Archinect - News

LA’s cramped rezoning plan still short of housing goals says UCLA study

2024-11-19T11:09:00-05:00

Under state laws designed to remedy a housing shortage, the city has to set aside land for the construction of 250,000 more homes than allowed through existing zoning rules. Measures under consideration by a City Council committee are likely to satisfy the state requirements, the UCLA analysis found. But when analyzing the likelihood of what developers would actually build, researchers found the number of new homes would be far lower.

The L.A. City Council is expected to vote later this afternoon to approve the rezoning measure. The report's co-author Shane Phillips of the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies says the city would be better served if its generous slate of incentives was expanded to cover the remaining 72% of neighborhoods currently zoned for single-family houses. Others have labeled this plan as exclusionary for that reason. Planners face a state mandate to find space for at least 250,000 new housing units by mid-February.

Construction tech start-up sends AI-powered "micro-factories" to the US to build affordable housing

2024-10-04T17:57:00-04:00

British construction tech start-up Automated Architecture (AUAR) is sending two of its pop-up, robotic micro-factories to the U.S. for the first time in a move to bring automated and affordable house building to North America.

Founded in 2019, AUAR functions by licensing its technology to builders and contractors to build low-energy homes at the price of normal homes, at scale.

Related on Archinect: Where Are All The Affordable Housing Startups?. Image credit: Katerra

The micro-factories will be deployed by real estate development and construction firm Rival Holdings, which aims to address the ongoing housing crisis by building thousands of sustainable, affordable, and high-quality homes across the Midwest. The partnership between Rival Holdings and AUAR was announced in March.

“We are really excited to partner with Rival Holdings to bring our cutting-edge Robotic Micro-factories to the United States,” said Co-Founder and CEO of AUAR, Mollie Claypool. “This partnership is our first ...

NYC forms task force to search for housing opportunities on gov't owned land

2024-08-26T14:53:00-04:00

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has announced the formation of a new multi-agency task force aimed at finding city-owned land and properties that can be redeveloped in the interest of putting an end to its greatest housing crisis in more than 50 years.

According to amNewYork, the new City Housing Activation Task Force is operating under a directive to “review all land under the ownership and control of the city or of other participating and cooperating agencies and entities … to identify potential sites for housing development and to determine if such sites could be used to further housing production … without disruption to critical operations."

Former NYCEDC President Maria Torres-Springer is leading the task force. It expands on the 'City of Yes for Housing Opportunity’ proposal that was launched by the Adams administration in September of 2023.

Are New Towns really the best new hope for ending the UK housing crisis?

2024-08-19T17:45:00-04:00

Last month, the [UK] government announced a task force to develop a strategy for new towns — settlements of more than 10,000 homes — and make recommendations for their locations within a year. The government has not set a target for the number of towns and acknowledges that they will take a long time to deliver.

Britain, short on more than four million homes, is mulling a revival of its post-war New Towns after a decisive Labour Party victory vaulted progressive leadership into power with a mandate to combat its ongoing housing crisis. Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently told the BBC that he is a self-identifying YIMBY who wants to "bulldoze" planning rules and overrule local-led resistance to get it done. The strategy, which preceded a new plan central to Kamala Harris’ Presidential campaign, could still regrettably wind up hemmed in by a notoriously parochial planning process which, nevertheless, gifted the world with Milton Keynes and other important architecture.

His deputy Angela Rayner says the list of sites to be developed won't be revealed until the end of this year. RIBA's President Muyiwa Oki has said at the outset that their plan "offers overarching solutions, but lacks critical detail on delivering social housing and futureproofing existing homes."

COOKFOX leads planned transformation of a former prison into affordable housing in Manhattan

2024-07-31T19:57:00-04:00

New York Governor Kathy Hochul's office has proposed transforming the 100,000-square-foot former Bayview Correctional Facility in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood into affordable housing. Called Liberty Landing, the scheme is a joint venture between Camber Property Group and Osborne Association, which are pledging $108 million towards the transformation.

Image: COOKFOX

COOKFOX is leading this adaptive reuse design, which calls for creating 124 permanently affordable housing units and on-site supportive services. The project also features a 9,300-square-foot community facility dedicated to youth-oriented programming, along with a 15-unit, short-term transitional residence to support individuals with mental health needs.

