This privately funded project is one of the first market-rate apartment buildings to be constructed in decades in this Los Angeles neighborhood. Utilizing the City’s 35% affordable housing density bonus, the building is located on an infill site between a busy north to south boulevard and a residential neighborhood zoned for multi-family dwellings. Formerly a mortuary, the flat site is irregularly configured, leading to an “L”-shaped building sitting over surface parking. The five story structure includes 51 one-bedroom units, a ground-level common room, and a third-level roof terrace, and additionally takes advantage of State legislation that reduces parking when a project is located within a transit-priority area. The reduction in parking from the typical 70-plus spaces to 29 spaces substantially reduces costs and establishes, in part, the feasibility of the project.

The design floats its mass above a setback base clad in decorative wrought iron and buffered from the sidewalk edge by a lot-long planter. The length of the design is broken into individual masses clipped together by horizontal balconies. Three colors distinguish each of the three building plane conditions, accentuating the modulation of the facades and creating a sense of visual interest. The design, while simple, seeks to establish a precedent for quality and efficiency in a neighborhood that has long been neglected by developers.