stories : 2023

---

Simon was invited to present the design awards at the LA Theatre Center in DTLA.

Simon speaks at the AIA Virtual Forum - Housing as a Human Right: Architects Respond to the Crisis. AIA HKC's involvement in UN-Habitat, World Urban Forum and Habitat Assembly were presented. 

Simon attends UN Habitat as a stakeholder along with US delegates and advisors from US State Department, US Housing and Urban Development, and AIA Housing and Community Development members.

Simon serves on the awards jury and presents the awards  with Vince Bertoni, Director of Planning at City of LA  and Rochelle Milles, President & CEO at Innovative Housing Opportunities (IHO).

Simon presents affordable senior housing design at Affordable Housing Strategies that Promote Personal Well-Being and Success panel with Dodd Kattman, AIA, Principal at MKM architecture + design.

Simon presents at Modular Construction Montage: Exploring the Successes of Steel in Modular Design & Construction panel along with Scott Ginder, AIA, Forge Craft Architecture and Stephen Blumenbaum, Walter P Moore.

Suffolk Construction and Steinberg Hart attended the awards ceremony to receive the award for best new hotels in LA. Simon Ha, AIA was the Principal in Charge leading the project teams and Architect of Record for both projects.

At the Skid Row Housing Trust Building Hope Gala, Simon passes the baton to incoming Chairwoman Katherine Perez with remarks from State Assemblyman Miguel Santiago.

AIA Housing and Community Development Knowledge Community members delivers another great event at the AIA Housing Design Awards. 

tommie Hollywood was awarded Best New Brand Launch by Hospitality Design. Relevant Group, Studio Collective, and Simon attended the HD Design Awards ceremony in New York City to celebrate the award.  

Thompson Hotel, Hollywood wins Pacific Coast Builders Conference Gold Nugget Award for best commercial project in the west coast. Simon Ha, AIA was the Principal in Charge leading the project team and Architect of Record.

The Urban Land Institute-Los Angeles convened a regional summit to address the unprecedented homelessness crisis in Southern California and discuss immediate housing solutions. With more than 69,000 individuals experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles County according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) 2022 2022 Homeless County, the crisis demands Housing Now!  Simon Ha led a breakout session with engaged participants.

Skid Row Housing Trust's ambassador Mike Alvidrez and Simon Ha led the tour and discussed many issues surrounding homelessness, equity, and housing.  The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture Board of Directors and members joined the walking tour through Skid Row to experience the concentration of homelessness firsthand.

Ground breaking ceremony was held at the project site in Sunnyvale CA with Related California, Core Builders, city, county, and state representatives, and many other participants to celebrate this important milestone to bring 90 units of affordable housing for families and developmentally disabled adults.

At the AIA Los Angeles Design Awards, Las Palmas Modular Apartments design received the Commercial/Mixed Use "Honor" award which is the highest recognition given to a project. Next LA Awards honor excellence in unbuilt projects in Los Angeles or by Los Angeles architects.

Simon Ha, along with Mellody Lock, Director of Development with Affirmed Housing and Jesse Slansky, President & CEO of West Hollywood Community Housing Corporation participated in a moderated discussion on how affordable housing projects get started, how projects are shaped and impacted by the public funding they receive, challenges still affecting the development of new affordable housing projects.

All over the world, effective partnerships are building sustainable and inclusive communities using both local knowledge and cutting edge technology. This session explored lessons from UN Habitat’s Tenth World Urban Forum: Cities of Opportunity: Connecting Culture and Innovation. Initiatives with the most vulnerable communities.  Presenters included Kathy Dorgan, Denise Everson and Simon Ha.

Simon Ha, AIA served on the design jury for the AIA Georgia Design & Honor Awards.

Simon Ha was invited as a guest panelist at the Lusk Center's Board retreat.  The panel was moderated by Kevork Zoryan, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley with panelists, Simon Ha, Richard Green, Director and Lusk Chair in Real Estate, Andy Cohen, Gensler.