Image: COOKFOX

Denver inches forward on downtown KSE-Ball Arena Redevelopment

2024-07-24T12:12:00-04:00

Things appear to be moving forward for Denver’s proposed KSE-Ball Arena Redevelopment following the approval of a rezoning application from Shears Adkins Rockmore Architects (SAR+). The plan connects 75 acres around the 25-year-old sports venue to the future River Mile Development and other constituent parts of downtown, replacing surface parking lots with a 12 million-square-foot mixed-use program and 10 acres of landscaped open space.

ZGF Architects is also involved in the project as a design partner. Wenk Associates is the landscape architect. The plan addresses Denver's need for housing near the downtown core with 6,000 new units, 18% of which are considered affordable.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by SAR+ Architects (@shears_adkins_rockmore)

The Ball Arena scheme is similar in scope to the proposed 55-acre The 1901 Project redevelopment of the neighborhood surrounding the United Center in Chicago from RIOS and Field Operations, which we detailed ...

Costco to deliver 800-unit mixed-use housing scheme to Los Angeles

2024-07-03T12:41:00-04:00

A plan from big-box giant Costco to deliver an 800-apartment mixed-use scheme designed by AO in Los Angeles is garnering some positive reviews online for its response to the city’s vexing housing crisis.

SFGate.com has more on the latest attempts to tackle the emergency, which remains at the top of a list of municipal priorities despite recent progress on the issue from several fronts.

Rendering courtesy Thrive Living

They say the five-acre development will include a "fitness area, multi-use community space, multiple courtyards and landscaped paths, a rooftop pool, and other amenities like gardens," in addition to parking spaces for both tenants and store customers. A total of 184 apartments will be set aside as affordable housing. A recent popular X post detailed the complex regulatory considerations the scheme maneuvered and contributed to its modular design. The client is Thrive Living, a privately owned developer of workforce housing.

The now 50-year-old AO is also notable for ...

Beyer Blinder Belle-designed new National Urban League headquarters rises in Harlem

2024-06-15T06:22:00-04:00

Beyer Blinder Belle’s design for the National Urban League’s new headquarters, which also houses New York City’s first civil rights museum, has risen in Harlem.

The National Urban League is a historical civil rights organization dedicated to the economic empowerment of and the elevation of living standards in historically underserved urban communities. This milestone marks the completion of the organization’s relocation from their former Lower Manhattan office.

Called the Urban Empowerment Center, the new 17-story, 414,000-square-foot building was delivered through a collaboration between private, public, and state organizations. In addition to the headquarters, it will include the Urban Civil Rights Museum Experience and the National Urban League Institute for Race, Equity, and Justice.

The building also features 90,000 square feet of office space, 84,000 square feet of retail space, and 171 affordable apartments. The changes in the structure’s glass curtain wall and massing resp...

NYT: Rising insurance costs impinging on affordable development efforts nationwide

2024-06-12T17:50:00-04:00

Less attention, though, has been paid to rental housing, particularly for low and moderate income people. Unlike market-rate apartment developers, those building multifamily projects financed by subsidies and tax credits do not have the ability to simply pass on those higher insurance costs to tenants, since they are limited by government guidelines as to how much rent they can collect.

The Times points out, many “low-income areas tend to be more prone to flooding and other catastrophic damage” – meaning that resilient design strategies often have to be added to the list of considerations for architects and their clients (as the ASLA’s most recent industry survey proves). The article quotes another conducted last year by the National Leased Housing Association as finding “nearly one-third” of all affordable housing developers nationally reporting insurance increases of 25% or more between 2022 and 2023.

Pratt SoA Dean Quilian Riano outlines plan to address space challenges with proposed new building

2024-05-30T14:43:00-04:00

In a new letter to faculty members at the Pratt School of Architecture, second-year Dean Quilian Riano has outlined the need for some $71 million worth of deferred maintenance and other upgrades to the 155-year-old Higgins Hall in keeping with the new Local Law 97 mandate for net zero operating capacity by 2050. This includes $57 million for maintenance and upgrades, plus an additional $14 million to increase the electrical capacity.

Local Law 97 requires new energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions limits, with a goal of a 40% reduction by 2030 and achieving net zero by 2050. Additionally, Higgins Hall has maxed out its Floor Area Ratio (FAR) and electrical capacity.

As a result, Riano said, the school must expand into a new building to accommodate its growing student body. A Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEI) will now be issued to developers. This process will explore leveraging Pratt Institute’s air rights to build housing, including affordable housing, and deliver ...

