At last week’s International Downtown Association Annual Conference, HR&A Principal Sulin Carling joined Laura Crescimano and Kurt Cavanaugh to discuss how civic places can become powerful economic drivers. Drawing on examples from New York’s Broadway, San Francisco’s Market Street, and Seattle’s Pike Place Market, the speakers emphasized the critical role of foot traffic, the challenges and rewards of placemaking in highly engaged communities, and the value of authentic retail curation in strengthening both the public realm and local economies.

We’re proud to see Sulin add HR&A’s perspective to a rich set of conversations that also included insights from colleagues on office-to-residential conversions, retail policy, and Business Improvement District (BID)/museum partnerships.

Congratulations to our client Audible on the upcoming launch of The Pillars in Newark’s Arts and Education District — a new model for community-centered retail and investment. The Pillars will feature diverse, independent tenants that reflect Newark’s cultural and entrepreneurial strength while creating opportunities for local businesses and founders who have historically faced barriers to access.

The space is designed to be inclusive, with a program that goes beyond traditional neighborhood service retail to activate the surrounding area and build an authentic sense of place. HR&A supported Audible’s Global Center for Urban Innovation in shaping the vision, tenanting strategy, and market analysis for this exciting project near Harriet Tubman Square.

We’re looking forward to seeing The Pillars open this fall as a hub for culture, creativity, and community in downtown Newark!

Read the full announcement here.

HR&A Advisors was honored to receive the Public Space Leadership Award at the Design Trust for Public Space’s 30th Anniversary Benefit this summer. We’re proud to be recognized alongside other leaders advancing the future of New York City’s public realm.

This award reflects HR&A’s support for more than 150 open spaces, parks, and park systems, and our deep commitment to creating vibrant, equitable public spaces. It also highlights the leadership of our Principal, Thomas Jansen, who serves as Vice Chair of the Design Trust’s Board and actively advances its mission.

As the Design Trust enters its third decade, it has launched a new RFP, Water: Designing an Equitable Water Future for NYC, calling on New Yorkers to propose bold ideas that will shape the city’s public spaces for the future. We look forward to seeing how this process sparks new approaches to city-making and water. Learn more and apply here.

Written by Ejiro Ojeni. 

As New York City anticipates a mayoral election this fall, the city is grappling with both a climate emergency that threatens energy access and livability and a housing affordability emergency that is straining millions of households.

Rising temperatures, aging infrastructure, growing demand, and increasingly constrained sources of power are driving up energy costs and exposing low- and moderate-income households to disproportionate financial strain. In the last five years, 3.5 million New Yorkers (42%) have fallen behind on utility payments, and 1.9 million (23%) have experienced utility shutoffs because they could not pay their bills. Meanwhile, the cost of living continues to rise: nearly half of all NYC households spend more than 30% of their income on rent while nearly a third spend over 50%. The next mayor will need to mobilize a climate action agenda that responds to these pressures.

Reimagine Ravenswood provides a roadmap for public, private, and nonprofit partners to collaborate on addressing the nexus of climate and affordability at the neighborhood scale. The Ravenswood Generating Station is the largest fossil fuel plant in New York City, providing over 20% of the city’s local power capacity. The station sits across from NYCHA Ravenswood and Queensbridge, New York City’s largest protected affordable housing campuses, which have long faced local environmental justice challenges. Rise Light & Power (RISE) has developed plans to transform the station site into a renewable energy hub.

The Office of the Queens Borough President (QBPO) believed it was critical to ensure that the economic benefits of this transition extended to the local community, while also exploring how the redevelopment could catalyze broader quality-of-life improvements. To that end, the QBPO engaged HR&A to lead Reimagine Ravenswood, a community-driven planning process focused on site reuse, neighborhood improvement, and workforce development.

We led stakeholder engagement, including a steering committee, public workshops, focus groups, and a public survey. In partnership with Fu Wilmer Design, the team also conducted a physical site evaluation and an economic analysis to assess neighborhood socio-economic conditions and identify opportunities for workforce and business development in sectors such as green industry, small manufacturing, technology, life sciences, and the arts.

Guided by community insight, the client-consultant team developed strategies to ensure that Ravenswood’s transition to clean energy advances not only climate goals but also affordability and quality of life in the surrounding community. These strategies could be advanced by our next Mayor in neighborhoods across the city.

