For anybody who has ever walked passed a homeless shelter or a housing project, particularly in the United States, the idea of function over form is exceptionally resonant. Most low-income housing the world over is poorly designed, oven constructed out of leftover buildings that have ceased to be used for their original purpose. Most are boxy, institutional looking brick structures that bear a stronger resemblance to incarceration facilities than actual homes. The goal of these structures, is of course, to provide the maximum amount of shelter at the lowest possible cost to the city and to the building’s residents, but much has been sacrificed in the effort. Happily, a number of new projects seem to indicate that the status quo may be shifting as the concept of democratized design becomes more and more widespread.
Architect Michael Maltzan has had his share of high end clients. Among the many luxury residencies he has had a hand in creating is the sprawling Los Angeles structure that serves as both house and art gallery for Hollywood uber-agent, Mike Ovitz. While working with legendary architect Frank Gehry on L.A.’s famed Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2003 Maltzan was approached by a businessman and an artist interested in commissioning a building to be used for a children’s after school arts program. The result is Inner City Arts, a modern white campus of gardens and studio spaces providing an oasis of calm, serene energy despite its location in Skid Row, Los Angeles’s most impoverished neighborhood.
Inner City Arts, Los Angeles, CA
The space provides a clean, hopeful environment for both children and instructors in its immaculately landscaped courtyards and studio spaces outfitted with large skylights and windows. Attracted by the work Maltzan did for Inner City Arts, the Skid Row Housing Trust, an outreach organization dedicated to providing quality shelter for the desperately underserved homeless community in the neighborhood, approached him with a proposal to create a low income housing development. The result of their collaboration is the Rainbow Apartments, a haven of affordable housing for some of L.A.’s most vulnerable homeless people—the mentally ill, the physically disabled and those struggling with substance abuse problem–previously adrift through the city’s shelter system. While less manicured than Inner City Arts, the building is white and welcoming, with the apartments oriented around a large, grand staircase and an outdoor courtyard. The structure feels calm and warm and most importantly, allows for interaction between the residents while still providing them with a feeling of insular removal from the harsh Skid Row neighborhood. The kitchen is adjacent to an outdoor courtyard which has prompted barbecues and other gatherings, and an outdoor yoga club, in addition to over 15 other organized activities has sprung up as a result.
Rainbow Apartments, Los Angeles, CA
Rainbow Apartments, Los Angeles, CA
The Rainbow Apartments project was a catalyst for LA city housing officials to rethink how good design can create community and how the building itself as a safe, welcoming haven can create the conditions necessary for residents to recover from their problems and move forward in their lives. These considerations, and the lessons learned from the Rainbow Project are manifest in The Carver Apartments, currently under construction. The Carver Apartments, like the Rainbow Apartments are in the Skid Row neighborhood, but have the added challenge of abutting an overpass in a section of the 10 Freeway. The area is dilapidated, ugly and largely deserted by people. Maltzan and SRHT’s challenge was to not only create a safe haven for the homeless in the community but to actually create an environment that increased the quality of life for residents as well as created a place that they would be proud to call home.
The building itself is a bright white cylinder, with a side broken into sawtooth ridges. Narrow, horizontal windows face the freeway and are designed to eliminate noise, visual pollution and exhaust fumes from passing cars. Though designed to create a feeling of intimacy and connectivity among residents, the idea of privacy and safety was paramount. “One of the first things people do when they live on the street is put up walls around themselves to try to create some feeling of safety. You need to provide those walls before you can start to open things back up” Maltzen told The New York Times. The curved façade of the building helps to pull you around on your approach and the lobby juts forth onto the sidewalk as if to welcome you. Windows are strategically placed throughout the building to give a sense of symbiosis between the inside and outside, while still preserving the feeling of security. The laundry rooms acoustical glass windows reduce the noise of the nearby freeway, while also offering an opportunity for the residents to see and be seen by drivers on the road. The effect of being in the space creates a momentary connection between the residents and the larger community in an equal capacity.
In addition to its units of residential space, the building will house a communal kitchen and dining area, a recreational space, a laundry room, administrative offices as well as medical and social services. Each of the apartments is arranged radially around the internal courtyard with metal girders directing the eye upward to the blue sky. It is a warm and inviting cocoon that gives a definitive sense of being separate from the neighborhood around it, safe and internalized while still promoting social interaction and engagement for the people inside.
Artist's Rendering of Carver Apartments, Los Angeles, CA
Plan for Carver Apartments, Los Angeles, CA
Courtyard at Carver Apartments , Los Angeles,CA
With 87 units the Carver Apartments, like it’s predecessor the Rainbow Apartments, are able to serve only a small segment of Los Angeles’s notoriously underserved homeless community. However it’s significance cannot be understated. Its erection shows a commitment to high-quality affordable housing for people who historically have been shuttled between the city’s decaying, poorly maintained, soul-crushingly ugly leftover spaces. Interested parties will have to wait until the project is completed and the units full before judging the success of this venture, but it is safe to say that Maltzan is a pioneer in his quest to use design for the greater good.
