In the fall of 2024, the City of Santa Monica adopted an Adaptive Reuse Ordinance to encourage housing production and incentivize the reuse of underutilized commercial buildings and sites. Omgivning has extensive experience crafting adaptive reuse policies for cities, and they worked with the City of Santa Monica to fine-tune this innovative policy and test it out with five redevelopment schemes.

While Santa Monica has large office buildings that could be converted or partially converted, there are many smaller commercial buildings that are underutilized as well. These buildings are often at risk of demolition, potentially being replaced with oversized developments that could drastically alter the city’s character and scale. Santa Monica has always been forward-thinking in its approach to policy and redevelopment and recognizes that discouraging demolition and promoting reuse are essential components for creating a sustainable and resilient city. In addition, this approach also helps to maintain the charm of the city while introducing more housing and helping to make reuse economically viable.

Santa Monica’s planning department has crafted a smart and thoughtful ordinance that offers financial incentives to property owners and developers to increase density and revenue potential, while also focusing on sustainability and preserving the character of the city’s streetscapes.

STEP ONE: Quick Start Feasibility

Is The Project Worth Pursuing?
Quick Start Feasibility is the first step in exploring the potential of your building for adaptive reuse. With a focus on a low cost study, efficiency, and actionable insights, this service is the first step for clients who need a swift yet reliable evaluation of whether a project is worth moving forward with.

Process

Site Visit
-- Brief site visit walkthrough with architect, structural engineer, and general contractor to assess the building’s current condition and potential for reuse.

High-Level Code and Zoning Review
-- High level analysis of critical codes and zoning regulations to identify potential barriers or opportunities for your project’s feasibility.

Existing Documentation Review
-- Review any existing building documentation provided.

Structural Input
-- High level analysis of seismic upgrade triggers and anticipated upgrades with ballpark cost based on comparative projects.

Deliverables
-- Plan Diagram (program diagrams showing leasable sf, unit counts, etc.)
-- Summary of initial code review, adaptive reuse incentives, and list of challenges and opportunities
-- Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) budget

Our team, with decades of adaptive reuse experience, can quickly assess the key factors needed for our clients to decide if a project is feasible. If so, this study lays the foundation for the next step of deeper exploration onto the Viability Blueprint.

Agency / Organization:
City of Los Angeles, Mayor’s Office

Status:
Complete

Intent:
In 2015 Mayor Eric Garcetti signed into law a historic mandatory retrofit ordinance to ensure that two of Los Angeles' most vulnerable building types, NDC buildings and wood-frame buildings with soft stories, are strengthened to improve their performance during earthquakes, mitigate loss of life and injury, ensure economic resilience and preserve affordable housing should "the Big One" strike Los Angeles.

In the first few years since the adoption of the ordinance, a number of policy, administrative and technical challenges have been identified for buildings that are attempting to comply with the ordinance, and have resulted in unforeseen impacts.

• Increased retrofit costs
• Reduction in housing units
• Increased threat of demolition of existing buildings
• Increased risk to public health and safety if buildings are not strengthened
  
  
  
  Under the auspices of the Mayor’s Office, Omgivning initiated a working group to help improve Los Angeles’ (NDC) Retrofit Program and associated Ordinance. Meeting over a span of two years with stakeholders including property owners, developers, structural engineers, general contractors, city agency representatives and advocacy groups, the goal of the NDC Working Group has been to help analyze the current requirements and processes of the NDC Retrofit Program and Ordinance, provide recommendations for improvement, as well as solutions through new reform ideas.

The working group identified specific suggestions and solutions for policy, administrative and technical reform with the goal of addressing the seismic risk to more buildings in a more streamlined and expedited fashion. While it is anticipated that not all of the suggestions will be implemented, and the timeline of each implementation to be unknown, a goal of the NDC Working Group is to create a framework for continued dialogue with all stakeholders in order to calibrate the recommendations for reform until as many NDC projects have been retrofitted quickly and as safely as possible within the 25 year compliance date.