Ravenswood Generating Station (Image: Courtesy of Reimagine Ravenswood)

Deploying affordable, effective heating and cooling technology will reduce the energy burden for low-income residents.  Extreme heat events are becoming more frequent, more intense, and longer in New York City, and our findings show that the area immediately around the Ravenswood Generating Station, including Queensbridge Houses North and South, is already characterized by intense heat and high heat vulnerability due to a lack of green space, low rates of access to home air conditioning, and high surface temperature. Building off the momentum created by the successful heat pump pilot at Woodside Houses in 2023, the City could prioritize and accelerate the installation of window heat pumps in units at NYCHA Astoria, Queensbridge North and South, Ravenswood, Woodside Houses, and other vulnerable areas.

Alongside infrastructure improvements, the City should expand successful initiatives in underinvested schools and partner with local employers to create pathways to well-paying, high-quality jobs for residents. Partnerships between local nonprofits, schools, colleges, and City agencies are crucial for connecting residents to careers in growing industries, including the green economy. By scaling youth-focused initiatives across public schools in the area, such as FutureReadyNYC and Leading the Charge, the City can equip young people with real-world skills, paid work experience, early college credit, industry credentials, and personalized career guidance. Additionally, partnerships with renewable energy companies like Rise, cleantech firms, and business organizations can create clear career pathways, exposing students and residents to opportunities offered by the clean energy transition. Together, these efforts help residents afford to stay and thrive in their communities.

In addition to the strategies we’ve explored at Reimagine Ravenswood, there are other emerging opportunities — such as The City of Yes — that the next Mayor could leverage to create a new balance of affordable housing and jumpstart local economic activity.

One critical opportunity lies in making low-income communities healthier and more dignified places to live by addressing food access. During the engagement sessions, many community members, particularly NYCHA residents, voiced a strong desire for affordable grocery and food retail options. The City of Yes for Economic Opportunity already provides a mechanism to create new, larger-scale commercial spaces within NYCHA campuses, subject to public review and approval. This could enable existing grocery stores (such as Fine Far Supermarket) to expand and create space for new grocery providers. To move forward, the City, in collaboration with NYCHA residents and the local Community Board, should evaluate whether residents want additional commercial development on campus. If so, the new administration should consider enabling the expansion of existing grocery stores or the establishment of new food retail spaces.

The City could continue rethinking how traditional industrial areas are rezoned to allow more mixed-use affordable housing development. Under the City of Yes for Economic Opportunity, new “transition zones” make it more feasible to develop properties with light industrial and commercial uses on ground floors with residential above. In the future, industrially zoned areas in the neighborhood could apply for this rezoning to create both affordable housing and spaces for local job growth.

* * * * *

A neighborhood-centric approach to tackling climate and affordability challenges in tandem can lead to reduced energy costs, healthier living environments in affordable communities, economic opportunity, and community resilience. Reimagine Ravenswood charts a path for coordinated public, private, and nonprofit action — a roadmap the next Mayor can draw from in pursuing a future where affordable housing and a clean, livable environment are inseparable goals.

Community Engagement Event

Top Image: Courtesy of the Queens Borough President’s Office

Learn more about Reimagine Ravenswood here.

In celebration of NYC Climate Week, HR&A CEO Jeff Hébert joined the Adaptation Forum, hosted by The Resiliency Company, for a lightning talk alongside Daniel Kaniewski of Marsh McLennan and Janika McFeely of JLL to explore the question: how do we turn climate risk into resilient communities? The discussion underscored the urgent need to move beyond understanding risk toward building resilience in ways that strengthen communities, markets, and infrastructure.

Jeff shared insights from projects in New Orleans and Houston to articulate key themes in the work to build resilience. Takeaways include:

Developing resilient infrastructure requires alignment around a clearly articulated vision and depends on bringing together public, private, institutional, and philanthropic partners that each play a role. Their collective action is essential for advancing impactful solutions.

Cities and municipalities must adapt to new project delivery methods, embrace innovative operations and maintenance practices, and pursue creative funding tools. These shifts will be critical for meeting the demands of climate resilience at scale.

Resilient infrastructure generates shared economic benefits and can provide the foundation for funding new investments, making resilience not only a protective measure but also an engine for sustainable growth.

Addressing climate risk is about more than adaptation — it is about building stronger, more sustainable communities for the future.

Learn more about NYC Climate Week.

“We know parks are valuable assets that have a major return on investment, and the strongest park systems take a multifaceted approach to funding. This PNA offers a roadmap to funding the city’s park system that will help address current needs and improve our parks in the years to come.”

HR&A Advisors Managing Partner Connie Chung shared this perspective in the City of Los Angeles’s announcement of the 2025 Park Needs Assessment (PNA). The first comprehensive assessment of the city’s park system in 15 years.

