Residential Archives

Palmdale SAVES Navigation Center

March 24, 2022/in Civic and Institutional, Residential, On the Boards/by Jeffrey Morris

Situated in an area of the City of Palmdale planned to undergo higher-density, pedestrian-friendly development centered on a forthcoming California High Speed Rail station, the proposed 58,000 SF Palmdale SAVES Navigation Center will provide vital preventative services to those at risk of becoming homeless, as well as assist currently unhoused individuals and families by providing temporary emergency shelter. In particular, the facility will host a large new food pantry at street level that expands upon an existing food bank operated by South Antelope Valley Emergency Services (SAVES). Above, two levels of interim housing will provide the critical shelter component.

Consulting closely with housing and service providers within the Antelope Valley and across the country, and building upon the organizational framework of SAVES’ existing food pantry, JFAK empowered the new facility to serve widely varying needs of distinct demographics by, first, designing each floor to operate self-sufficiently, and second, incorporating adaptability into the spatial organization of each floor. Larger spaces are left open to allow for multiple functions to be handled within, and services are grouped together in central locations to allow all other activities to flow freely around them. This balance between fluidity and separation fosters flexibility for operators of the various on-site services.

The careful attention to functionality as well as adaptability, within a sculptural, iconic design that presents an optimistic face to the City, addresses the pressing needs of the community while acknowledging the dramatic urban transformation of which it is a critical part. The project embodies Palmdale’s commitment to ensuring that its evolving urban core is accessible and welcoming to all.

CIVIC

August 4, 2021/in Civic and Institutional, Residential, On the Boards/by Jeffrey Morris

CIVIC reimagines the West LA Civic Center (WLACC), which currently houses an abandoned courthouse, outdated senior center, underutilized central plaza, and functioning library and municipal office building. The design transforms WLACC into a vibrant new mixed-use hub of residential, civic, and commercial life – and suggests what thoughtfully-designed urban living in Los Angeles might offer in the near future.

CIVIC celebrates WLACC’s mid-century modern character through balanced but dynamic and widely varied massing that responds sensitively to the surrounding context. Its overall density is moderate, but its variation allows the accommodation of increased numbers of residents and types of uses. Importantly, the corner of Corinth Ave and Santa Monica Blvd becomes a new welcome point, drawing pedestrians and visitors using mass transit into a dynamic necklace of connected and inclusive public spaces that come together to form a new “Town Square.” Taller, higher-density buildings are located along Santa Monica Blvd. Lower-density townhouses line Iowa Avenue at the south. The park and plazas of the Town Square are bordered by retail, existing library, and relocated bandstand, and are anchored at the northeast entry by a vibrant new senior center.

CIVIC’s architectural expression celebrates heterogeneity as a defining characteristic of our richly diverse and vibrant metropolis. The market-rate housing helps to subsidize the affordable and senior housing. The project, with its distributed varieties of housing and amenities, welcomes all ages, incomes, and races – and eschews privatized living in favor of interaction and community.

Irolo Senior Housing

October 29, 2020/in Residential/by Jeffrey Morris

Housing the Elderly: Located at a busy intersection in the Koreatown neighborhood of Los Angeles, this mixed-use project contains 6,000 square feet of commercial space and forty-seven units for low-income seniors to live in a safe, dignified environment. Involving the weaving together of an existing three-story brick structure with a new five-story component directly behind it, the project was built for $78 per square foot.

Chaotic Context: Taking cues from the ad hoc context of warehouses, billboards, and traffic lights, the project combines a strong, sculptural form with sensitive articulation that addresses its smaller neighbors. The new and existing structures are mediated by a shared circulation tower and an adjacent slot of space that allows residents to view the street life below.

Safe Haven: Located with security in mind, a central courtyard sits on the second floor of the project, above ground level parking, the manager’s office, and a lobby. Serving as the communal heart of the project, this courtyard includes a community room and laundry facilities. The project is punctuated by many other spaces that encourage the residents to interact with each other, including widened walkway areas and a peaceful roof terrace with framed views of the surrounding city.

Color: The strong massing of the project is tempered by the playful use of color. These colors are derived from a palette known in Korea as Danchung, which features the oranges, reds, blues, and greens found in traditional temple painting and decoration.

Hale-Morris-Lewis Senior Housing

October 29, 2020/in PROJECTS, Residential/by Jeffrey Morris

Vision: In 1992, Dr. Barbara Lewis, the current head of the Women’s Congregation of the New Antioch Church of God in Christ, had a vision: God came to her and said that she must build a home where the low-income elderly of her community could live out their lives safely and peacefully. Hale-Morris-Lewis Manor (HML) is the result of this vision.

Oasis: Located in South Los Angeles, less than half a mile from where the 1992 riots started on a street known as “Blood Alley,” the clean lines and white facades of this 33,000 square foot housing project were designed to counter this negative image. On two sides of a shallow “U” shape, 41light-filled units surround a centralized garden. The third wing, separated from the first two by a spatially dynamic lobby, contains two connected community rooms, one of which serves informally as a chapel.

Paradise: In order to allow the project’s residents to reconnect with a safe, protected environment, the project’s public spaces open directly onto the garden. A covered patio directly outside the lobby includes a large palm tree reaching up to the sky through a hole in the roof.

See the Light: The public spaces are suffused with natural light from an abundance of windows and skylights. These provide an ever-changing quality of light that creates a place of respite and a feeling of sanctuary.

Casa Namorada

February 12, 2020/in PROJECTS, Residential/by SAdesignsJFAK

Set amongst mostly traditional homes in northern Santa Monica, this house privileges space, light, and form over adherence to neighborhood conventions. It also reflects the aesthetic and cultural preferences of its owners, a Brazilian woman and first-generation Moroccan man with two young children.