Affordable Housing - what can architects do to address social inequalities? Simon representing American Institute of Architects spoke on the theme: Innovative Housing in California: Producing Affordable and Attainable Housing in a High-Priced Market. Other speakers represented Council of Architecture and Urbanism in Brazil,  Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland, and Royal Institute of British Architects.

 Three projects Simon Ha led won design awards at the PCBC Gold Nugget Awards. Las Palmas won the Grand award for Innovative Housing Concepts. 

Amp Lofts in the Arts District was recognized for award of merit in the best mixed-use design category.

1411 Flower Micro Unit project in DTLA was recognized for award of merit in the best Innovative Housing Concepts.

This panel discussion helped to shape the architecture perspective of resilience and community building. Combining several lessons learned from prior AIA sessions, the path to bring integrating resilient design services into your firm and engaging in meaningful conversations and efforts were presented by AIA HKC committee members Alex Salazar, Denise Everson, Kathy Dorgan, and Deane Evans from Center of Building Knowledge and the Center for Resilient Design.

‘Frontier Housing’ addressed the challenges of building housing on the fringes of our technological, geographical and social territories: city edges, international borders, and inner-city gaps. Simon Ha presented the topic Global to Local describing poverty and housing affordability and attainability challenges abroad and at home. Other speakers included Jen Kim, Housing Innovation Director, Office of Mayor Garcetti, Angie Brooks and Lawrence Scarpa, Brooks+Scarpa, Kevin Hirai, COO, Flyaway Homes, Rachel Allen, Principal, RADAR, Hector M. Perez, Partner, The RED Office, Katerina Salonikidi, Product Director, Connect Homes, with moderators Roger Sherman and Rob Jernigan from Gensler.

 ULI LA Young Leaders Group presented the 2019 Developer Shark Tank, an interactive event that aims to entertain while educating, advising, and empowering aspiring real estate developers. Similar to the popular TV show, two aspiring develops pitch their development deals to get the Sharks to invest.  The panelist included Simon Ha representing Architecture, Brian Falls, Vice President, Palisades Capital Partners, LLC – Development, Andrew Fogg, Attorney, Cox Castle & Nicholson – Legal Sector

Robin Potts, Co-Head of Real Estate Investments & Director of Acquisitions, Canyon Partners Real Estate, LLC – Finance, and Leanna Libourel, Owner, Libourel Development LLC – Moderator.

The 2019 AIA Housing Awards jury comprised of chair Simon Ha, AIA, principal at Steinberg Hart in Los Angeles; Kai-Uwe Bergmann, AIA, partner at Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) in New York; Hans Butzer, AIA, director at Butzer Architects and Urbanism in Oklahoma City; Mary Cerrone, AIA, founder of Mary Cerrone Architects in Pittsburgh.

The 2019 AIA/HUD Secretary's Awards  2019 awards were selected by a seven-person jury comprised AIA Housing Awards Jury above plus Regina Gray, social science analyst at Housing and Urban Development in Washington, D.C; and Rachelle Levitt, the director of research utilization at Housing and Urban Development in Washington, D.C. 

At this one day conference in Orange County, CA, the challenges of housing production and attainability were discussed in various session topics.  Elizabeth Gibbons, AIA, City of Campbell Council Member moderated a conversation on the topic of "Ideation - Roadblocks to Housing Attainability" with Simon Ha,  John Lum, AIA, Principal of John Lum Architecture, Philip Bona, AIA, Senior Architect and Planner, AVRP Skyport. The question posed was How can design thinking influence policies, programs and procedures to achieve housing attainability? The panelist provided local perspectives from San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco on agency approval hurdles, NIMBY oppositions, and local anti-development policies impacting delivery and cost of housing. 

