Archinect - News

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...

San Francisco could axe tiny homes proposal over cost concerns and NIMBYism

2023-02-21T13:21:00-05:00

The drama over the project provides a window into just how hard it is for the city to scale up its housing and shelter system, even as a recent report from the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) estimated it would take more than 6,000 extra temporary and permanent beds to solve the crisis on the streets. It also puts into sharp relief how easily neighborhood opposition can derail a project, even when the funding and space is available — and the need is clear.

The Mission district parking lot is scheduled to become an affordable housing development with construction beginning in 2025 and the tiny homes program was expected to fill the gap. “It's always the same hand wringing,” housing advocate Sam Moss told the Chronicle. “It’s never about taking care of our homeless, it's always about how you're going to feel about what it's like to see homelessness.”

San Francisco’s desire to essentially segregate homelessness is part and parcel of previous policies such as the deeply criticized Homeward Bound bussing program enacted by Gavin Newsom during his tenure in City Hall. In total, the city has seen a decline of 15% in its homeless population since 2021. A total of 3,810 units are still projected to be needed in order to match the current demand.

An underutilized hotel retrofit offers inside view of LA homelessness crisis

2022-12-15T14:28:00-05:00

The historic hotel, with its haunted reputation and 600 rooms, reopened in December 2021 as a privately funded permanent supportive housing project. With most of the rooms reserved specifically for those in the bottom 30% of the area’s median income, it’s open to any [...] with a government-funded voucher. Many viewed the project as a promising new model in L.A. because of its size and flexibility. And yet, a year later, two-thirds of the Cecil remains unoccupied.

The rare privately-funded $80 million conversion project for the influential Skid Row Housing Trust is one of many case studies on the issue of vacant single-room occupancy (SROs) in Los Angeles. The city housing authority’s Section 8 director thinks an absence of in-unit bathrooms and kitchenettes is to blame for the empty rooms at the Cecil, but bureaucratic hold-up and a lack of coordination between disparate agencies that serve the vulnerable is the primary factor that’s causing the project to fall short of its weekly move-in targets by 66%.

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...

University of Kansas students converted shipping containers into housing for community shelter guests in need of quarantined spaces

2021-11-10T19:46:00-05:00

As part of a program at the University of Kansas School of Architecture and Design, a cohort of students retrofitted twelve shipping containers to serve as private housing for homeless people during the pandemic.

The project, located at Kansas’ Lawrence Community Shelter, is called Monarch Village. It was established in response to the need for adequate quarantine spaces for its population when the Covid-19 pandemic struck in 2020. The initiative is part of the non-profit Studio 804, a comprehensive design-build program offered through the school where graduate students design and build a LEED Platinum project. Monarch Village is the studio’s sixteenth.

According to Studio 804, the dwellings offer much-needed privacy for families while allowing guests access to services at the shelter. It is hoped that this project will be a precedent to move away from housing the homeless in gymnasium-like rooms full of bunk beds, an arrangement that makes isolating impossible.

Construction on th...

San Francisco is adapting the tiny home approach to city's largest encampment

2021-09-22T17:40:00-04:00

The cost of up to $1.7 million for building and installing the cabins, along with the dining and other facilities, will be paid for by the nonprofits DignityMoves and Tipping Point Community. The cabins will remain for 18 months, when the lease the city signed for using the parking lots as outdoor shelter spaces runs out.

The 64-square-foot cabins are produced by LifeMoves, a Silicon Valley-based company responsible for the installation of a similar development in nearby Mountain View in 2016. Neighboring Oakland has operated its own cabin site since 2017, albeit with mixed results for residents who have found themselves back on the streets long-term.

San Francisco’s move comes a bit late, however, as COVID-related fears have deemed the crowded shelter system a non-starter for many. Other cities like Los Angeles have invested in the tiny homes movement, which is being seen as a popular solution to a crisis at a time when encampments sanctioned by municipal governments are popping up increasingly throughout the state. More than 40% of America’s homeless population lives in California alone.

The new approach certainly constitutes a change from San Francisco’s previous initiati...

Toronto tries to force vigilante carpenter to cease building shelters for the homeless

2021-02-26T11:09:00-05:00

The City of Toronto is asking a court to order a local man to stop building small wooden shelters for the homeless. The city filed an injunction application on Feb. 12 against Khaleel Seivwright, a carpenter who has been building small structures for those living outside. The city wants an order that permanently stops Seivwright from placing or relocating structures on city-owned land.

According to CBC, Seivwright's shelters are in numerous parks across the city. The carpenter has been building the tiny structures since last fall and has raised over $200,000 on GoFundMe for materials.

