Delirious LA is the online portfolio of work and writings by Alan A Loomis, AICP, an award-winning urban designer, planner and educator based in the Los Angeles area.

Presently, Alan is a Principal of Urban Design with the California planning firm PlaceWorks, based in the company’s downtown LA office.

From 2017 to 2020 Alan was the City Urban Designer for Santa Monica, California, where he worked with City divisions and departments, outside agencies, the general public, and local interest and community groups to provide a cohesive and comprehensive approach to urban design. In this role, he was the City’s lead for Promenade 3.0, a comprehensive redesign of the iconic Third Street Promenade.

Before Santa Monica, Alan led the urban design program in the City of Glendale for twelve years, starting in 2005 as the City’s first on-staff urban designer. Holding the title Principal Urban Designer, Alan was responsible for bringing the Downtown Specific Plan (DSP) and Mobility Study to adoption, and personally managing the design review for over 20 new downtown projects, representing over 3000 new residences, as well as additional projects at the Disney/Dreamworks creative campus and in the Tropico District surrounding Glendale’s Metrolink/Amtrak station, working with some of the most prolific and prominent architects and developers in the region during regular, often weekly, design sessions. Following the DSP, Alan directed a wide range of urban design based policy projects, such as the Maryland Off Broadway Art & Entertainment District, the Small Lot Subdivision Ordinance, the Community Plan program and the Space 134 Freeway Cap Park, leading multi-disciplinary teams through an equally wide range of public outreach programs.

In 2015, Alan was promoted to Deputy Director of the Glendale Community Development Department  to lead the newly formed Urban Design & Mobility Division. The Division brought transportation planning and operations under the umbrella of urban design to pursue complete streets policies through integrated land use and transit planning, pedestrian plans and related education initiatives, setting the stage for Glendale’s approach towards Measure M projects.

Prior to his tenure in the public sector, Alan was an urban designer for the Pasadena firm Moule & Polyzoides Architects and Urbanists, where he directed planning projects for Pomona College, the University of California Santa Barbara, City of Montclair, City of Azusa, and various other locations in California, New Mexico and New Jersey.

He has taught urban design at Woodbury University School of Architecture in Burbank; co-edited the book “Los Angeles: Building the Polycentric Region” a survey of regional smart growth architecture and urbanism published for CNU13; and created the DeliriousLA listing of Los Angeles area architecture and urban design events, now hosted and curated by the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design.

Alan is a frequent speaker and tour guide on Los Angeles history and urbanism. He has participated in ULI-TAP panels, sat on juries for APA Awards and the City of Los Angeles “LA Lights the Way” design competition, and served on interview panels to select new planners, urban designers and architects for the Cities of Los Angeles, Pasadena, Santa Monica, and Santa Ana, among others. .

From 2014 to 2020 he served on the City of Pasadena’s Design Commission, and Chaired the Commission during fiscal year 2016-2017. In 2019 he was invited to sit on the Advisory Board for the Woodbury University School of Architecture.