It is no surprise that so-called affordable housing units in the Bay Area are far from actually affordable, primarily due to the exorbitant costs associated with building them. In our current housing shortage, these escalating costs are at odds with our need to produce homes quickly. What stands in the way of truly affordable construction? Is it possible to escape these continually escalating costs through changes in policy, innovative construction materials or new architectural forms? Julie Quinn, Housing Trust Silicon Valley, Developers Patrick Kennedy, Panoramic Interests and Marty Keller, First Community Housing, Architects Daniel Simons, David Baker Architects, and Simon Ha led the large roundtable discussion.  The topic included teacher housing and solutions potential collaborations and solutions. 

Moderated byBrett Hobza, AIA, Senior Principal, DLR Group,  Monica Garcia, Board of Education, LA Unified School District, Johnathan Williams, CEO and Co-Founder of The Accelerated Schools, Katie Hart, COO, Ednovate USC Hybrid High and Simon Ha, Co-Founder of Metro Charter Elementary School discussed K-12 education in Los Angeles. 

Despite the challenges for development in California, there is a future for the industry in the state, the Cities of the Future panelists said. Advancing technology is going to help designers and developers make more informed decisions about what developments should be like and where they will be — tech already has a significant influence on the design process.   Panelists included I.D.E.A. Partners partner David Malmuth, DPR Construction Project Executive Carlos Crabtree, McCullough Landscape Architecture principal David McCullough, Ware Malcomb principal Tiffany English and Steinberg Hart principal Simon Ha, who moderated. 

What’s Really Going On? A candid and in-depth perspective from a lifetime of experience. How did we get here? After all of these years, all of the committees, all the recommendations, and all of the rhetoric why do we still have a homeless crisis? Is housing really the answer? As the homeless population ages do we need to rethink our solutions?

Michael B. Lehrer, FAIA - Past-President, Homeless Health Care Los Angeles & President, Lehrer Architects LA in conversation with Tanya Tull - President/CEO, Partnering for Change, Mark Casanova - Executive Director, Homeless Health Care Los Angeles, Mike Neely - Former Commissioner, Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, Pete White - Founder & Executive Director, Los Angeles Community Action Network, and Simon Ha, AIA, LEED AP - Partner, Steinberg Hart & Board Secretary, Skid Row Housing Trust. 

At the 106th ACSA Annual Conference, Simon Ha, Along with Ray Demers, Enterprise Community Partners, Francisco J. Rodriguez, University De Puerto Rico, and Lorena del Rio, California College of the Arts selected the Housing Design Education winners. The recipients were Pavlina Llieva, Morgan State University, Joe Colistra, University of Kansas, and Antje K. Steinmuller & Neeraj Bhatia, California College of the Arts.

The United Nations World Urban Forum 9 (WUF9) convened in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in February 2018. Established in 2001 and convened by United Nations-Habitat, the Forum is an important global gathering for exchanging views and experiences. WUF9 is the first session to focus on the implementation of the New Urban Agenda (NUA) adopted at the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, Habitat III in Quito, Ecuador in 2016. American Institute of Architects participated as a stakeholder organization and presented a session to promote "AIA Blueprint for Better", a call to action for AIA to fight climate change. Simon Ha's presented alongside Carl Elefante, FAIA, 2018 AIA President and Z Smith, FAIA, Eskew+Dumez+Ripple.

Los Angeles' Arts District has been on the rise, drawing in new development and becoming a vibrant place to live and work. But unless transportation and parking issues are resolved, the district faces distinct challenges to how it grows. Excerpt from the post event article: "Steinberg Architects principal Simon Ha urged the standing-room-only crowd of real estate developers and professionals to contact the head of the Los Angeles Metro to set up a rail station in the growing Arts District area of Los Angeles.  - “I think it’s really important for all of us to be activists,” Ha said. “We have to write to Metro and say, ‘We really need it,’” he said."  The panel included Perry Pound, Founder & CEO, Cambridge Pacific Ventures, Jeff Wood, VP Development, AvalonBay Communities, and Kate Bartolo, Land Use Advisor, Kate Bartolo & Associates.

