to the editor: The authors of this op-ed would do well to talk to the people in charge of zoning in Los Angeles County (“Building a more beautiful Los Angeles in a time of ugliness” March 11). The same design features they criticize (setbacks, overhangs, irregular roof lines, and plane changes) are among the architectural design features I must select from for permit approval on my latest construction project.
Personally, I prefer our current white boxes to the dreary apartments of decades past, and the authors' only style recommendations are more stone and tiles on the facades. Is the market willing to pay for those upgrades? Last time I lost a considerable amount of money out of my pocket building white boxes. So no more design requirements please, if we want to help, not hinder, our housing goals.
John Nelson, Los Angeles
This writer is the owner of construction and renovation company Artistic Home Builders.