Architect Liu Thai Ker on the success of Singapore’s social housing experiments 40 years on

2024-05-28T20:26:00-04:00

Even though record prices on the secondary market have heightened anxiety about the rising costs of living in Singapore, one of the world’s most expensive cities, public housing remains broadly affordable — at least for those who qualify for government subsidies to buy units. Today, close to 80 percent of Singapore’s residents live in public housing, and about 90 percent of the units are owned on a 99-year lease.

The architect of Singapore’s successful “social engineering” campaign after 1965, Liu Thai Ker, is a Malaysian-born Yale graduate and former understudy of I.M. Pei, who told the New York Times recently that he was “sad” to see the city-state’s current market dynamics affecting some of his democratizing designs from the 1980s.

Singapore has for years ranked alongside Vienna among the world’s leading cities for the development of social housing. The 86-year-old Liu continues his work as the Founding Chairman of the Singapore/Shanghai-based MORROW Architects + Planners, an entity he began in 2017 following the culmination of his 25-year run at RSP Architects Planners & Engineers.

California environmental review process is hindering affordable housing development, according to new state agency report

2024-05-28T12:57:00-04:00

A new report on California’s entrenched housing crisis from the state's independent Little Hoover Commission has identified the 54-year-old California Environmental Quality Act (or CEQA) as the greatest barrier currently in the way of architects and planners looking to meet the demand for 2.5 million new units statewide by 2030.

LAist.com has more on the report, which took over a year to compile. Among its findings is the concerning fact that 25% of all lawsuits initiated under CEQA have been challenges to infill housing developments in densely populated urban areas (e.g., Los Angeles). Authors say this could grow into all-out “urban warfare” that, in turn, overburdens exurbs and more inland areas. LA has been more proactive recently under the mayorship of Karen Bass but must still overcome hurdles to meet its mandate to build 500,000 new homes before 2029.

Cosmic set to produce prefabricated ADUs in California with water recycling and solar energy

2024-04-23T13:58:00-04:00

San Francisco-based Cosmic has raised $1.5 million in funding for their micro-home product designs aimed at bringing “self-sustainable homes in California and beyond.” The company’s leading product, Cosmic ONE, is described as a “limited-edition high-quality micro-home” that can serve as an ADU, a primary single-family home, or a component in a wider residential community.

Showroom model. Image courtesy: Cosmic

Cosmic ONE has been designed as an all-electric, prefabricated unit that can use recycled water for non-potable needs, as well as being equipped with a solar and battery system. The first 100 CosmicOne units will be available for sale in California.

Showroom model. Image courtesy: Cosmic

“Building a new home and expanding an existing one today can be very challenging due to the intricate permitting process, labor scarcity, and complexities of site infrastructure works,” the company says about their prop...

Your next career could be Staff Architect at Habitat for Humanity in Indianapolis

2024-03-08T11:25:00-05:00

Following last week’s look at an opening for a Japanese-speaking Retail Architect at O’Neil Langan Architects, we are using this week’s edition of our Job Highlights series to explore an open role on Archinect Jobs for a Staff Architect at Greater Indy Habitat for Humanity.

Based in Indianapolis, the role calls for an individual “responsible for overseeing the design and modifications of house plans and layouts to provide a cost-effective product that will serve the homebuyers' needs.” Among the requirements for the role are a college degree or commensurate residential construction-related experience with 5-10 years of specifically related experience and education.

Related on Archinect: Mississippi State University studio teaches the value of collaboration between its architecture and building construction science students. Photo: Megan Bean, courtesy of MSU College of Art, Architecture, and Design.

Why the role interests us

The open role at Greater Indy Habitat for Humanity offers u...

Airbnb co-founder's ADU company Samara begins production in Mexico factory

2024-03-07T12:35:00-05:00

California-based Samara has opened a factory in Mexicali, Mexico, to scale up manufacturing of their backyard ADU units. As we reported in late 2022, the startup is led by Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia alongside former Flex chief executive Mike McNamara.

Image credit: Samara

The 150,000-square-foot factory will host the construction of Samara’s modular units, including interior and exterior finishes. Following production in the factory, each unit will be loaded onto a truck for delivery to the customer’s property.

Image credit: Samara

The company’s first unit, Backyard, is being manufactured in studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom layouts, with a larger two-bedroom expected to launch soon. Samara notes that the unit can be installed in “as few as seven months,” including permitting, with 30 days of on-site labor. The unit is currently available for purchase in California.