Excerpt from vts.com:  5 Takeaways From ULI's 2017 Fall Meeting

#3 Downtown LA's development boom is just getting started:

Steinberg Architects' Simon Ha, one of downtown LA’s 70,000 residents, has watched the area soar in the past decade. “When I moved here there was no grocery store and barely any restaurants open after 5 p.m. So this was a town that was pretty deserted,” says the panelist. “We had Staples Center but no life.” There’s some half a million people working in the city during the day now, some of whom are plugging away inside the massive 73-story new hotel and office complex that delivered this summer. Rising 1,000 feet, the Wilshire Grand Center set a new world record for the largest continuous pour of 82 million pounds during construction. “LA is just in its infancy of becoming a real city,” says Ha. “It will continue to develop over the next 50 years and become a world class downtown.” Labor shortages are, however, a rising problem, say panelists.

Simon Ha presented on the topic of Multi-Family Design in Type V/III Podium vs. Type I High-rise Construction.  In many of our growing cities, there has been a proliferation of medium to high density housing production. The form of the new housing is typically five to seven stories with a mix of Type I concrete podium at the base and Type V or III light wood construction above. This construction type is often referred in the multi-family development world as “Podium Construction”. In Los Angeles, a debate emerged as the city and community started to express concerns of this new housing type and a policy aimed towards prohibiting podium construction was introduced.  This webinar has over 4000 views. Link to the webinar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsTlXqae9Bk

DTLA - In May 2016, I wrote a piece for Los Angeles Downtown News titled “The Perfect Storm of Housing Affordability.” It detailed a half-dozen factors that threatened to hamper housing production and affordability in Downtown Los Angeles and beyond. 

Sixteen months later there have been mixed results. We’ve seen moves that, individually and cumulatively, could slow development by jacking up the price to build. Curiously, we also saw a rush of projects announced before the changes, as many developers recognized potential trouble.  - to read the full article:

https://www.ladowntownnews.com/opinion/the-perfect-storm-of-housing-affordability-is-here-with-a-silver-lining/article_89f0224e-a563-11e7-a88b-ef92b71e99f6.html

Bisnow Big West Coast Multifamily Conference is a full day conference discussing current state of the multi-family development environment. The topic of discussion for this session was: Construction and Design: Making a Vision A Reality.  The panel was moderated by Daniel Gehman of Humphrey's & Partners with panelists Kevin Ratner, President, Forest City West, Ray Haj, Swinerton, Steven Tetens, Ledcor Construction, Mark Nay, Callison RTKL, and Simon Ha, Steinberg. 

As AIA Housing and Community Development Advisory Committee Chair, Simon Ha emceed the awards ceremony and presented the awards to the AIA Housing Awards and AIA/HUD Secretary's Awards Recipients at the AIA Conference for Architecture in Orlando, FL. Winners included notable architecture firms Brooks + Scarpa, BIG, Lake Flato Architects, and many others.   

DTLA - The year 2017 is a special one for my family. April marks our 10th year living Downtown. In June, my wife Nikki and I will celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. In November, our daughter Zoe turns 10. In the last decade, the parallel of growth in my life intertwined with the renaissance of DTLA. It has been serendipitous. 

As an architect and a father, Downtown has brought unique opportunities and challenges. Like many DTLA families, we came here thinking it was a temporary move until our daughter reached school age. I was working over 60 hours a week, and living a block from work meant less time in traffic and more time with my family. The length of my commute was dependent on getting stuck at one crosswalk. Going home at lunch to hang out with my newborn was priceless... - to read the full article:

https://www.ladowntownnews.com/community/my-downtown-simon-ha-on-life-in-south-park/article_b5349c46-188c-11e7-bf88-d767803eea8c.html

At the 105th ACSA Annual Meeting, AIA HKC sponsored a full day workshop titled Avenues of Exchange: Professionals, Educators, and Communities Building Equitable, Heathy, and Resilient Cities.  The key not session was moderated by Simon Ha with keynote speaker Margaret O'Donoghue Castillo, FAIA, Chief Architect, New York City Department of Design and Construction.  The topic of discussion was  how cities are planning for more sustainable and healthy neighborhoods, working alongside community organizations and community development professionals.

