Healthy Buildings, Healthy Places

Landscape and Site Design Standards

Los Angeles City Planning

April 13, 2022

Geographic Inequities of Health

The Plan for a Healthy Los Angeles, adopted by City Council in 2015, recognizes the link between community design and health and sets as its first stated Goal: “Los Angeles, a Leader in Health and Equity” and as its second: “A City Built for Health”.

Our neighborhoods and physical environments are a social determinant of health and have a far-reaching influence on life expectancy, physical and mental well-being.

This pandemic has highlighted the disproportionate suffering experienced by vulnerable low-income communities and communities of color in Los Angeles – lacking adequate schools, parks, and community centers, and often living in overcrowded conditions.

LA City Planning is paying greater attention to the details of design that matter and affect the way people live. The overlapping crises of systemic racism, environmental injustice, a global pandemic, and climate change demonstrate that steps must be taken to create healthy communities at all levels of City Planning, from the General Plan to Community Plans, to the Zoning Code, and at the granular level of project review with the thoughtful design of places for living.

The series of maps below were originally created as part of the Health Atlas for the City of Los Angeles and provide a data-informed snapshot of health issues and outcomes in Los Angeles. They are the first step in understanding the areas of the City burdened with the most adverse health-related conditions in order to inform the development of the Design Guide and improve health outcomes for all Angelenos.

The maps highlight a key issue: Los Angeles continues to be a city with great health disparities and the patterns of inequality are reflected even more prominently today, during a global pandemic. Health and wellness is dependent on a complex array of social, economic, lifestyle, environmental and design-related factors.

To learn more about your neighborhood's health, use the Zoom-In and Zoom-Out buttons located to the right bottom of each map.

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The Healthy Buildings, Healthy Places program is aiming to enhance staff and decision-makers’ ability to shape projects to specifically improve the health and well-being of all Angelenos, fulfilling the Policy 2.2 and Implementation Program 36 of the Plan for a Healthy LA. As you review the storymap we invite you to share your thoughts by completing our survey .

Design Considerations

The Citywide Design Guidelines recently adopted by the City Planning Commission go a long way in supporting high-quality design of public and private spaces. However, the functionality of building design and its contribution toward the health of building occupants is often overlooked.

The Three Citywide Design Guidelines Design Approaches

The Healthy Buildings, Healthy Places program will be a companion to the Citywide Guidelines, putting into sharper focus the qualities that make healthy buildings safer and more comfortable places to live, work, and recreate for future occupants. It will promote best practices in designing buildings, organized under three approaches for organizational purposes and as a means of communicating important topics that contribute to the creation of healthy buildings and places.

The approaches and the recommendations under each focus on the occupant experience and consider design features and choices that improve the health and wellbeing of the building users.

Physical Activity, Access to Healthy Food

In many ways design and amenities can encourage and make physical activity in a building convenient. This section elaborates on some of approaches that can help achieve this goal as it pertains to design and program.

Stairs

Stairs provide opportunities to incorporate regular physical activity into daily life. To increase stair use, new developments should conveniently locate them near the lobby entrance where they are visible, aesthetically appealing and receive natural light. Stairwell windows or open to air stairwells allow for visual connections to the outdoors, are safer and building occupants tend to use them more.

Green Spaces

Adding green and recreational spaces to the built environment supports the physical and mental health of residents.

Exercise Spaces and Equipment

Provide facilities that support exercise such as centrally visible physical activity spaces, gym rooms, climbing walls, and swimming pools.

Bike parking

A safe and easily accessible place to store bikes can encourage more people to choose this mode of transportation and as a means for physical exercise. Bike parking should be conveniently placed at-grade or near occupied spaces and building lobbies rather than parking garages. Bike room showers, repair stations and access to safety equipment and lockers also help promote the use of bikes.

Drinking Fountains/ Hydration Stations

Water refilling stations along pedestrian routes indoors and outdoors offer access to fresh water during physical activity and outdoor leisure and eliminate waste from single-use plastic containers.

Urban Gardens and Green Roofs

Urban Gardens empower occupants to improve the quality of their food consumption by creating access to fresh fruits and vegetables, particularly in areas with limited access to produce. Green Roofs insulate the building, improve stormwater management and reduce heat absorption. They can also help provide usable open space and contribute to the user’s mental and physical well-being.

Outdoor Kitchens

Outdoor kitchens encourage people to be outside and help build a sense of community. Being outdoors has several health benefits and grilling often leads to healthier eating choices.

Emotional Wellbeing and Social Cohesion

Places for Social Encounters

Patios, stoops, balconies, porches and nooks scattered through a building are comfortable places that can create opportunities for people to interact and relax.

Connections to the Outdoors

Large windows and building transparency allow for natural light and ventilation, create visual connections to the outdoors and enhance the interior experience of a building.

Water Features

Water elements encourage occupants to be outdoors and take a moment to rest. Water features add pleasant sound, help reduce temperatures on a warm day and make people feel that their surroundings are more natural and relaxing.

Outdoor Views

The ability of building occupants to view the outside environment reduces stress and increases relaxation. Views to outside and natural daylit environments help create healthy built environments conducive to unwinding, learning, and productive work.