Image credit: Samara

“Our homes are central to our lives,” said McNamara in a statement. “On average, most people in...

White House announces initiatives to boost manufactured housing

2024-03-01T11:03:00-05:00

The White House has announced a series of moves to increase the production of manufactured housing in the United States. The initiatives are intended to both preserve and rehabilitate existing manufactured home communities and ease barriers to the construction of new units.

The moves include a $225 million funding opportunity for existing communities, overseen by HUD. The Preservation and Reinvestment Initiative for Community Enhancement (PRICE) will support the preservation and revitalization of manufactured housing communities, including the replacement of dilapidated homes, assistance for repairs and upgrades, and improvement of infrastructure such as stormwater systems.

In response to the growing trend of corporate investors buying manufactured housing at the expense of longtime residents, the White House has also announced the ongoing creation of a Mortgagee Letter that, once finalized, will...

Michael Kimmelman checks in on a case study for affordable housing in NYC

2024-02-13T17:49:00-05:00

It wasn’t a visual spectacle, but it was handsome and dignified, standing out with its prefab metal facade not just in a neighborhood of empty lots, aging apartment blocks and derelict rail tracks but also against a backdrop of dreary, bare-bones affordable housing developments all across the city. Most important, its goal was larger than itself: to reimagine subsidized housing for a new century. I promised in that column to report back on whether it succeeded. Did it?

The Via Verde redux is an interesting return to Kimmelman's very first Times column. He wrote the housing scheme’s developer Phipps “knows what it’s doing.”

Whatever is working has got to be scaled up and replicated rather quickly. As he points out, both the city and New York State failed to adequately fund and approve new housing starts to enter the construction pipeline in 2023 despite a present need for approximately 50,000 new units annually.

Kimmelman, whose personal mission to raise housing standards for New Yorkers is well known, is occasionally charged with promotionalism for writing such pieces. (It's worth noting that this is now the critic's second review of a completed Dattner project in as many years.)

PAU founder Vishaan Chakrabarti unveils a housing plan for 1.3 million New Yorkers

2024-01-05T16:59:00-05:00

Vishaan Chakrabarti, founder of PAU, has unveiled his firm's analysis, courtesy of The New York Times, which suggests that enough housing could be created for one million New Yorkers.

The PAU founder says there is space for up to 520,245 homes in the city on roughly 1,700 acres of unused land. Most of it would be enacted above existing single-story commercial spaces. The idea of adding density has been debated, though he points out correctly that it does present a viable alternative to the mass-scale conversion of office buildings that have been proven costly and largely unfeasible in structures built before 1980.

His team's analysis follows previous streetscape and rail infrastructure proposals and was conducted using available data on vacant lots, flood-prone areas, and the location of subway stations and other mass transit options. Current estimates have placed the need for over 500,000 new homes, a figure Mayor Eric Adams's official plan put forth in December 2022 used as a ben...

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 ...

French 2D completes Boston co-housing complex grounded in community connections

2023-12-19T12:02:00-05:00

Boston-based French 2D has completed a 45,000-square-foot collective housing complex in Malden, on the outskirts of Boston. Named Bay State Commons Cohousing, the thirty-unit scheme was conceived as a collaboration with residents “through a participatory design process emphasized mutual support and the central values of consolidating and sharing resources from land and energy to cars and material goods.”

Image credit: nkubota

The scheme’s form is defined by a series of stacked, interlocking units, ranging from micro-studios to three-bedroom homes. Half of the units and common spaces overlook an interior courtyard and lawn, with exterior spaces at every level encouraging spontaneous interactions among residents.

Image credit: nkubota

“Rather than being about surveillance, these connections create reciprocity across multiple places for gardening, chatting, playing, reading, or lounging,” the team explains. “Many of the community’s older resident...

Glazed brick accentuates Shakespeare, Gordon, Vlado: Architects’ new Brooklyn apartment complex

2023-11-24T09:00:00-05:00

Shakespeare, Gordon, Vlado: Architects (SGVA) has offered an insight into their completed multi-family housing scheme in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. Named The Garnet, the project is defined by a gray and black masonry facade punctuated by jewel-toned glazed-brick accents.

Image credit: Alexander Severin

Built on a 15,000-square-foot lot adjacent to the Fulton Street subway line, the scheme holds 103 apartment units above a 12,000-square-foot ground-floor retail space. A second-floor roof terrace seeks to strengthen the residents’ connection to the outdoors, adding to an overall mission of creating “housing that feels expansive and liberating, rather than constrained by its affordability.”

