Archinect - News

Backed by SB4, church groups prepare to make housing their mission in LA

2024-08-20T11:17:00-04:00

The Archdiocese of L.A. announced Wednesday it will partner with a newly formed nonprofit called Our Lady Queen of Angels Housing Alliance to develop affordable housing in Southern California. Their first project — located on Archdiocese land currently used by Catholic Charities — will construct affordable apartments next to L.A. City College for community college students and youth transitioning out of foster care.

The transitional housing project at Los Angeles City College joins another for Pasadena City College that will enable better access to higher education for the 30,000 youths enrolled in L.A. County’s foster care system currently. Statewide there are 171,749 acres of developable land owned by nonprofit colleges or faith-based organizations, according to the UC Berkeley Terner Center for Housing Innovation’s assessment from a year ago.

SB4, motivated by the national “Yes in God’s Backyard” (which began in San Diego, eases the process for churches and nonprofit organizations can build housing at sites that previously had been limited by lot size restrictions and the California Environmental Quality Act (or CEQA).

The article mentions a separate state report, which found that one-quarter of all community college students in California experience homelessness at some point during the school year.

Shipping containers rise to form Lorcan O’Herlihy's new supportive housing development for South LA

2024-06-21T17:02:00-04:00

A new supportive housing project in Los Angeles for developer Holos Communities completed this month by Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects (LOHA) that will serve as a tool in the city's uphill climb on the homeless crisis has opened amidst a wave of proactive movement on the issue meant to restore the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in search of dignity and a place to call home.

The design for Isla Intersections Supportive Housing and Paseo reused shipping containers to create 54 new units of housing integrated into the area’s transportation networks and replete with a healthy amount of greenery, greywater irrigation, and gardening amenities that establish it as a “living lung” in the middle of a heavily-trafficked neighborhood known widely for having an industrial character and the highest rates of unsheltered homelessness in the city.

Image: Eric Staudenmaier

The Isla was developed on a triangular lot adjacent to the 110 and 105 freeways in South LA and resolved the rather dif...

Kadre and Lehrer Architects team up for a new transitional housing community in Los Angeles

2024-01-04T12:50:00-05:00

A new supportive housing concept in Los Angeles has been introduced by LA-based practices Kadre Architects and Lehrer Architects. The design teams shared it can become a new model for design resourcefulness and occupants’ dignity at a time when the city, as do many others in America, faces a desperate need.

The new 95-unit Cypress Park New Beginnings Community was inaugurated in early December after first breaking ground in May of 2022. The new housing scheme aimed to serve “displaced populations and environmental and/or socio-economic crises.”

Image courtesy of Kadre Architects.

Their brief called for the construction of 350-square-foot micro-housing units on a disused plot between the Arroyo and Golden State Parkways. Site conditions for the 35,000-square-foot development were extremely challenging in an echo of Lehrer’s previous work on the Tiny Homes Villages in different parts of Los Angeles.

Image courtesy Kadre Architects.

Faced with this challenge, the design team responded ...

NYC will convert JFK Hilton hotel into supportive housing

2023-12-28T13:44:00-05:00

A plan to transform the former Hilton Hotel at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City into supportive housing has been announced as the inaugural effort of the important new Housing Our Neighbors with Dignity Act (HONDA) program by Mayor Eric Adams.

Aufgang Architects will be in charge of overhauling the 350-room hotel into the renamed Baisley Pond Park Residences, a 318-unit residential development aimed at low-income and formerly homeless individuals with rents ranging between $784 per month for studios to $1,493 for two-bedroom apartments. They say their work will be completed in just 21 months thanks to the hotel’s compatible layout, which allows for a minimally invasive slate of amendments to its internal wall structures.

The result will be a life-changing space for residents, complete with all-electric heating and cooling systems, multiple community/computer rooms, space for the RiseBoro Community Partnership’s on-site support staff, a kitchen serviced by the ...

Daniel Libeskind completes senior housing development on Long Island

2023-09-20T17:59:00-04:00

Studio Libeskind has shared photos of its recently completed senior housing project on Long Island.

Located in the village of Freeport in Nassau County, the new Allan and Geraldine Rosenberg Residence holds a total of 45 units reserved for residents aged 55 and older, along with a selection of on-site supportive services and other amenities meant to improve its users' quality of life and ability to age in place as part of the state’s larger $25 billion push to create 100,000 units of affordable housing.

Declaring “Senior housing isn’t just about accommodation; it’s about people. It’s about creating a residence where residents can feel happy, secure, and emotionally connected to their neighbors,” the studio’s founder was joined by New York Governor Kathy Hochul for this week’s ribbon-cutting ceremony. The project reserves a total of 30% of the apartments for disabled and formerly homeless seniors, and sustainability is ensured thanks to rainwater collection, efficient HVAC, and all-e...

