Seniors in Steel Plaza's retirement complex in Pico-Union sometimes like to take their morning walks in the building's courtyard, protected by a black wrought-iron fence and perched 30 feet above the intersection of West 3rd Street and South Union Avenue.
"We're quite safe here," said Victor Gamad, 73, who has lived in the building since it opened a decade ago. "We never get frightened, except for when someone sets the fire alarm off."
Steel Plaza, which opened in 1998, was designed to be "drive-by proof."
It is one of the early examples of what has become a growing movement in urban sections of Los Angeles to blend public safety with architecture -- with some surprising results.
Last year, officials built a dirt hill at a new state park north of downtown aimed at shielding a play area from motorists who might commit drive-by shootings. Workers are now building a South L.A. community center with a community garden on the roof rather than at street level to protect against crime.
"If you just build boxes and windows, you're not going to help," said City Councilman Ed Reyes, an urban planner who has adopted the safety-by-design strategy to deal with increasingly crowded neighborhoods. His 1st District includes the Pico-Union area and MacArthur Park, some of the most densely populated neighborhoods west of the Mississippi with up to 66,000 residents per census tract in some areas.
"Every development is geared toward the people that have to live there on a day-to-day basis," Reyes said. "When we look at the pragmatism of our neighborhoods, we have to ask questions: Where is the bullet going to come from? What projectile elevation should we adhere to in our development? Where should we situate the trees?"
Reyes said he had been wrestling with issues of density and urban development since he was chief legislative analyst for the Planning and Land Use Management Committee in the late 1980s. Project after project crossed his desk that increased neighborhood density while reducing open space.
Reyes said his goal is to reduce the effect of density. "We can either run away from it," he said, "or we can ask how we can create relief so that we have our places of sanctuary."
Five of 20 staffers in Reyes' office are urban planners who are reshaping his district with design and topographical changes to parks and buildings, particularly those that combine affordable housing with social services. Another goal is to promote open space. By the end of the year, Reyes will have helped add about 70 acres of park space within his district's 13.9-square-mile boundaries.