In a February 11th post on his GoFundMe page, Seivwright wrote: "I'm makin this post to let you all know that we have stopped building Tiny Shelters but will continue to do maintenance and relocating of shelters as people staying outside get into housing."

The hearing date for the city's injunction has not yet been set.

Lehrer Architects-designed Aetna St. Bridge Home opens in Los Angeles

2020-08-13T12:56:00-04:00

Lehrer Architects' latest project, the Aetna Bridge Home was opened this week by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti as part of the city's A Bridge Home initiative. The design team converted an under-utilized quarter-acre parking lot into a vibrant 70+ bed facility for homeless Angelenos. With a tight timeline, the complex was designed in a mere three weeks and built in only four months.

"For us, projects like this are exhilarating," said Michael Lehrer, FAIA, Founding Partner of Lehrer Architects in a statement. "Political, time, and cost constraints were severe—demanding extreme design discipline and chops. Our focus was to honor, nurture, and restore a modicum of wholeness and delight to our fellow our citizens without homes."

Lehrer and the team worked closely with multiple city agencies led by the Bureau of Engineering and the Department of Public Works. One of the most intense constraints for the project was the mandated use of pre-fabricated trailers, a stipulation that forced th...

Edward Killingsworth-designed office building to be converted to essential service center by Studio One Eleven

2020-07-28T20:29:00-04:00

Long Beach-based Studio One Eleven has announced plans to convert a former medical office designed by midcentury modern architect Edward Killingsworth into an "essential service center" that will provide services for needy families as well as food for area residents experiencing food insecurity.

The facility will comprise the new home of St. Francis Center, a group of Secular Franciscans who have operated a neighborhood-serving facility in the area since 1970. The group's facilities temporary shut down in 2017 and are now set to reopen in October 2020 when work on the project is complete.

According to the architects, the renovated structure will "allow St. Francis Center to resume its crucial mission of providing food, clothing and emergency assistance in a nurturing atmosphere." The 5,400-square-foot complex is set to include a commercial kitchen, offices for employment and family consulting services, meeting spaces, and storage to provide clothing to the homeless, according to ...

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.”

Resident sues to halt Griffith Park homeless shelter, claims LA officials "ignored" homeowner rights

2020-01-13T16:20:00-05:00

A new lawsuit aims to halt the construction of a homeless shelter in Griffith Park, arguing that Los Angeles officials skirted city and state rules when they approved the project on a Riverside Drive parking lot... In the lawsuit, the group [Friends of Waverly Inc.] asserts that Los Angeles officials abused their discretion when they granted the planned shelter an emergency exemption from the California Environmental Quality Act.

According to the Los Angeles Times the lawsuit "argues that the city skipped necessary hearings for the project, flouting the city charter and ignoring the rights of nearby property owners."

The $6.6-million project is due to include a 10,800-square-foot building with around 100 beds and trailers for showers, restrooms and administrative offices. It is part of the city's bridge housing program which aims to provide shelter for the homeless while permanent shelters are under construction. As such, this temporary shelter at Griffith Park would be leased by LA County for three years to help those living on the streets, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Oakland Councilwoman wants to house 1,000 homeless people on a cruise ship

2019-12-20T11:28:00-05:00

An Oakland City Council member’s plan to house up to 1,000 homeless people on a cruise ship in the bay could actually set sail. Because the International Maritime Organization is imposing more stringent emissions regulations in 2020, and some ships won’t be able to upgrade their engines to the new standards in time...Instead, they could dock them at the Port of Oakland or a private dock and plug into electricity...

Led by City Council president Rebecca Kaplan, the plan seeks to create affordable housing through a creative approach grounded in history. According to the East Bay Times, ships were used to house relief workers responding to Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas this past September; FEMA chartered cruise ships to house people in 2017 during the hurricanes in the U.S. Virgin Islands; and in 2005 during Katrina.

Port officials have expressed doubt regarding the proposal, reports . the East Bay Times, but Kaplan still believes "the idea is worth at least exploring."

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio pledges to end 'street homelessness as we know it' within five years

2019-12-18T16:36:00-05:00

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced an initiative Tuesday that promised to “end long-term street homelessness as we know it” by bringing thousands of people off of the streets and into permanent or transitional housing within five years. [...] The city plans to spend an estimated $120 million next year on the plan, which will create 1,000 new permanent apartments.

The mayor's office has outlined de Blasio's latest plan to house the estimated 3,600 homeless people currently living on New York City streets — a fraction of the city's total homeless population of 80,000 — in the action plan The Journey Home.

We’re announcing a plan to END long-term street homelessness in our city. Join us at @Judsonchurchnyc. https://t.co/MLsxyJuHfh
— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) December 17, 2019

The Wall Street Journal reports that under the new directive, the City also plans to "generate 1,000 additional 'Safe Haven' shelter beds, which are targeted specifically to the street homeless, in addition to expanding outreach to homeless people both aboveground and in the subways."

