In 1855, the US Congress put $30,000 aside for a project known as The U.S. Camel Corps, sending an Army major to what is now Turkey to procure these new forms of transportation, meant to traverse the rugged landscape of the Wild West. By 1857 the venture was in full force, with the first official Camel Corps being used as the main form of transportation for missions and supply routes in New Mexico, Califonia and Texas.

Strap on a time machine and jump back to 1863. With the country split by civil war, the Camel Corps was forced to downsize. The city of Los Angeles (inducted into the Union only 13 years previously) had just received 28 camels with the intent to use them as cargo haulers.

Questionable in theory and most definitely a failure in execution, the camels never managed to catch on as a new form of transportation in the city.

In fact, the City of Angels has been a veritable breeding ground for a series of failed studies in transit. As a recent article in the Los Angeles Times explains, the camels were not the only form of transportation that failed to capture the public’s loyalty. So what’s next, some fancy light rail system? Well, yes.

The residents of California, specifically in LA, hope to change this streak by making the State’s High-Speed Rail proposal a reality. RailLA, a partnership composed of members of the American Institute of Architects (AIA-LA) and the Los Angeles American Planning Association (APA-LA), hope to institute the Coalition for a High-Speed Future. As a way to get architects and designers involved in the discussion, the coalition is currently sponsoring an open call for “submissions of projects and ideas for an exhibition on the urban possibilities associated with a new rail infrastructure.” Deep breaths, please.

The group will be accepting submissions until July 13 and hope to get a broad array of ideas of how the new rail system will positively affect Americans. The top five submissions will receive a monetary award, and the group plans to show a group of entries at an opening exhibit in Downtown Los Angeles as well as on their webpage for the life of the initiative. Plans for the inclusion of projects within a variety of publications seems to also be in the works.

Last year, Wired posted an article about the Obama administration’s interest in propelling California’s high-speed ambitions, and further went to explain their dedication to push similar projects in Florida, the Midwest and New England.  Recently, Wired writer Chuck Squatriglia chipped with his own two cents, critiquing a critique of high-speed rails and pointing out that the plan’s own worst enemy is misinformation.

Either way, this ambitious undertaking should not be ignored. Just imagine the new architectural possibilities of a transportation that combines a now-retro futurism (Epcot Center, anyone?) with such cutting-edge contemporary technology.

From this…

…to this!

Note: A good place to start, if you are so compelled to delve further into the history of LA infrastructures, is Mammoth, which has weekly readings and discussions about each chapter of The Infrastructural City – Networked Ecologies in Los Angeles.

by Stephen Killion

posted in General

tagged AIA, california, camel corps, light rail system, transportation, urban planning

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