Suburbia Stacked

Suburbia Stacked

Graduate Thesis 2022

Brandon Lopez

Graduate Thesis 2022 Provocations Positions Project

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Thesis Statement There are no more middle class homes in Los Angeles. Among the many factors contributing to the crisis, there are far too few homes available for the number of people looking to buy or rent. The median home price in the city recently reached $826,500 pushing home ownership out of reach for a majority of residents in the region.

To meet the demand would require a home building surge of the magnitude not seen since the end of the second world war. And unlike most hosing projects today, they would have to be affordable to those making a median wage.

With no vacant land to develop, current residential areas will have to become more dense, adding homes by turning single

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family lots and other developed land into multi family units. Is it possible to desnify Los Angeles without losing the character of the city? Is is possible to build affordable, more dense neighborhoods that still give a feeling of space and privacy? Can this also be an opportunity to reduce the amount of pavement and re-introduce a more natural environment into the city?

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Provocations

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Week 01 The Wild Garden City An act of natural interruption. Like a supernatural occurrence, the wilderness areas of Los Angeles, including Griffith Park, santa monica mountains, and Baldwin hills bursts from their boundaries and spills out over the city, mixing with the built environment, reforesting large swaths of the city. Can the city continue to exist and thrive without concrete edge to edge? What would a city/forest hybrid look like? How can the two coexist together?

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1. Urban Forest - Koichi Takada Architects 2. Vertical Forest - Boeri Studio 3. Oas1s - R.A. de Hullu

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1. Shengshan - abandoned village 2. Shengshan - abandoned village 3. Garden Roofs - Chengdu, China

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Week 02 Suburbia Stacked As the population of L.A. Continues to grow, can the city keep its identity? Or will our "Manhattanized" downtown (Wilshire Corridor, Century City, Mid Wilshire) be the model that consumes the city?

What makes L.A., L.A.? There once was a building height limit in the city that kept city hall the tallest building in downtown.

Rumor has it that it was for earthquake safety, but an LA conservancy tour guide once swore that the real reason was to keep Los Angeles sunny. This too could be just another fable of the city, like so many, but there is truth in the sentiment. Los Angeles was the model sprawling suburban city of the 20th century. It's about space, about light, about the sun and the open skies. These stereotypes even hold true for me, a native Angelino.

To me the city is about backyards and nature, private and public. It lacks in urban parks, but the mountains and canyons are close.

Everyone has their own private wilderness. Where I grew up in the suburbs of the San Gabriel valley, older homes have back yards that are easily the size of three of four typical suburban lots. But even the tiniest of backyards are yours to make a fire, build your outdoor gym, garden or

resquache patio.

The backyard swimming pool is a staple.

Not a universal one, but everyone knows as least one friend who had one growing up.

Can this suburban, outdoor experience be densified? Is is possible to stack suburbia in a way to allow for moderate density, mid-rise living that retains the feel of the city? With equal access to the sun and the outdoors for each home?

Paris by us, Paris for us The project on the opposite page is informed by various Parisian housing typologies. It creates a dense urban mixed-use development containing a variety of different homes of varying sizes for different demographics of Parisians including multi-generational families, small families, young people, elderly, roommates, etc. It is an attempt at a microcosm of the city in one building reminiscent of the larger city.

Above: A cartoon by A.B. Walker from Life Magazine in 1909. Reprinted in Delirious New York by Rem Koolhaas, pg 83.

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1. Render, Paris par nous Paris pour nous, Peripheriques Marin+Trotter Architects 2. Process sketch of housing typologies, Peripheriques Marin+Trotter Architects 3. Final axon drawing, Peripheriques Marin+Trotter Architects

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This Project envisions suburban living in the city. The architect writes, "...the main objective is to provide a green community in the middle of Berlin for families who desire the best of both worlds{suburban/city}.

The housing units are stacked in opposite directions to create terraces and open spaces for every apartment."

