October 1, 2020
Check out this month’s LA Magazine to see our thought experiment to help address LA’s housing crisis. We were among 13 firms invited by the magazine to offer blue-sky housing ideas. Our proposal was a deliberate provocation aimed at densifying R-1 single family zones by allocating a portion of residential streets to a line of elevated row houses. This new housing typology features private outdoor decks between units and roof geometry reflecting the character of the existing neighborhood. The street itself narrows down to a one-way, single lane avenue conducive to walking or biking, with a scale and character not unlike residential areas of Venice or Tokyo. Since nearly half of LA’s land area is dedicated to single family dwellings, our proposal suspends disbelief and asks: if somehow no hurdles to implementation existed, how might these zones share the burden of responsibility for addressing our city’s housing challenges?