From the street, there is no visible “front door;” one finds instead a large, high window (a play on the traditional “picture window” that is found next door), an orange garage door, and a pink gate leading to the entrance. The front gate and entrance courtyard are a typical feature of North African and Brazilian homes, providing an outdoor greeting area, a transition from public to private, and extra security.

At the entrance, a separate formal living room welcomes less familiar guests. The dining and family rooms are situated more deeply inside the house and welcomes close friends and family. Both inside and outside, fluid volumes and curves activated by natural light reference organic forms commonly found in Brazil. However, whereas the front of the house is defined by more abstract, two-dimensional curves, at the rear, their controlled energy explodes in an exuberant composition of three-dimensional curved volumes that expresses the vibrant multiculturalism at play here.

Peace Creek Villas

February 12, 2020/in PROJECTS, Residential/by SAdesignsJFAK

This project provides for four different villa types to be located along a man-made lake and canal, on a site within the new Luxe Lake housing and mixed-used development in Chengdu, China. Each of the villa types is three stories high, with the public living areas located at the middle levels which are accessed from the road. The upper levels are given over to private bedrooms, and the lower levels to additional recreational and communal spaces that open out to the lake or canal. The structural system for all villas is poured-in-place concrete, with various cladding materials that include hard-troweled plaster, wood, metal, stone, and glass.

The houses are alike enough – in character and materiality – that they create a strong sense of a community, but different enough that the environment is not homogeneous or predictable. Inside of each of them, there is ample natural light through skylights, views to the natural landscape, and also the unexpected, surprising, playful views that one would not necessarily expect, marking each house as special, and designed with care and thoughtfulness. It is these small details, as much as the big moves and overall character of the villas, that make them unique and timeless.

Pinedo Stealth

February 12, 2020/in PROJECTS, Residential/by SAdesignsJFAK

Comprised of three new architectural elements, this project is located in the backyard of a typical Mediterranean house in San Marino, a city well known for mandating traditional styles for all structures visible from the public domain. The design utilizes contemporary forms that are sculptural, dynamic, and bold – but that still “fit in.” They combine with the existing house and garage to create an intimately-scaled, heterogeneous family compound.

The most prominent of the new elements is a triangular shade structure that frames a view of a new pool and creates a clear focal point at the rear of the yard. It provides maximum shade at the terrace, where it is most needed, while allowing full sunlight over the pool and spa. Additionally, the angle of its roof addresses the commonly-used backyard entrance that is located at the opposite corner of the backyard.

The shade structure also frames a compelling view of a new fountain, which is constructed of both smooth and board-formed concrete, articulated with inserted bronze channels. Beyond the obvious aesthetic qualities of the fountain – it also addresses a basic functional need: it hides the pool equipment and masks its incessant hum.

LA House

February 12, 2020/in PROJECTS, Residential/by SAdesignsJFAK

Surrounded by stately residences in a variety of historical styles, this 5,300 square-foot single-family residence responds with a deceptively simple composition of volumes, voids, and screens. The balanced muscularity of the street facade presents a contemporary response to the formality and classicism of the adjacent structures. The L-shaped ground floor includes a kitchen/family room wing that extends into the backyard garden. Generously-sized terraces and large banks of sliding glass doors encourage year-round indoor-outdoor living.

The emphasis on simplicity continues inside the structure, which employs a free plan animated by a floating staircase located between the foyer and living room. Abundant use of natural light activates the interior spaces. A reduced palette of light-colored materials, including exterior plaster walls, terrazzo floors, painted drywall, and quartz countertops, emphasizes the house’s natural light and free flowing spaces, as well as its simple, unfettered character. These materials are accented with wood siding, screens, and floors.

AIRE

February 12, 2020/in Residential/by Jeffrey Morris

AIRE lies in the heart of Santa Monica, California. The 19-unit residential complex features (12) three-bedroom units and (7) two-bedroom units all connected by underground parking and an open courtyard that provides a serene and communal outdoor public space for all residents.

Three stories of residential units are innovatively organized as double-story townhouses stacked on top of ground floor flats. Each double-story townhouse offers not one, but two private roof decks that are accessed via stair landings created by the unit’s skipped section. In addition to providing access to private open space, the decks allow natural light to filter inside, highlighting the spaciousness of the double-height living areas contained in each residence.

The combination of well-landscaped open spaces, a pedestrian-friendly and well-landscaped zone fronting the street, and imaginative sectional articulation establishes a bright, light, and uniquely SoCal living environment.

Ehrlich House

February 12, 2020/in PROJECTS, Residential/by SAdesignsJFAK

Designed for an entrepreneur seeking refuge from his unpredictable, nomadic life, this residence demonstrates that using the full range of sustainability features is not only good for the environment, but also consistent with creating progressive, spatially-rich environments.

The structure’s siting and openness allow sunlight and breezes to naturally warm and cool the house, and encourages the type of indoor-outdoor living made possible by Southern California’s temperate environment. The house has no mechanical air-conditioning system. The koi pond cools the air before it enters the house. The concrete floors absorb heat during the day and release it at night. A generous use of skylights and clerestories reduces the need for artificial lighting.

The house employs the following active green technologies: Santa Monica’s first gray water system, which filters much of the house’s waste water for garden use; a 4-kilowatt rooftop photovoltaic system supplying 85% of the house’s power; and a highly efficient in-floor radiant heating system. Recycled or sustainably-produced materials include: recycled cotton insulation; sustainably-harvested wood stairs and floors; formaldehyde-free MDF cabinets; low VOC paint; and quartz countertops. The house has been the subject of several university lectures and is on the cover of Santa Monica’s influential “Residential Green Building Guide.”

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