Omgivning White Paper on Non-Ductile Concrete Buildings from October 2021

Los Angeles Conservancy H.O.M.E. - Housing. Opportunity. Mobility. Equity Panel Discussion in 2024

Karin Liljegren, FAIA, joined the The L.A. Conservancy for a panel discussion on housing and their new campaign, HOME, and the important role preservation plays in maintaining affordability, creating new housing, and offering solutions to the housing crisis in Los Angeles.

See what Karin has to say about why Adaptive Reuse worked in downtown Los Angeles.

In December of 2024, we hosted our holiday party in Omgivning HQ, söm co-space. This was our second holiday party since completing the space, transforming the office into a festive atmosphere. The Andy Brems Jazz Trio was playing holiday classics as clients, associates, and staff mixed and mingled. We had our usual refreshments, including our famous Swedish glögg (mulled wine) and a beautiful spread from Gjusta.

Omgivning wishes everyone a very positive 2025!

Agency / Organization:
Central City Association of Los Angeles (CCA)

Status:
Complete

Intent:
Omgivning partnered with the Central City Association of Los Angeles (CCA) to co-author a white paper, issued in 2021, that highlights the benefits of adaptive reuse to address economic recording,and provides concrete steps the City of Los Angeles can take to allow for new uses in existing structures.

The Covid-19 pandemic, housing shortage and climate change continue to impact cities, and one of best and most powerful tools to tackle these issues is adaptive reuse: reimagining and repurposing existing older structures and spaces to meet today’s needs.

Adaptive reuse has a wide range of benefits for cities, including: Supporting recovery from COVID-19 by converting vacant and/or underutilized spaces to be active uses that better contribute to the health of neighborhoods, which fosters jobs and tax revenues and can create new opportunities for housing and meet other community needs. Proactively preserving both historic and background structures through reinvestment and generating revenues by changing in alignment with real estate trends. Improving environmental sustainability by updating older, less energy efficient buildings to contemporary standards and promoting walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods through infill development and making use of already in place and often under-used (in terms of capacity) urban infrastructure.

CCA references this white paper as the foundation for the framework on which they have been strongly advocating for policy reform both at the local city level and at the state level.

Agency / Organization:
Central City Association of Los Angeles (CCA)

Status:
Complete

Intent:
CCA launched “RISE DTLA” in April 2023, as a new comprehensive initiative for Downtown Los Angeles with four strategic pillars: -- Reinvigorate public spaces -- Incubate economic opportunities -- Strengthen public safety and wellness -- Envision Downtown’s vibrant future

RISE DTLA was formed in response to the pandemic-induced trends observed in DTLA, many of which are occurring in downtowns across the country. While the implications of DTLA’s reduced daytime office worker population continues to impact local businesses, increasingly high demand for living and visiting DTLA’s vibrant neighborhoods remains.

DTLA has less than 50% office occupancy on most days of the week due to remote work schedules. During the first year of the pandemic, sales tax receipts fell by -16% in DTLA compared to -7% in the City of Los Angeles. Additionally, more than 600 businesses closed in DTLA in the wake of the pandemic.

At the same time, DTLA’s residential population has grown to more than 80,000 residents, hotel occupancy is back to 71% (just four points below LA County’s rate) and the LA Convention Center is at 96% occupancy compared to 2019 event bookings. These trends demonstrate the demand for Downtown’s amenities and the need for CCA’s RISE DTLA to focus on tailored strategies that will support Downtown’s stability and future growth.

Omgivning was invited to participate as a Downtown leader and as a firm that has primarily dedicated all of their efforts to revitalizing DTLA since it’s founding during the great recession in 2009, and their Founder Karin Liljegren’s efforts since 1999.

Agency / Organization:
Los Angeles County, Department of Environmental Health

Status: Complete

Intent:
Omgivning collaborated with LA County on a revision to the code governing the design of pool enclosures. Due to code reinterpretations by the Los Angeles County Health Department, designers and developers faced significant unintended challenges related to pool amenity areas and their associated enclosures. Most pool amenities, including a bar, grill, firepit, or kitchen area, could only be outside of the pool enclosure, requiring users to leave the pool area if they wanted to order food or drinks from a bar or restaurant, sit by a fire, visit the BBQ area, or even use the restroom.