Developed alongside OLIN Studio, the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks, and an expert team, the PNA identifies current and future needs across 16,000 acres of public parkland to guide investment and ensure the system reflects Los Angeles’s diverse and growing population. HR&A led an analysis of the Department of Recreation and Parks’ operating budget and funding, benchmarking Los Angeles against peer cities, projecting long-term needs, and evaluating strategies to sustain and strengthen the system.

Connie also expanded on these ideas in Torched LA, underscoring the scale of the challenge:

“This is a generational, systemic problem — you can’t solve it in five years. How do we make this the roadmap that continues to be fresh and adaptable for 10 years or longer?”

As Torched LA highlights, the PNA not only diagnoses the depth of LA’s park crisis but also lays out solutions, from targeting where new parks are most needed, to improving existing ones, to securing sustainable funding. Equitable, high-quality parks are more than amenities; they are critical for public health, community resilience, and reducing inequality across Los Angeles.

The 2025 Park Needs Assessment is a pivotal opportunity to reimagine the city’s park system. By combining community input, data-driven analysis, and long-term funding strategies, it lays the foundation for a more equitable and resilient network of parks that serves all Angelenos for generations to come.

The draft PNA is open for public review and comment until October 15, 2025: needs.parks.lacity.gov

Explore the Coverage:

LA Park Needs Assessment Draft Proposes Strategies for Improving Parks and Recreation Citywide — OLIN

Confronting LA’s park crisis —   Torched LA

L.A. parks are too vital to suffer such neglect. Here’s your chance to weigh in on a rescue plan — Los Angeles Times

LA seeks input on road map to improve parks and recreation system — Spectrum News 1

LA Seeks Input on Road Map to Improve Parks and Recreation System — mynewsLA

LA seeks input on road map to improve parks and recreation system — The Eastsider

This press release was originally circulated by LA Parks & OLIN.

After eight months of community engagement and feedback, the City of LA is seeking input on the draft Park Needs Assessment. The Public will have 45 days to share their comments.

LOS ANGELES (September 2, 2025) – The City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks (RAP) today released a draft Parks Needs Assessment (PNA), which provides a roadmap for the city to improve a parks and recreation system that has been hit hard by stagnant spending and declining staffing. The PNA identifies projects and strategies that could produce tangible improvements to the system very quickly that would benefit many residents. It also lays out strategies for steadily bringing the whole system up to par with peer cities that have fared much better in recent years.

The draft is now out for public review and comment until October 15.

The draft PNA is the result of:

• • • extensive and deep community engagement that began in January 2025
    • a park-by-park analysis of conditions and amenities
    • an innovative approach to prioritizing spending on improving existing parks and building new parks based on where investments will serve the most people in the highest areas of need
    • a thorough analysis of the history of funding for recreation and parks in the City, the causes of the current budget and staffing shortfalls, and a variety of options for increasing revenue and finding savings while improving and expanding the system in the years to come

     

    The draft PNA is informed by the results of a citywide survey of residents and dozens of community meetings across Los Angeles. It evaluates the state of more than 16,000 acres of public parkland in nearly 500 parks as well as over 100 recreation centers and other facilities. It will guide future investment in park infrastructure and amenities to help ensure the city’s park system can properly function and provide safe, clean, enjoyable parks and recreation facilities for all Angelenos.

     

    “We appreciate the input of the thousands of Angelenos who have informed this draft PNA,” said RAP General Manager Jimmy Kim. “We believe it can help guide RAP’s investments, operations, maintenance, and programs for years to come, focusing on the priorities that matter most to our communities. We’re excited to share the draft now and invite feedback from residents as we finalize it.”

     

    LA’s PNA Is State-of-the Art

    The draft PNA is a once-in-a-generation effort that has harnessed the best, most up-to-date knowledge and practices in parks planning nationwide. It has employed deep data analysis, extensive and diverse community engagement strategies, an innovative tool for prioritizing investments called PerSquareMile, and a rigorous analysis of past, present, and potential future funding for parks and recreation in LA.

     

    The draft PNA includes a thorough park-by-park and facility-by-facility analysis of RAPs current system. It proposes a system of new park classifications.  It sets targets for increased system-wide park amenities. And it defines guidelines for future site planning and community engagement.

     

    “This park needs assessment is truly best in class,” said Jon Christensen, an adjunct assistant professor in UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and Luskin Center for Innovation, who has studied park needs assessment nationwide. “It uses state-of-the-art methods in its analysis of current conditions and finances, as well as in its robust community engagement. And it brings an innovative approach to prioritizing needs that can guide future investments to serve the most people in highest need across Los Angeles.”

