Overview

For over a century, the City of Vernon’s motto was Exclusively Industrial! The city covers five square miles in the middle of Los Angeles, nestled between some of the trendiest districts and some of the lowest-income neighborhoods in California. Vernon is a collection of warehouses and manufacturing facilities without a single green space, and carries a reputation for environmental hazards. Under pressure from the State to establish an authentic residential population, Vernon’s leadership committed to a transformation. 

But increasing the residential density of an industrial area is doomed to fail if it is approached as a zoning and development exercise. The challenge – and opportunity – is to holistically design a city for social and environmental quality, starting with the most basic of foundations: public health. 

Through factors as diverse as air quality, heat exposure, access to green space, and walkability, the physical environment shapes health outcomes as powerfully as any clinical intervention. The built environment is one of the most impactful tools for influencing public health outcomes. And it is one of the most overlooked – across the spectrum of developers, architects, planners, and public health professionals, no one sees design for health as their core mandate.