AXIS/GFA's record-breaking Weingart Center supportive housing development tops out in Skid Row

2023-07-21T12:34:00-04:00

A record-breaking supportive housing development in the overburdened Los Angeles market is one step closer to completion this week after AXIS/GFA Architecture + Design’s new 19-story Weingart Center Tower 1 project topped out near Skid Row.

Once completed, the development will provide a total of 228 studio and one-bedroom apartments reserved exclusively for people who had previously experienced homelessness. Proponents say it will be the largest single-addition housing project of its kind in the city.

Los Angeles is currently in the midst of a crisis caused in large part by state and local policy failures, the lack of financing, and a compendium of related issues, including developers' reticence, corruption, and the resounding absence of low-income housing countywide. New Mayor Karen Bass recently signed an ordinance that makes it easier to realize constructions under 49 units, but the hope and need for larger developments is also glaring. Therefore the project stands as a new high...

New York Mayor Eric Adams pitches a case for windowless apartment units in the city

2023-03-24T11:58:00-04:00

Mayor Eric Adams opened a new window into his vision for building New York City out of the current housing crisis, with a riff on “dormitory” style accommodations [...] During a conversation on Monday at the Greene Space, New York Public Radio's live events venue, Adams said he wants to 'do a real examination' of the laws that require windows in bedrooms — a major tweak that could make it easier for developers to convert empty offices into apartments.

The Mayor’s comments in favor of window features found in Dormzilla-like residential design caught the ire of critics, who were quick to illustrate its potential fire hazards and physiological impacts. Adams’ suggestion seems a bit at odds with the city’s push to deliver better affordable housing with 40,000 office conversions and other measures, but are nevertheless in line with several of the recommendations for “flexible regulations“ attributed to the Adaptive Reuse Task Force proposed in December 2022.

According to Gothamist, Adams then also commended WeWork’s flawed housing development model and the widespread adaptation of single-room occupancy (or SROs) constructions that typically have windows but have been dwindling since being made illegal under New York City law in 1955.

Supportive housing advocate and pioneer Roseanne Haggerty told Gothamist they would “...

Alexander Gorlin Architects completes 10-story affordable housing development in the Bronx

2022-11-02T16:06:00-04:00

A new $62 million affordable housing project from Alexander Gorlin Architects has been completed in the Bronx for developers Comunilife, a local nonprofit aimed at improving the lives of vulnerable communities through a combination of housing justice and culturally-sensitive supportive services.

The firm’s El Borinquen Residence at 3401 Third Avenue features a total of 148 “deeply affordable” units, with 29 being reserved for seniors and an additional 90 set aside for those experiencing homelessness and youths who have recently aged out of the foster care system. It is a follow-up to their highly-praised Boston Road development two blocks north and was framed by Governor Kathy Hochul as the lynchpin for a larger five-year and $25 billion housing plan that is desperately needed as the city grapples with a protracted emergency corresponding to its high cost of living.

Image courtesy Alexander Gorlin Architects

"With the completion of the El Borinquen Residence, more of our neighbors e...

HUD is committing $365 million to help prevent homeless encampments. Will it be enough?

2022-06-22T18:27:00-04:00

In an effort to halt the actions of different major cities to sweep away homeless encampments in recent years, the federal government is now taking direct action in the form of two expanded grant programs it says have become necessary in the face of rising inflation and untenable rental markets.

Bloomberg is reporting that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has earmarked some $365 million worth of funding aimed directly at the country’s unhoused population it says currently numbers more than 550,000.

The funding is going to be provided through an expansion of HUD’s Continuum of Care (CoC) grant program and a new round of housing choice vouchers which add up to $43 million. It represents the first time that the agency has dedicated monies to directly aid those who are without shelter, and will address the related issue of rural homelessness with a special earmark of $54.5 million.

Previously on Archinect: A homeless encampment is growing on Apple's future N...

COVID-19, lapses in federal support delay L.A.'s landmark affordable housing initiative

2020-07-01T10:42:00-04:00

Already sharply criticized for its slow progress and rising costs, the $1.2-billion bond program is in a new slump. A Times analysis of data from the Los Angeles Housing and Community Investment Department shows that 57 projects have fallen behind schedule since January. Of those, 21 were pushed back more than six months.

Doug Smith of The Los Angeles Times checks in on the progress (or lack thereof) on a variety of affordable housing projects initiated through the L.A.'s Proposition HHH bill. The report states that delays caused by COVID-19 have been exacerbated in recent months due to a shortage of Section 8 housing vouchers, leaving many projects unable to move forward with design and construction.

John Arnold, a partner with Killefer Flammang Architects, tells Smith that the firm's HHH projects have been impacted by the various slowdowns, explaining, “The general feeling is everything is slow.”