Image credit: Alexander Severin

From the outside, the eleven-story structure is clad in textured masonry with bright accents to form a “pleasant and visually engaging street wall.” A red motif first established on the facad...

The new Sunset Park Library & Apartments bookend New York City's push for affordable housing

2023-11-21T14:20:00-05:00

A unique project addressing the need for affordable housing and library services has debuted in central Brooklyn with the completion of the recent Sunset Park Library & Apartments renovation from Magnusson Architecture and Planning and Mitchell Giurgola.

The project establishes a new 49-unit housing development in addition to an existing single-story structure from the 1970s. The program entails adding a six-story, 50,000-square-foot residential component above the now 20,000-square-foot library, which is expanded to twice its original size. The new building stands at eight stories in total, topped by a 45-kW rooftop PV array.

Image courtesy Brooklyn Public Library

“The Sunset Park Library and Apartments is a crowning achievement that tackles essential community needs and affordable living at a time when New York must urgently address its housing crisis. This historic collaboration between the Brooklyn Public Library and Fifth Avenue Committee exemplifies visionary leadership and pru...

This 3D printed social housing apartment building aims to become Europe's first of its kind

2023-11-21T12:01:00-05:00

German company PERI 3D Construction is collaborating with construction printer manufacturer COBOD on what the team describes as the “first 3D printed social housing apartment building in Germany and Europe.” The three-floor building will contain six apartment units ranging from 670 to 890 square feet.

Image credit: COBOD / PERI 3D

Located in the Ruhr city of Lünen, the project will see the first two floors of the apartment building 3D printed using concrete, while the top floor will be built using a timber hybrid construction method. The foundation, base, and horizontal slabs will be built from conventional methods, while the facade finish will comprise the 3D printed surface on the bottom two floors and facade panels to the top floor.

“We are pleased to be able to demonstrate once again how quickly, efficiently, and in a resource-saving manner the 3D printer can create living space and what potential is also opening up in the multi-family house segment,” PERI’s managing director Fab...

White House announces new guidebook to funding office conversions nationwide

2023-10-28T08:00:00-04:00

The Biden Administration has announced a new initiative aimed at financing office conversions in an effort to combat the growing problem of high vacancy rates and housing affordability in markets large and small across the country.

The announcement comes as vacancy rates have skyrocketed to 30-year highs, according to the White House. Some cities like Washington, D.C. have seen rates as high as 50% in their CBD areas, prompting desperate appeals from politicians to enact wholesale changes to the built environment that’s backed up by funding from the federal level. Now, in unison with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Department of Transportation (DOT), the government has officially published its guidelines for obtaining available funding through the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act and Railroad Rehabilitation & Improvement Financing, and other programs.

The White House press release says: “Converting commercial real estate to housing a...

New York City unveils major zoning overhaul to boost housing stock

2023-09-25T15:41:00-04:00

Mayor Eric Adams proposed on Thursday a major overhaul of New York City’s approach to development that his administration says could make way for as many as 100,000 additional homes in the coming years and ease the city’s severe housing crisis. [...] The proposals could bring new housing development to nearly every corner of New York City and reflect a growing political consensus that the city must do everything it can to build.

In last week's announcement of the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity plan, several measures designed to achieve the declared goal of adding 100,000 new residential units were listed, including the end of parking mandates for new housing, the legalization of ADUs, encouraging shared living and office conversion, a Universal Affordability Preference policy, updated town center "main streets" zoning along commercial corridors, and a push to utilize available space on campuses across the city.

The proposed town center “main streets” zoning updates could spur new residential development along commercial corridors. Credit: New York City Department of City Planning

“Our goal is to create ‘a little more housing in every neighborhood’ to finally tackle New York’s housing shortage head-on,” said New York City Department of City Planning (DCP) Director Dan Garodnick. “By addressing the root cause of New York’s high housing costs, displacement, homelessness, and the imbalance of power between...

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...

New Terner Center study assesses the impact of SB 4's implementation in California

2023-09-16T10:37:00-04:00

A new study from the University of California, Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation has uncovered over 171,749 acres of developable land owned by nonprofit colleges or faith-based organizations in the state, bolstering the aims of the “Yes in God’s Backyard” movement as it pushes Governor Gavin Newsom to sign SB 4 by the end of next month.