Simon Ha serves as the chair of the committee.  The AIA Housing & Community Development Knowledge Community tracks housing issues and develops relationships with industry stakeholders to encourage and promote safe, attractive, accessible, and affordable housing for all Americans. The AIA’s Knowledge Communities offer members a personalized design- and practice-based experience that provides knowledge-sharing, networking, and leadership opportunities.

Excerpt from the Real Deal article:

"Slated to appear on the March ballot, Measure S would impose a two-year moratorium on all developments in Los Angeles that require a General Plan amendment, with the stated intention of forcing the city to modernize that plan while also reducing the influence of private interests on government.

Event moderator Simon Ha, principal of Steinberg Architects, said that while the NII would create an “artificial recession” in the industry, it would also have a deep impact on the region’s overall economic health. Ha said that the measure would lead to increased housing costs for residents in one of the country’s most rent-burdened areas. He pointed to another local antigrowth ballot initiative — 1986’s Prop U — that had a chilling effect on Los Angeles’ housing stock. Aimed at stopping the spread of high-rise buildings, that initiative effectively “downzoned” properties throughout Los Angeles, making high-density projects difficult to develop." 

 In October 2016, AIA delegates and AIA Housing Knowledge Community (AIA HKC) leaders attended the United Nations Habitat III conference in Quito, Ecuador. AIA believes that architects are key to making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. The engagement with Habitat III represents a continuing expansion of AIA’s work onto the global stage, as mandated in the AIA’s 2015 Global Opportunities and Priorities Framework.  AIA delegation comprised of Russell Davidson (2016 AIA President), Thomas Vonier (2017 AIA President), Jamie Blosser (Executive Director of the Santa Fe Art Institute and AIA HKC 2015 Chair), Mary Kell (Activing Chief Resilience Officer for the City of Tulsa), Catherine Baker (Principal at Landon Bone Baker Architects), and Derek Washam (AIA International Relations Manager). The AIA HKC was represented by Simon Ha (2017 Chair), R. Denise Everson (2016 Chair), and Kathy Dorgan (2012 Chair). 

AIA Housing and Community Development organized a half day preconvention workshop and the AIA Housing Awards and AIA/HUD Secretary's Awards ceremony. The workshop examined the role of innovative design in housing and community development, focusing on case studies from Philadelphia and including comparative examples from other cities. The keynote was given by Beth Miller, Community Design Collaborative. The awards ceremony was held at the Philadelphia History Museum. 

DTLA - As an architect active in mixed-use developments and as Chair of the Planning Committee for the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council, the question I get asked the most is, “Where are we in the development cycle?” It makes sense: With more than 10,000 housing units under construction in Downtown and another 15,000 units in the pipeline, people want to know if the boom is near an end.  

Answering the question requires looking at what’s driving the demand. According to a study by Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, renter households in the United State increased from 34 million in 2005 to nearly 43 million in 2015. L.A. has a housing shortage of 82,000 units, which helped prompt Mayor Eric Garcetti’s goal to create 100,000 residential units by 2021, with approximately 46,000 of them priced at levels deemed “affordable” for low- or moderate-income individuals and families.  - to read full article:

https://www.ladowntownnews.com/opinion/the-perfect-storm-of-housing-affordability/article_269bad42-1ecf-11e6-a993-a7d921e9e635.html

At the 104th Annual ACSA Conference, AIA HCD kicked off the first ACSA/AIA co-sponsored pre-conference workshop. The topic was Inspiring Excellence in Housing Design, showcasing best practices around the country, moderated by Simon Ha with presenters Anne-Marie Lubenau, Bruner Foundation and Mike Pyatok, Pyatok Architecture _+ Urban Design. Anne-Marie presented the Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence, a national award that celebrates transformative urban places distinguished by physical design and their social, economic, and environmental impact on our nation's cities.  Mike Pyatok presented his experience on five decades of teaching housing studios and seminars as a professor-practitioner.

