybe are listening here? How can they step in? How can they help, apart from writing a check.
Chris Torres 1:04:52
So milestones so we're fortunate to actually have the opportunity to test the trail because we're going to be host. For the World Cup in 2026 right now, we're beginning to plan kind of case study prototyping pop ups of the festival trail that'll be happening during the World Cup, but even before then. So we're working on partnerships right now. If you go to our website, which is festivaltrail.org, sign up there and you'll learn more about different community activations that we're planning right now for the fall, also for the summer, we're going to be having a design charrette in frog town on the LA River. This summer, we've already held two convenings, one to Olvera Street in El Pueblo.
Eli Lipmen 1:05:39
and then one in the Crenshaw district,
Chris Torres 1:05:43
Yeah, and we've had hundreds of leaders show up. So I think that's been the most amazing thing today, is folks at the highest level meeting each other for the first time in person from different departments, coming to the Charette and saying, Hey, I've only seen you on Zoom. This is great to meet you. So seeing those bonds happen has been really special. So come to those events, look out for the pop ups that'll be happening during the World Cup.
Eli Lipmen 1:06:09
And those events really are about the conversation that's not being had, right? The conversation where Angelenos actually get to have some agency in these mega events and like, what we would actually want to see that is something that I think we're bringing to the table that nobody else is bringing. We're hopeful to raise a million dollars in the next six months so that we can road test this concept for the World Cup. And I think that is really our aim. And our goal is like, hey, you know, we know that we can activate Los Angeles. We know that we can create these great spaces for them, and we know we can connect it all, and we want to show both the world and Angelenos that it is possible. And so that's that's really like if we needed to change something today, and that really creates the test on how we make something that's accessible, that is really driven by community, and feels community driven. That's equitable and that's authentic, right? And that's really our goal and our vision for this project.
Sam Pepper 1:07:09
All right. Last question, what are your three favorite buildings or places in LA. And Eli, we'll start with you again.
Sam Pepper 1:07:15
Three good ones, all right, Chris over to you.
Eli Lipmen 1:07:15
These are all public transportation related. Okay? Staying on themed absolutely always Move LA, themed all the time. I love the Del Mar station in Pasadena on the line, because it's an affordable housing development where the train literally goes to the building, which is not something that people like expect in LA. And then there's also, like some there's a pizza place, there's a really high end restaurant, there's a pub. It's just a cool place. And you're like, This is Los Angeles, yeah, absolutely, it is, yeah. The second place I love is angels fight. And whenever somebody visits town, we tell them, Go to angels fight, visit Grand Central Market, walk around downtown in that area, take the train and go to the last bookstore. And that's like a great, very free, like, you don't have to spend a lot of money to do that, you know, angels fights 50 cents. But you can really get a sense for Los Angeles. And the last space that I really kind of love is the the Culver steps, where you can walk up Baldwin Hills and kind of see the water downtown, you know, the ocean, the coastline, all the way out to Malibu or Catalina, sometimes you can see the Hollywood Hills. That's a really incredible view of Los Angeles. And just a really, like easy, not easy, but really a short, great hike that you can kind of see all that beauty that Chris was talking about.
Chris Torres 1:08:12
Well, I mentioned wanting to be of these to you before Sam, but one of my favorite built environments is, is the ceiling at Canter's Deli. I think it's one of the most incredible architectural moments in the city. And for those of you listening that are not familiar with it, but basically, you pass through the bakery, which is already awesome as a start, and you go into the main dining room, and then on the soffit, on the ceiling, it's all a kind of a stained glass. I think it's actually plastic of leaves, of just like an assortment, assortment of leaves, and then you get this like amber glow through it. But to me, it really speaks of the kind of levels of nature that live here in LA, I think as as a firm and as a designer, we really embrace the artificial and the natural as all kind of one environment, one synthetic environment. And to me, that always like blows my mind when I'm there. The second is a park. It's Ferndale, which is a Griffith Park. So it's as you enter Griffith Park from the south and off Los Feliz Boulevard. It's this small connector that was actually intentionally designed as a way to get communities into the park. So there was a concern that Griffith Park would be fully developed around it and it'd be impenetrable. And so this was designed as like a pathway connector. It has. Creek that kind of is like a Babylon Creek. There's these, like, giant ferns growing out of it. There's these hand rails that are themed concrete wood. So it's all concrete themed as wood, and it's they're falling apart now, so you can see the rebar in it, but it was one of the places that Walt Disney went to that inspired all of the materiality of Disneyland was Ferndale. It's a public park. The third is the beach. I grew up by the beach here in LA, and I really feel like it's our Central Park. It's this kind of truly public space I love, like going for jogs down the beach, and like passing through different groups or families going into the water. And just like, it's one of those few times that you get to see all types of people from every corner of La just having a great time and being in public together. And it just always opens up my mind to say, like, why can't we have these experiences across the whole city?
Sam Pepper 1:10:59
Well, you both have given me great plans for next weekend. There's a there's a fantastic destinations, and I think the ceiling at canters is one that definitely resonates with me. I live very close to there, and go there a lot, and it is a spectacular it's one of these hidden elements of unexpected beauty, which I think is sometimes what LA is all about. So Chris Eli, thank you so much for your time. Love the conversation. Wishing you both the best of luck with festival trail. I will support it as much as I possibly can, and hope to talk to you both soon.
Eli Lipmen 1:11:38
Thank you so much. Really appreciate it.
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