     

    RAP’s Budget Is Not Keeping Up with Need

    

     

    LA parks are popular, but parks funding is lagging behind the growth of the city. The draft PNA found that RAP’s budget has not kept up with the City’s overall budget growth or inflation. RAP’s operating budget grew 35% between fiscal years 2009 and 2023, half the rate of the City’s 68% overall budget increase during the same period. The Los Angeles parks system continues to grow, but faces severe challenges as its workforce shrinks, making it more difficult to maintain facilities, offer programs, and care for parks and open spaces. Full and part-time staff at RAP has decreased since 2008 as park acreage has increased.

     

    Despite parks being a very popular amenity in Los Angeles according to a statistically valid survey of residents, the City spends less on parks than peer cities — only $92 per capita. The Trust For Public Land’s annual ParkScore survey ranks the largest 100 cities in the United States. Los Angeles is currently ranked 90th, largely because of inadequate funding. RAP’s operating budget is funded by the City-Charter Property Tax Revenue Allocation, earned revenue, and the General Fund.

     

    “Most urban park systems across the country have  faced funding challenges over the last half century or more,” said Connie Chung, Managing Partner at HR&A Advisors in Los Angeles. “We know parks are valuable assets that have a major return on investment, and the strongest park systems take a multifaceted approach to funding. This PNA offers a roadmap to funding the city’s park system that will help address current needs and improve our parks in the years to come.”

     

    “L.A. has fallen in our national ranking because of inadequate funding for parks and the fact that low-income communities of color have fewer parks,” explained Guillermo Rodriguez, California state director the Trust for Public Land. “This new Park Needs Assessment clearly identifies pathways to solve both of those problems so that L.A. can build back a world-class park system over time. Now we all need to work together to create a new funding streams for recreation and parks in the city.”

     

     

    The PNA Has a Plan for Measurable Results

    While funding is tight and new revenue streams are needed, the PNA is a guide to bring measurable results to LA parks now. The draft PNA proposes a prioritization strategy based on feedback from residents across the city and input from the PNA’s Steering Committee, Neighborhood Councils, a Technical Advisory Committee, Advisory Boards, and interested groups. The prioritization process identifies the areas that most need improvement as well as new and expanded park space. It also provides guidance for operations and maintenance priorities.

     

    “The PNA is a roadmap for how to address the current situation and over time strengthen what can be a world-class park system,” said Jessica Henson, a landscape architect and planner with OLIN, who leads the PNA consultant team.“Nearly a century ago the Olmsted-Bartholomew Plan for Los Angeles proposed 71,000 acres of parkland and numerous strategies to connect parks across the region, but it was never realized, largely due to governance issues. As the Great Depression began and budgets tightened, civic leaders shelved the plan. A century later we are still grappling with a lack of adequate parks and open space in many parts of the city, plus a system that suffers from lack of adequate investment. Today, this PNA brings into focus the priorities and strategies  that will enable Angelenos to have the park system they deserve in the 21st century.”
     

    Process

    The PNA process included hundreds of opportunities for residents of LA to share ideas and feedback through a variety of engagement methods, including in-person and virtual community meetings, pop-up events, partnerships with community-based organizations, equity-focused events, key group meetings, surveys, and a project website. With a focus on equitable, innovative, and creative community engagement, the process aims to ensure that all voices are heard and valued, using both in-person and digital tools to encourage active participation. The feedback gathered throughout this process will inform future decisions related to park improvements, funding, and new development.

     

    Starting September 1, 2025, the PNA will enter into a 45-day review process before being finalized and presented to the Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners for adoption in December. The public comment period will close October 15, 2025.

     

    For more information, and to stay updated on community events and engagement opportunities, please visit the project website at needs.parks.lacity.gov.
    

     

    About City of LA Parks

    The Department of Recreation and Parks operates around 500 park sites and 92 miles of trails that cover more than 16,000 acres of land in Los Angeles.

     

    The park system includes some of the world’s most iconic parks such as Griffith Park, Sepulveda Basin, Echo Park, and MacArthur Park, as well as hundreds of community and neighborhood parks, Venice Beach, Cabrillo Marine Aquarium, and 12 museums.

     

    Project Team

    The project is being led by the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks. A Technical Advisory Committee, a Steering Committee, City of LA elected offices and staff, government departments, and organizations that have provided guidance to the project consultant team.

     

    Through a competitive “request for proposal” process, the City selected OLIN and their team includes the subconsultants HR&A Advisors, Kounkuey Design Initiative, Agency: Artifact, The Robert Group, Estolano Advisors, Geosyntec Consultants, GreenInfo Network, Better World Group, Dharam Consulting, Calvada, LANDAU Design + Technology, ETC Institute, and West of West Architecture, and was approved by a unanimous vote of the Board of Recreation and Parks Commissioners in December 2024.