Architecture Can Counter NIMBYism

I’m on vacation, but I was told there is a nice article in the Los Angeles Times about PATH, Midnight Mission, and how architecture can deal with NIMBYism.

Here is the link. Here is also an excerpt:

The PATH, or People Assisting the Homeless, facility in the shadow of the Hollywood Freeway, designed on a very tight budget by Jeffrey M. Kalban & Associates and completed four years ago, is a case in point. A converted industrial building, it has a bright color scheme and extensive signage — in part to increase its visibility to drivers who pass it every day but also to make it more of a neighborhood beacon than an eyesore. Kalban has designed a new three-story, 20-unit transitional housing facility for PATH in Inglewood, due to break ground this fall, that stresses openness and visibility in much the same way.

That effort goes hand in hand with PATH's strategy, every time it opens a new facility, to convince neighbors that its presence will make the area better and safer. Joel John Roberts, PATH's executive director, says that in the case of the facility near the Hollywood Freeway, he lobbied the city to repave surrounding streets and has allowed police to use the building's security cameras and its rooftop for surveillance.

According to Sam Davis, a San Francisco architect and the author of "Designing for the Homeless: Architecture That Works," good design is among the most effective antidotes to NIMBYism. He suggests building homeless centers that look brightly optimistic and meticulously clean, rather than cloaked or institutional, and that provide courtyards, alleys or other spaces for people to line up for services or smoke a cigarette, so they don't loiter out front. Indeed, when county officials are selecting sites for the five regional centers, they should give preference to those buildings that already include such areas. There's probably not room in the budget, after all, to create them from scratch.