In Venice, Calif., the recently completed Rose Apartments provides affordable housing to young people who age out of youth facilities and often end up living on the street.
Designed by Brooks + Scarpa, the four-story, 35-unit mixed-use apartment building will house transitional aged youths. The LEED Gold building also will provide affordable housing for “poor and disadvantaged populations in an affluent area of town where low-wage workers are critical but unable to afford to live,” according to the design firm’s press statement. By including affordable housing for transitional aged youths, the developer and design team could take advantage of California legislation that allows for increased height and density.
The building is designed around an elevated courtyard above ground-level commercial space. This courtyard typology, which has existed in Los Angeles for over a century, aims to promote pedestrian-oriented neighborhoods. For people living around the courtyard, the quasi-public space provides a sense of safety and privacy.
Rose Apartments is situated across the street from a grocery store, laundromat, and other amenities, so that residents won’t need to own cars. The structure is also blocks away from the beach.
Like many other traditional courtyard structures, Rose Apartments uses exterior cement plaster as the main exterior material. But Rose’s walls are scalloped to create depth, relief, and texture—which affordable housing projects often don’t have, the design firm says. The exterior walls also include surface-applied sparkle grain, which makes the facade shimmer. In bright sunlight, the facade quickly turns soft and silver.
On the building team:
Owner and developer: Venice Community Housing
Design architect: Brooks + Scarpa
Architect of record: Brooks + Scarpa
Mechanical, electrical, and plumbing: Breen Engineering
Structural and civil engineer: Labib Funk
General contractor: Walton Construction
Construction manager: AMJ Construction Management
Related Stories
| Jul 19, 2013
Renovation, adaptive reuse stay strong, providing fertile ground for growth [2013 Giants 300 Report]
Increasingly, owners recognize that existing buildings represent a considerable resource in embodied energy, which can often be leveraged for lower front-end costs and a faster turnaround than new construction.
| Jul 17, 2013
Top Multifamily Construction Firms [2013 Giants 300 Report]
Lend Lease, Clark Group, Balfour Beatty top Building Design+Construction's 2013 ranking of the largest multifamily contractors and construction management firms in the United States.
| Jul 17, 2013
Top Multifamily Engineering Firms [2013 Giants 300 Report]
STV, URS, AECOM top Building Design+Construction's 2013 ranking of the largest multifamily engineering and engineering/architecture firms in the United States.
| Jul 17, 2013
Top Multifamily Architecture Firms [2013 Giants 300 Report]
IBI Group, Niles Bolton, Perkins Eastman top Building Design+Construction's 2013 ranking of the largest multifamily architecture and architecture/engineering firms in the United States.
| Jul 17, 2013
CBRE recognizes nation's best green research projects
A rating system for comparative tenant energy use and a detailed evaluation of Energy Star energy management strategies are among the green research projects to be honored by commercial real estate giant CBRE Group.
| Jul 16, 2013
Amid single-family housing’s comeback, rental market not skipping a beat [2013 Giants 300 Report]
As the economy recovers and homeownership becomes a realistic option for more consumers, will it spell the end of the multifamily sector’s hot streak? The experts say no.
| Jul 15, 2013
Developer plans to convert historic Kansas City high-rise to mixed-use with 55 new apartments
An $18 million redevelopment proposal would convert a historic Kansas City high-rise into a commercial/residential property.
| Jul 15, 2013
Zaha Hadid unveils plan for boutique condo development in New York
Related Companies taps the London-based architect for the 11-story 520 West 28th Street residential development adjacent to the High Line in Chelsea.
| Jul 11, 2013
Lawsuit challenges modular apartment project in New York City
A plan to build pre-fab apartment buildings at Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn, N.Y., has been challenged by a lawsuit filed by the Plumbing Foundation in Manhattan Supreme Court.
| Jul 10, 2013
World's best new skyscrapers [slideshow]
The Bow in Calgary and CCTV Headquarters in Beijing are among the world's best new high-rise projects, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.
