Open Form Architecture Blog

Lo­ca­ted on a cor­ner site at 17th and Hope streets in down­town Los An­ge­les, the pro­ject pro­po­ses a 6-story apart­ment buil­ding that inc­lu­des ap­pro­xi­ma­tely 87 ef­fi­ciency units of se­nior af­for­da­ble hou­sing, com­mu­nity rec­rea­tion room, com­mu­nal di­ning room, kitchen, laundry, and ad­mi­nis­tra­tive spa­ces. The site is ad­ja­cent to a free­way on-ramp con­nec­ting to the 10/110 Free­way in­terchange and is within blocks of the Sta­ples Con­ven­tion Cen­ter to the west and the Ca­li­for­nia Hos­pi­tal Me­di­cal Cen­ter to the north. The tran­si­tio­nal cha­rac­ter of its lo­ca­tion at the edge of down­town and ad­ja­cency to the free­way re­qui­res the pro­ject ad­dress en­vi­ron­men­tal fac­tors such as sa­fety, noise, and pri­vacy.

The apart­ment buil­ding is com­po­sed of 5 sto­ries of re­si­den­tial hou­sing and pu­blic spa­ces above a ground floor po­dium con­tai­ning the main lobby, ad­mi­nis­tra­tive sup­port spa­ces, and par­king. Above the ground floor, the re­si­den­tial units are arran­ged ra­dially around a cen­tra­li­zed cir­cu­lar court­yard open to the sky.

The tra­pe­zoi­dal fan shape of the in­di­vi­dual units pro­vi­des a ver­sa­tile se­quence of spa­ces within. A kitchen ves­ti­bule looks out over the cir­cu­lar walk­way and open court­yard, empha­si­zing con­nec­tion to the pu­blic cen­ter and fos­te­ring so­cial in­te­rac­tion among the te­nants. A sense of se­cu­rity and sa­fety is es­ta­blished th­rough this open­ness and ex­pe­rience of com­mu­nity. Mo­ving out­ward to­ward the ex­te­rior face of the unit, views to the city and usa­ble space for li­ving are ma­xi­mi­zed, pro­vi­ding pri­vacy without en­cou­ra­ging iso­la­tion. Com­mu­nal pu­blic areas si­mi­larly empha­size the strong con­nec­tion bet­ween ex­te­rior and in­te­rior by pro­vi­ding views over­loo­king the street and sky­line while ope­ning onto the in­te­rior court­yard within. Ove­rall, the or­ga­ni­za­tion of spa­ces mi­ni­mi­zes blind cor­ners and dark areas while ma­xi­mi­zing light, vi­si­bi­lity, and equity of te­nant experience.

IDENTITY
Th­rough its dis­tinc­tive form and or­ga­ni­za­tion, the New Car­ver Apart­ments will create a sin­gu­lar, re­cog­ni­za­ble iden­tity both within the com­mu­nity and lar­ger ur­ban con­text. In con­trast to the su­rroun­ding neigh­borhood which many would re­gard as inhos­pi­ta­ble to re­si­den­tial life, the New Car­ver Apart­ments suc­ceeds in its mis­sion to create sa­tisf­ying li­ving ac­com­mo­da­tions for peo­ple who are of­ten shun­ted into anony­mous, lef­to­ver spa­ces in the City. Its com­ple­tion will rein­force Skid Row Hou­sing Trust’s re­pu­ta­tion as a de­ve­lo­per of pro­jects with am­bi­tious so­cial and archi­tec­tu­ral as­pi­ra­tions – pro­jects that pro­vide high-quality and in­no­va­tive af­for­da­ble hou­sing that make peo­ple feel proud about where they live.

Text and ima­ges cour­tesy of Michael Mal­tzan Architecture