Why Can’t L.A. Build Density Like New York City?

Many Angelenos want density—like a West Coast New York City—but on its way to becoming a dense market, the city is experiencing growing pains. One major difference between the two cities: mass transit. Lack of a mass transit system is impeding Los Angeles from creating the density that many Angelenos want and the density that will accommodate population growth, according to Robert Gross, studio director of multifamily housing at Nadel Architecture. We sat down with Gross for an interview to discuss the difference between L.A. and New York and find our what L.A. can learn from the major East Coast city.

GlobeSt.com: How is L.A. adopting the a New York approach to multifamily housing?

Robert Gross: Los Angeles has started to build high-rise housing. That used to only happen in elite markets along the Wilshire Corridor and in Beverly Hills. That is originally where high-rise housing was, and there hadn’t been a lot of high-rise housing built in the last 15 to 20 years. In this boom, we have seen an incredible increase in high-rise housing in Downtown Los Angeles and across the city. New York, on the other hand, has always had a lot of high-rise development dating back to the turn of the century.