At the 104th Annual ACSA Conference, AIA HCD kicked off the first ACSA/AIA co-sponsored pre-conference workshop. The topic was Inspiring Excellence in Housing Design, showcasing best practices around the country, moderated by Simon Ha with presenters Anne-Marie Lubenau, Bruner Foundation and Mike Pyatok, Pyatok Architecture _+ Urban Design. Anne-Marie presented the Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence, a national award that celebrates transformative urban places distinguished by physical design and their social, economic, and environmental impact on our nation's cities.  Mike Pyatok presented his experience on five decades of teaching housing studios and seminars as a professor-practitioner.

Founded in 1989, Skid Row Housing Trust provides permanent supportive housing so that people who have experienced homelessness, prolonged extreme poverty, poor health, disabilities, mental illness and/or addiction can lead safe, stable lives in wellness. Skid Row Housing Trust is committed to preventing and ending homelessness in greater Los Angeles.

The Zoning Advisory Committee (ZAC) was formed to provide perspectives from representatives of the different regions and stakeholders of the City of Los Angeles. It held its first meeting on December 11, 2013, and ever since has been an invaluable resource to the project team in developing our new Zoning Code.  

The 21 Zoning Advisory Committee (ZAC) members will play a vital role in the re:code LA effort by providing guidance on zoning policy direction. Represented interests include academia (environmental, transportation, and design), neighborhood organizations, social activism, business, and development. The ZAC members possess valuable expertise and unique perspectives on zoning and planning in the City of Los Angeles.  

The opening of the charter school marks a sea change for elementary education in Downtown Los Angeles. The institution with 110 kindergarten through second grade students came about only after a group of parents decided to address what they saw as the lack of quality schools in the area... The school effort began in late 2011 when a group of parents who took their then pre-school children to Grand Hope Park for play dates began discussing their educational concerns. Already, they had seen some families move out of Downtown when their kids reached kindergarten age because they felt local facilities were not up to snuff.

The group included South Park resident Misra, her husband Apurva Pande, and Simon Ha, David Chun and Mike McGalliard. They now make up the five-member Metro school board... - to read the full article:

https://www.ladowntownnews.com/news/downtown-parents-open-elementary-school/article_439406c2-164b-11e3-8fcc-0019bb2963f4.html

TSK Architects is a highly acclaimed architecture, planning and interior design firm headquartered in Henderson, Nevada with additional offices in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Reno-Tahoe and now, Dallas. Founded in 1960, the firm has established a reputation for design excellence and superior client service. TSK has been named the AIA Nevada Firm of the Year in recognition for their award-winning portfolio of work, which spans projects in various sectors including civic, federal, justice, public safety and education.

TSK acquired Caldwell Architects in 2010. Simon joined TSK as managing partner in 2013 and moved the office from Marina Del Rey to downtown LA. Simon added multi-family residential practice to the firm's well established institutional practice.

Westgate Pasadena won NAHB Pillars of the Industry Award for Best Apartment Community. Westgate Pasadena is a 3 city block master plan with 820 total units. Phase I completed with 480 units in 2010. The project has received many awards including:

· 2012 PCBC Gold Nugget Merit Award for residential community of the year

· 2010 PCBC Gold Nugget Grand Award for Best Community Site Plan

· 2005 Congress of New Urbanism Charter Awards, Award of Excellence

· AIA Orange County Chapter Award of Honor for Planning