Yale SoA students complete triple-decker home for formerly homeless families

2019-11-25T15:30:00-05:00

Students at the Yale University School of Architecture have completed construction on the 2019 Jim Vlock First Year Building Project, a student-led design-build exploration that has brought a three-unit "triple-decker"-style home into existence.

View of a upperlevel balcony-porch attached to the residential unit. Image courtesy of Image by Zelig Fok and Iain Gomez.

For the project, the student designers partnered with Columbus House, a New Haven, Connecticut-based homelessness services provider that will manage the property, which will become home to at least one local family currently experiencing homelessness. (Archinect previously explored the design of the house in greater detail here)

Photo showing the home's kitchen and living and dining spaces. Image courtesy of Image by Zelig Fok and Iain Gomez.

A shifting point-access stair provides varied entry conditions for each unit. Image courtesy of Image by Zelig Fok and Iain Gomez.

The project was undertaken with the goal of shifti...

Row over Seattle's "tiny homes village" escalates as city moves to shut down facility

2019-11-11T19:13:00-05:00

Since April, the gates have been locked against the city and its contractors, and only a few people let in. The case manager’s office has sat empty since Aug. 5, and no one has left the village for permanent housing since at least July. Now, after an almost seven-month stalemate, the city announced Tuesday it won’t fund the village after December, saying it’s out of compliance with its contract.

In a city-issued press release, Seattle spokesperson Will Lemke writes, “The village will no longer operate after Dec. 31, 2019, and the property will be returned to Seattle City Light.”

City officials, according to The Seattle Times, will help offer “new shelter or housing resources” for anyone displaced by the closure.

Amazon's new homeless shelter inside their Seattle Headquarters is nearly complete

2019-11-08T15:20:00-05:00

With Seattle's housing costs increasingly out of reach, it's no surprise that Amazon, one of Seattle's largest employers, is dabbling in housing issues itself. According to a recent article by Aria Bendix of Business Insider, Amazon is following through in a surprising way: By building a homeless shelter within its Seattle headquarters.

Bendix reports, "Two years ago, Marty Hartman, the executive director of Mary's Place homeless shelter in Seattle, received a package from Amazon: The company presented her with a golden key symbolizing access to eight floors of a building in its Seattle headquarters." Under the arrangement, Hartman was offered "permanent space in one of Amazon's corporate offices. Now, that space is almost finished."

Image © Amazon

Anticipated to open in 2020, the shelter will be able to house and serve 275 people per night. Although those numbers are merely a fraction of Seattle's overall homeless population (roughly around 12,500 in King County, according to Benix)...

AIA|LA chapter issues nine point plan to help address homelessness in Los Angeles

2019-08-16T12:00:00-04:00

Due to many factors, now more than ever, LA architects have a responsibility to offer solutions and creative resources to solve this crisis immediately — as if our currently 59,000+ unsheltered Angelenos were displaced by an earthquake or a wildfire.

Yale students upgrade the "triple-decker" type

2019-07-11T15:20:00-04:00

First-year professional degree students of Yale School of Architecture are hard at work designing and building a new three-unit affordable housing complex in New Haven's Hill neighborhood.

Formally known as the Jim Vlock First Year Building Project, the year-long studio has been an annual ritual at the university since 1989 when then-dean Charles Moore instituted the program. Since then, Yale students have worked to design and build homes for over 50 New Haven families, according to the university. This year's run of the program is being carried out in partnership with Columbus House, a non-profit organization that works to address homelessness in the New Haven area.

View of project model. Image courtesy of Yale School of Architecture.

Initially divided up into competing teams, the students in the studio started by tackling a series of fundamental conceptual exercises to develop approaches for addressing issues of inhabitation, enclosure, unit aggregation, and interior design.

For...

72U’s Dear Neighbor campaign promotes permanent supportive housing to portray a different narrative to homelessness in LA

2019-05-30T10:41:00-04:00

The housing crisis in large cities, especially in Los Angeles, has been an ongoing issue. Currently, Los Angeles County is home to the second largest population of settled homelessness in the U.S. Local government and organizations aim to create solutions in order to combat the issue with a little over 53,000 people who are homeless and in need of housing. In order to address the homeless housing crisis, the Los Angeles based creative residency 72U promotes the importance of Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) through a different kind of narrative. Through art, design, and empathy, the project initiative Dear Neighbor aims to use murals, written letters, recorded interviews, and eye-catching infographics to bridge communities together through awareness.

Image courtesy of Dear Neighbor LA

According to the Dear Neighbor team, the project is based on "the belief that housing is a human right. We understand that despite their numbers, our homeless neighbo...