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"I haven’t seen anything quite like this," says Jules Boykoff, a professor and former professional soccer player who studies the impact of the Olympics on marginalized communities. "Typically, hostile architecture is more subtle." — WIRED
The worry that Los Angeles may attempt a full-scale homeless 'cleansing' ahead of the 2028 Olympics has always been present as the statistical realities make too apparent: At least 75,000 people currently live without housing in L.A. County. Now, the task for their advocates is to buck trends that... View full entry
Students from the University at Buffalo have embarked on the construction of three tiny homes to help combat homelessness. Led by Brad Wales, a clinical assistant professor at the university’s Department of Architecture, the initiative forms part of a design-build program within the school... View full entry
Architecture students at Drury University have unveiled a new shelter designed and built to aid the homeless community in Springfield, Missouri. Situated at the Revive 66 Campground, a local site offering nightly stays for unhoused people, the project is designed to offer a more spacious... View full entry
At a time when permanent supportive housing takes years to build and the average cost per unit has climbed to nearly $600,000, the cost of these tiny homes came to about $68,000 each, or roughly $35,000 per bed, according to De León’s office.
In his speeches, De León likes to ask, “in what parallel universe” is it better to leave people on the street than move them into various forms of temporary housing while awaiting more permanent housing?
— LA Times
LA Times columnist Steve Lopez visited the second-newest in a string of tiny home developments opened in November in a space that had previously been sparsely used as a parking lot for the Eagle Rock Recreation Center and co-owned and operated by the city, county, and utilities giant SoCal Edison... View full entry
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... View full entry
With expediency in mind, Los Angeles is looking to adopt a successful blueprint to solve the growing number of large homeless encampments that have been cropping up in the city since the beginning of the pandemic last spring. Silverlake-based Lehrer Architects is expanding on its... View full entry
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 San Francisco Chronicle
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... View full entry
The American Institute of Architects Los Angeles (AIALA) has published a set of strategies urging LA city leaders to tackle the city’s homelessness and affordable housing crisis. The“House All Angelenos” Call-to-Action urges officials to adopt seven strategies aimed at accelerating the... View full entry
"The idea for us has been to create that infrastructure around it, Not just given the houses, but created that environment around that gives them employment, gives them functionality, gives them purpose, gives them hope." — ABC7
A group of Cal Poly Pomona architecture students developed and built mobile housing that can move around as needed. Dr. Behn Samareh who is leading the effort of the students says, "(it's) much easier to build a mobile structure, one that is not connected to the ground, much easier to build one of... View full entry
Plans are underway to start building in 2022 a pocket park where people experiencing homelessness will not only be welcome but will also be asked to design and build aspects of the space. It’s the only project of its kind in Philadelphia, say design professionals involved in the project. — The Philadelphia Inquirer
Supported by a grant from the William Penn Foundation, Philadelphia's largest homeless shelter, the Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission, aims to plan and build the small pocket park near its facility on North Pearl Street. View full entry
The Chandler Boulevard Bridge Home Village, designed by Lehrer Architects and the Bureau of Engineering (Engineering) for the City of Los Angeles, has recently opened to its first residents in North Hollywood. Working in collaboration with various city agencies, Lehrer Architects converted an... View full entry
At the city’s first tiny home village, scheduled to open in January, each of the 39 closet-sized homes is costing $130,000, about 10 times what some other cities are spending. Five more villages are planned to open later. — Los Angeles Times
LA Times Senior Writer Doug Smith reports on the progress, and higher-than-usual costs, of erecting tiny home villages in a City of Los Angeles effort to take on its ballooning homelessness crisis. "Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the program in March," writes Smith, "signaling that the concept of... View full entry
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... View full entry
The Berkeley City Council has voted to create a new city-run homeless encampment to help provide a safe and clean place for some of the city's unhoused residents to live temporarily. According to a report from Curbed, the measure was supported by a majority of the City Councilmembers and... View full entry
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. — AIA|LA