The bill passed the state senate along with the related SB 423 on Monday. If signed into law, it would streamline the process by which churches and other nonprofit organizations can enact housing at sites that previously had been limited by local land use restrictions and the California Environmental Quality Act (or CEQA).

Supporters of the measure have said it will help increase housing in much-needed communities where displacement and homelessness have become the norm as rising expenses and pushback on the part of local municipalities in the wake of SB 9 threaten to derail efforts statewide.

Previously on Archinect: Plan to let churc...

A Tesla-inspired housing startup is hiring in Los Angeles

2023-08-24T15:01:00-04:00

Following last week’s look at an opening for a Construction Manager at Skystone Foundation, we are using this week’s edition of our Job Highlights series to explore an opportunity on Archinect Jobs for a Junior Architectural Engineer at Cover.

The role, based in Los Angeles, calls for an individual who will sit “at the center of innovation, bringing groundbreaking architectural vision to a future with abundant housing for all.” Among the requirements for the position are a degree in architecture, architectural engineering, or similar from an NAAB-accredited program and proficiency in tools such as Rhino, 3D Studio Max, VRay, and Photoshop.

Image credit: Cover Technologies, Inc.

Why the role interests us

The latest opening at Cover offers us the opportunity to explore the background of a firm that spoke with Archinect in 2021 on its creation and ethos. Founded in 2014 by Cooper Union graduates Alexis Rivas and Jemuel Joseph, the company describes itself as one that offers “a turnkey s...

New Terner Center for Housing Innovation paper unpacks five years of SB 35's impact on the California housing crisis

2023-08-21T18:05:00-04:00

The Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley has released a statewide assessment of the development of housing five years after the implementation of California's Senate Bill (SB) 35 began in 2018.

The bill eased the barriers to housing production for builders, in some cases removing the required review process under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and other policies that had been targeted as key impediments to the effort to meet a crisis that has become the defining issue of the time for embattled local governments, residents, and planning officials.

Statistics revealed that 18,000 new units were able to be developed thanks to the streamlining of nearly a thousand multifamily infill housing projects as a direct result of SB 35. The rate of successful developments peaked in 2020, with a noticeable dip recorded in the past year. The study also found encouragingly that most projects covered by SB 35 were considered 100 percent affordable.

Related on Archine...

Archinect - News

LA’s cramped rezoning plan still short of housing goals says UCLA study

Construction tech start-up sends AI-powered "micro-factories" to the US to build affordable housing

NYC forms task force to search for housing opportunities on gov't owned land

Are New Towns really the best new hope for ending the UK housing crisis?

COOKFOX leads planned transformation of a former prison into affordable housing in Manhattan

Denver inches forward on downtown KSE-Ball Arena Redevelopment

Costco to deliver 800-unit mixed-use housing scheme to Los Angeles

Beyer Blinder Belle-designed new National Urban League headquarters rises in Harlem

NYT: Rising insurance costs impinging on affordable development efforts nationwide

Pratt SoA Dean Quilian Riano outlines plan to address space challenges with proposed new building

Architect Liu Thai Ker on the success of Singapore’s social housing experiments 40 years on

California environmental review process is hindering affordable housing development, according to new state agency report

Cosmic set to produce prefabricated ADUs in California with water recycling and solar energy

Your next career could be Staff Architect at Habitat for Humanity in Indianapolis

Airbnb co-founder's ADU company Samara begins production in Mexico factory

White House announces initiatives to boost manufactured housing

Michael Kimmelman checks in on a case study for affordable housing in NYC

PAU founder Vishaan Chakrabarti​ unveils a housing plan for 1.3 million New Yorkers

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

NYC will convert JFK Hilton hotel into supportive housing

French 2D completes Boston co-housing complex grounded in community connections

Glazed brick accentuates Shakespeare, Gordon, Vlado: Architects’ new Brooklyn apartment complex

The new Sunset Park Library & Apartments bookend New York City's push for affordable housing

This 3D printed social housing apartment building aims to become Europe's first of its kind

White House announces new guidebook to funding office conversions nationwide

New York City unveils major zoning overhaul to boost housing stock

Daniel Libeskind completes senior housing development on Long Island

New Terner Center study assesses the impact of SB 4's implementation in California

A Tesla-inspired housing startup is hiring in Los Angeles

New Terner Center for Housing Innovation paper unpacks five years of SB 35's impact on the California housing crisis

PAU founder Vishaan Chakrabarti unveils a housing plan for 1.3 million New Yorkers