Green Walls

Exterior and interior green walls are a way to enhance a building’s visual interest, screen undesirable uses such as parking or blank walls, improve air quality as well as reduce energy costs and mitigate noise levels.

Visual Interest

Interesting design elements can make spaces feel more welcoming. Materials, colors, form of the building, hardscaping and landscaping, water features, and artwork can add visual interest and make the built environment more engaging.

Pet-Friendly Amenities

Many households introduced a pet during the pandemic and there are many known health benefits of owning a pet. They can increase opportunities to exercise, get outside, and socialize and help manage loneliness. Pet-friendly amenities such as pet-washing stations, dog runs, and pet waste-stations encourage people to have pets and help maintain a clean environment.

Multigenerational Spaces

Quiet and communal spaces, both indoor and outdoor, allow for activities for all age groups and encourage social interactions.

Wifi in Common Spaces

Having access to the internet in common open spaces helps to activate these spaces, reduces the digital divide in low-income communities, and encourages bringing work outdoors for a change of setting.

Interdependent and Sustainable Building Systems

This theme encompasses all the systems that sustain a building short term and long term and can help promote a safe and comfortable environment.

Air and Water Filtration

Indoor air quality has health and comfort implications. Knowing when the indoor air quality is worse than the outdoor, prompts people to open windows and ventilate rooms. Similarly, access to clean, better tasting water prompts people to hydrate more and avoid buying bottled water. Regular cleaning and replacement for all systems and filters, along with evaluation of the outdoor air and water intake, will help to maintain optimal air and water quality.

Smart Systems

Monitors in communal spaces and/or a protocol for giving tenants regular updates on air and water quality provide an essential performance measure of the effectiveness of the filtration systems and empowers the building users.

Water Recycling

The incorporation of water recycling systems within the property can help conserve/ reuse water. Greywater can be used for onsite non-potable water sources such as showers, washbasins, laundry, untreated subsurface irrigation for vegetation, and for cooling equipment.

Recycling programs

Recycling programs can help promote sustainable practices and reduce the amount of trash going to waste. Composting and recycling food waste for practical purposes such as landscaping helps reduce the use of chemical fertilizers.

Noise Control

Constant exposure to noise pollution has multiple negative effects on human health. The incorporation of noise control features in buildings and the design of indoor quiet spaces can help alleviate some of the anxiety and mental stress caused by noise.

Integrated Pest Management

Environmentally sensitive approaches to pest management that rely on comprehensive information on the life cycles of pests and their interaction can be used to manage pest damage by the most economical means, and with the least possible hazard to people, property, and the environment.

Limiting the use of pesticides to those that are produced from natural sources, as opposed to synthetic chemicals and sealing buildings’ gaps and holes can help prevent infestations without harming people's health and the environment.

Materials

Using durable, safe, locally-sourced materials, that result in lower energy consumption and carbon emissions can help mitigate climate change. Recycling and reusing building materials when appropriate can also help reduce CO2 levels. Introducing non-polluting materials with lower energy requirements and higher durability and recyclability help maintain healthy indoor environments. Contributors to indoor air quality include Certification of building materials, flooring, paints and coatings, adhesives and sealants, wall coverings, wood products, and insulation as low-emitting products is an important control measure for achieving good indoor air quality.

Solar Panels and EV Charging Stations

For solar panels and EV charging stations see Los Angeles Municipal Green Building Code, Section 99.05.211 and Sections 99.04.106 and 99.05.106 of Article 9, Chapter IX of the LAMC.

Automated Systems and Cleaning Protocols

Automated or hands-free systems for frequently touched surfaces such as door handles, elevator buttons, and water fountains can help support overall building cleanliness. Environmentally healthy products with safer ingredients and less harmful chemicals that produce hazardous evaporations can be beneficial to the health of building occupants. A regular cleaning schedule of highly touched surfaces and common space furniture stops the spread of viruses and harmful bacteria.

New Technologies and Education

The use of new cutting edge technology can help reduce energy consumption, solve problems innovatively and lead to a better quality of life. Keeping up with the best design practices and technology solutions such as new automated parking methods or high-efficiency cooling systems can help ameliorate the building’s environment and consequently people's wellbeing. Educating building users about the health and well-being strategies that are being enacted and how these measures contribute to a more efficient, secure, and safe environment, can inspire confidence and peace of mind.

A New Approach

With changes in state law (SB330), California cities are essentially precluded from adopting new design guidelines. The tool that cities are utilizing instead is the adoption of design standards through zoning code amendments. In the Spring of 2021, the Healthy Buildings, Healthy Places program was launched through a series of public workshops where stakeholder feedback was shared. Following the public workshops, a strategy was introduced for implementing healthy building design and climate-adapted site design through an update to the City's Landscape Ordinance, Los Angeles Municipal Code Sections 12.40-44. This new approach aims to create Landscape and Site Design standards that reflect current best practices in addressing pressing climate needs, ensuring equity in the quality of design throughout the City and building upon the Plan for a Healthy Los Angeles and existing Citywide Design Guidelines in effect today.

Get Involved

Interested in further exploring the relationship between health and design? Have ideas on other building design features that should be included? Check out our survey for more information on how you can get involved.

Complete our Survey

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