Downtown Los Angeles Environmental Engineering Company

Geo Forward, Inc. is a Downtown Los Angeles environmental engineering company that specializes in multi-tenant residential, commercial, and industrial projects. The company comprises a group of geologists, engineers, and contractors with expertise in soil, groundwater, and soil-gas contamination. Additionally, geotechnical and mitigation construction services also apply. The company’s primary services include Geotechnical Evaluations, Phase 1 Environmental Site Assessments, Phase 2 Environmental Subsurface Investigations, soil and groundwater contamination remediation, groundwater monitoring, and more. Additionally, Geo Forward participates in regional methane soil-gas assessments and vapor intrusion studies for public health protection efforts. Equally important, the company provides geological surveys and excavation and grading support services. Updated April 9, 2024.

The Downtown Los Angeles Initiative

Since the year 2000, the DTLA community has been enthusiastically promoting the revitalization initiative for downtown Los Angeles. The Central City Association (also known as the CCA) along with the Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles (also known as the LA-CRA) were the original spearheaders of this process. These organizations consolidated interest from various local businesses to take a political position on revitalizing downtown with new developments. Massive feasibility studies, legal research, environmental impact analysis, and public interest surveys were only part of the requirement to kick-start this initiative. Moreover, the grand plan was brainstormed by historical preservation societies, renowned developers, real estate investors, city planners, politicians, and other public figures.

Incentive for Developers

At the forefront of the revitalization project, it was widely known there was an excess supply of commercial and industrial property in downtown Los Angeles and virtually no residential supply. At the time, there wasn’t even a demand for residential development in downtown. In fact, DTLA was a place most people chose to avoid after sundown.

However, during the 1990s, New York City was undergoing a revitalization process of its own. Consequently, it was widely discussed that many Los Angeles developers, legislatures, and activists were taken by the success of New York City, and aspired to implement the same movement in downtown Los Angeles. The initiative was to restore and convert old commercial spaces and also build new facilities. These developments were sure to attract a new generation of young urban professionals, just entering the working class. As a result, interest groups, city planners, and land developers began pushing concepts of a Live-Work-Play culture in new Downtown Los Angeles.

All groups with involvement eventually found themselves on the same page about revitalizing DTLA. Consequently, legislative adjustments were passed, allowing certain building code exemptions for converting historical office building spaces into residential lofts. The Adaptive Reuse Ordinance is a significant historic preservation incentive in the City of Los Angeles, and originated for the downtown area, before the DTLA construction boom. This ordinance exempts historical structures in Los Angeles from the modern-day zoning and construction codes that apply to newer construction jobs. As a result, an incentive was born for developers to revitalize Downtown Los Angeles. And with a healthy profitability index at that.

Retroactive Boom Town

The developer incentives explained above began with loft conversion projects. From there, the retroactive boom town took off. And the popular interest in DTLA then generated a massive demand in restaurants, bars, nightlife, museums, social scenes, public transportation, and more.

Geo Forward in DTLA

Geo Forward is a technology-based environmental engineering firm, with headquarters in Downtown Los Angeles (since 2015). The Geo Forward DTLA team comprises a diverse group of young professionals. And each team member is passionate about business culture and human progress here in Los Angeles. In fact, the CEO and founder of Geo Forward have been an enthusiast and resident of Downtown Los Angeles since before 2011. The company aims to apply its forward-thinking strategies to solve local soil and groundwater contamination problems.

Currently, Geo Forward manages local land development and rehabilitation projects for the public and private sectors. The DTLA team accomplishes contamination clean-up projects for new buildings, transportation systems, and commercial-industrial real estate projects. Many (but not all) of Geo Forward’s projects are in Downtown Los Angeles. The company aims to continue applying technology-driven-environmental engineering methods for the community directly. As a downtown Los Angeles environmental engineering company, the Geo Forward team has a personal and professional interest in making Los Angeles a cleaner and more sustainable city.

Downtown Los Angeles Environmental Engineering

In the decades to come, Geo Forward plans to assist in the expansion of public transportation projects in Downtown Los Angeles. Moreover, optimizing contamination remediation and mitigation projects related to former landfilling and oil pumping sites is another goal. Geo Forward’s forward-thinking business strategy honors the greater interest of the City of Los Angeles and its people. Additionally, the strategies accomplish the requirements of interest groups, city planners, and environmental regulatory agencies.

The Geo Forward team includes project managers and licensed professional geologists, engineers, and contractors with experience in engineering geology, environmental engineering, water resources, and construction.