Archinect - News

Five bespoke multi-family projects by Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects: Your Next Employer?

2023-07-10T16:20:00-04:00

Following last week’s visit to Los Angeles-based Assembledge+, we are keeping our Meet Your Next Employer series in LA this week to explore the work of Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects (LOHA).

Founded in 1994, and operating from studios in both LA and Detroit, the firm describes itself as “rooted in architecture’s role as a catalyst for change.” Back in 2017, Archinect spoke with LOHA on how interested applicants could improve their employment prospects at the firm. “We encourage applicants to treat their CVs like a design problem to be solved,” LOHA told us. “We recommend that the CV be tailored to the firm that they are applying for, and to focus on giving an understanding of what that firm does, and fundamental insight of how they can fit into the practice through their CV.”

Learn more about Lorcan O'Herlihy from our previously published Archinect LAX >< DET Mini Sessions; A Conversation With Architect Lorcan O'Herlihy About His Approach to Architecture and Urban Design in LA and Detr...

Dave Chappelle went all out to stop an affordable housing development in his hometown

2022-02-10T13:40:00-05:00

Dave Chappelle threatened to pull his various business ventures from his hometown of Yellow Springs, Ohio, if the village council went ahead with a plan to build — wait for it — more affordable housing in the area.

Dave Chappelle has turned into quite the evil troll in recent years over other hot-button issues which now extend into a proposed multi-family development project in his Dayton-area hometown. Chappelle owns several small businesses in the area under a holding company called Iron Table, which he claimed are worth $65 million during the hearing on the measure Monday night.

The comedian's opposition reportedly stems from the plan's lack of sidewalks and an increased amount of traffic to the area, which is adjacent to his bucolic 39-acre estate. The proposal was passed over in the end and replaced by a previous plan that will add 143 single-family units with starting prices around $300,000, according to Rolling Stone.

“I cannot believe you would make me audition for you,” Chappelle told those assembled at the village council meeting. “You look like clowns. I am not bluffing, I will take it all off the table. I’ve invested millions of dollars in this town. If you push this thing throu...

An affluent California town is going to ridiculous lengths to get around affordable housing regulation

2022-02-04T18:00:00-05:00

The well-heeled Silicon Valley suburb of Woodside has come up with a novel way to block plans that would potentially bring in more affordable housing: Declare itself Cougar Town. Last week, officials in the enclave of 5,500 people announced that all of Woodside was exempt from a new state housing law that allows for duplex development on single-family home lots. The reason? The entire town is habitat for potentially endangered mountain lions.

The move is potentially foreshadowing of the ways in which local governments in California will, as predicted before Governor Gavin Newsome signed S.B. 9 into law in September, attempt to brush off the state’s efforts to mandate zoning that would engender an increase in multi-family residential units and affordable housing.

Critics say the pushback stems from the age-old notion of California living as an ever-expanding idyll of freeway-connected suburbs filled with single-family homes that has become outdated and regressive under the modern economy, pushing many to leave the state for greener pastures. The mountain lion population in Woodside constitutes in their eyes an egregious attempt to use wildlife as a shield in the town leadership’s preservation schemes.

“Don’t believe for a second that this is driven by mountain lion habitat concerns,” former town council member Daniel Yost told the LA Times. “It is not. It is resistance by some members of the Town Council to do our fair ...