Since the City of Los Angeles’s new Accessory Dwelling Unit ordinance went into effect last year, our office has been flooded with calls to work on ADU projects across the city. Aside from helping to legalize existing–but previously unpermitted–ADUs, we have been engaged with several ground-up and garage conversion projects. 

For the Tribune project, our office attempted to max-out the site’s buildable area, adding a pinwheel-shaped, three-bedroom single-story ADU that features a butterfly roof and maintains multiple, direct connections to the outdoors. The unit is accessed from a rear alleyway, giving ADU residents privacy and direct access that includes generous planted outdoor areas. 

The Perlita project, on the other hand, represents a new ADU attached to the back of an existing garage . For the project, our team reoriented the ADU’s frontage toward the rear of the property in order to create a porous relationship with the backyard and to establish direct access to an adjacent outdoor patio. The patio and primary entry wall for the unit are clad in large-format patterned tiles that wrap the patio floor and the entry, as well. The space is minimal and efficient, designed for a couple ready to down-size and rent their front existing house.