LA County’s interpretation of this particular code for pool enclosures differed from that of other counties throughout the state of California, and we decided to address the disparity and work towards finding a solution. Omgivning assembled a task force that included other architects, developers, an entitlements consultant and a pool consultant. Armed with real-world technical experience, the task force gathered examples of pools in LA and in other counties to convey the magnitude and meaning of the interpretation’s impacts. In a series of meetings with the LA County Health Department facilitated by the Central City Association of Los Angeles (CCA), our team worked directly with county officials to create a new document that clarifies the code.

As of October 2019, all new and newly renovated projects in LA County follow a revised pool-enclosure bulletin that provides safer and more welcoming pool requirements for residential and hotel projects. Among many other specific clarifications, the bulletin allows hotel amenities, including bars, restaurants, barbecues and firepits, to exist within a pool enclosure if they are operated by the entity that operates the pool, and if there is an equal amenity outside the pool enclosure for non-pool users.

Omgivning’s Director Morgan Sykes Jaybush was instrumental leading efforts to clarify these interpretations with LA County Health Department and the larger task force. Through this work, Omgivning has helped to restore the relaxing poolside experience that hotel guests and residential tenants expect in Southern California. Developers and designers can now improve how millions of people experience pools in LA while also improving safety.

LA County Health Pool Enclosure Bulletin from October 2019

Agency / Organization:
City of Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety (LADBS)

Status:
Complete

Intent:
In the early 2000's the Historic Broadway district in downtown Los Angeles had roughly 2 million square-feet of vacant upper floor space along seven blocks of Broadway. Most buildings were not suitable for adaptive reuse to housing due to lack of light and ventilation. The early downtown revitalization was not impacting Broadway, LA’s most iconic historic district and former commercial and entertainment destination.

Bringing Back Broadway was a 10-year strategic economic development plan to revitalize the corridor to incentivize economic development, encourage historic preservation, stimulate reactivation of historic theaters and underutilized commercial buildings, create a safer and more vibrant pedestrian experience, and increase transit options.

Executive Director of Bringing Back Broadway, Jessica Wethington McLean, led the effort to create a commercial reuse bulletin that would bring economic activity to Broadway in downtown Los Angeles. Commercial uses were seen as optimal for most buildings, but without incentives for redevelopment, the structures were falling into further neglect.

The resulting 33-page bulletin incorporates aspects of its predecessor Adaptive Reuse Ordinance as well as detailed interpretations from California’s Historic Building Code allowing for a clear document and guide map for building and fire plan checkers, as well as building owners, architects and engineers to follow. It allowed former historic uses to be brought back without full new code compliance and allowed flexibility for areas of the building not to be considered “change of use” in addition to many other technical compliance reductions and clarifications, including seismic, fire/ life safety, occupancy and exiting. The Bulletin, while intended for Broadway, has been expanded to be a precedent for all Citywide historic building permitting.

Omgivning’s Founder, Karin Liljegren, was the primary private-sector representative at the city’s collaboration meetings and a leader of the document’s direction.

Historic Broadway Commercial Reuse Bulletin

Agency / Organization: City of Los Angeles, Department of City Planning

Status: Complete

Intent: Amid Broadway’s revitalization, the City of LA adopted a stringent code that severely restricted signage. In addition, what remained of Broadway’s awe-inspiring signage was suffering substantial decay and neglect.

Seeking to encourage the recreation and restoration of historic signs, incentivize the creation of new signs, and allow for open-panel roof signs, vertical “blade signs,” and murals on secondary facades, we worked at a city councilman’s request to lead all technical components of the new policy document, issued in 2015 and affecting each building along Broadway from 1st Street to 12th Street.

Building owners now have a framework to help them maximize signage, generate additional income, and help create “sign programs” which facilitate the design and permitting of future tenant spaces. The iconic signage that once filled this district is able to return for the enjoyment of new generations.

Omgivning’s Director Morgan Sykes Jaybush was instrumental in this working group to lead creative problem solving in which to provide financial incentives for property owners through signage, in particular revenue generating off site signage, while thoughtfully considering historic preservation. Broadway was originally the entertainment and commercial district of Los Angeles with many large bold signs, so working with the framework of the past for the future was the primary goal guiding this ordinance.

Broadway Sign District Ordinance from January 2016