Located at the corner of a sloping site and fronting a triangular pocket park, the building has offered permanent supportive housing since 1996. Owned and managed by A Community of Friends, a not-for-profit housing provider, the existing building needed to be brought up to current code and the site more fully utilized. Although building new would have been cheaper and easier, A Community of Friends embraced the neighborhood's interest in preserving and highlighting the past and integrated input from a public design process.

Boyle Heights has a rich cultural history as does the existing building which dates back to 1926. It has been altered many times but originally housed a hotel and the Monte Carlo Bathhouse. It was a social hub for the Jewish community back in the 1920s and 30s, who along with many Mexican and Japanese immigrants called the neighborhood home. These days Boyle Heights is best known as a proud bastion of Chicano culture, overwhelmingly Hispanic (hailing not only from Mexico but also Central America) and working class. Residents are invested in maintaining its storied immigrant past in the face of gentrification and wholesale change.

To keep the costs down, the project was originally conceived with prefabricated modular units. Planning parameters, interim existing facade supports, and power lines ruled this approach out. Although modular construction is considered a cost saving cure-all it is best suited for unconstrained sites. 

The building’s identity is set by the original principle corner facades. New units are housed in three wings that frame a large garden at ground level. The split massing suits the scale of the existing building and the resulting open spaces support resident health and well being. Each of the eighty studio apartments includes a small sitting area as well as space for a bed, small kitchen, and bathroom. Craft and human scale, so important to the neighbors, is achieved with texture, trellises, and projecting window surrounds. Community and resident programs, key to the success of supportive housing, occupy the park-facing ground floor. The original storefronts had been compromised and will be reinstated to reinforce a street connection.

STATUS
In Schematic Design, Pursuing LEED Silver

LOCATION
Los Angeles, CA

CLIENT
A Community of Friends

PROGRAM
80 supportive housing units, On-Site Social Services, Community Spaces

PRESS
Urbanize

SEE ALSO
“City of Ghosts” Netflix Representation Matters
East LA Interchange Movie
Housing
Adaptive Re-Use
Flor 401 Lofts
28th Street Apartments