1. Elevation, Spiral Tower, Phillip von Bock 2. section, Spiral Tower, Phillip von Bock 3. render, Spiral Tower, Phillip von Bock

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1. street elevation, Frogtown Four, Bestor Architecture 2. Frogtown Four, Bestor Architecture

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1. Santa Monica - Cinta Vidal 2. Bauhaus neighbors - Cinta Vidal 3. Hmong skyscraper - Xiangshu Kong, Xiaoyong Zhang, Mingsong Sun

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1. Highrise of Homes - James Wines 2. Highrise of Homes - James Wines

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Week 03

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Los Angeles will soon be home to the world's largest wildlife crossing. It is scheduled to break ground in 2022 and will span a section of the 101 freeway.

The project is slated to cost $87 million, is 200 ft long and 165 ft wide. It has taken nearly a decade to bring the bride to the point of construction. It is a public private partnership between the National

Wildlife Federation, Caltrans, the National Park Service, Resources Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains, the Mountain Recreation and Conservation Authority, the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains, and private donors. This along with the LA river revitalization project re-introduce nature to paved Los Angeles.

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1. Rendering of the wildlife crossing: savelacougars.org 2. (opposite) Map of willife crossing and protected areas(orange) and linkage areas (green) savelacougars.org

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1. LA river revitalization render 2. LA river revitalization render 3. LA river habitat restoration render

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Week 04 Provocations Workshop Questions: 1)What does beauty mean?

Beauty is intangible but essential. It can take many different forms but I prefer to see it as a harmony among things that inspires us to enjoy the present.

2) How do you best learn history?

The best way to learn history is to seek out voices that do not stay within the largely accepted narrative. Find works that come at it from a different perspective or theory of events. This includes books and documentaries. It can also include unedited footage or recordings from the time.

3) How do you feel about strangers?

I have always had social anxiety especially when I was younger. However, I always wanted to get to know the other people I pass on a daily basis. I believe many of them are potentially good friends that I haven’t yet had the chance to meet. I think people are generally good and want to be helpful and friendly to others. It is only when people are under stress, have been taught to have their guard up, or have been abused, by other people or by society at large, that they become initially defensive or hostile to others.

4) What does paradise mean to you?

Right now, paradise means a place where I can feel secure and safe. I place where I can be with my family and others that we

love and care about. Additionally, access to nature in a place and fresh air. Free from exposure to industrial and residential runoff of chemicals, trash, and air pollutants.

A true paradise would also be a place with community. A group of people who look out for each other and where friendships are formed.

Exercise: I’m imagining a practice that creates and distributes an “architecture for the people” right here in Los Angeles. At the current moment, the price of homes in the city have skyrocketed. In December 2021, the median home price in Los Angeles reached an all-time high of $826,500. The average income earner, not to mention those further down the economic ladder, can no longer afford to purchase a home in the city. And rents are no better, having skyrocketed in the last few years. Anybody who wishes to address housing equity will have to grapple with the cost of housing and entry barrier first. Home-ownership, has historically been one of the few ways for lower and middle income families to build inter-generational wealth. First by providing an affordable place for someone and their family to live as they raise children and navigate their careers, and later providing a stable home to retire in that is either paid off or usually with a mortgage that is far below current market value. These home are then passed on to children or other family member of the next generation who can either live in

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the home or sell it, providing an economic leg-up over those who do not have such an asset in their family. This is one reason red-lining has been so detrimental to the wealth of so many families.

These properties would be privately owned by the families who move in, but could be partially or completely paid for/ subsidized publicly with certain restrictions to prevent abuses such as flipping of homes or accumulation of home by those of greater means.

In the city of Los Angeles, there is very little undeveloped land, meaning there is no longer capacity to add single family homes. There is currently also a lack of housing supply in the city. Therefore, any new homes must add more homes than currently exist to the same land. That means purchasing single family homes and transforming them into two/four or more homes.

These homes should be both aesthetically beautiful, “warm, and welcoming. They should be bright with ample landscaping and/or gardens. It should afford the owners privacy and security. The number of bedrooms is often the most important aspect of a home for growing and low income families. Especially in intergenerational homes. These houses should not feel or look “cheap” in any way, regardless of actual construction costs.

These houses should invoke the “American dream,” allowing lowering income families a pride in achieving the milestone of homeownership.

These homes should be made available to low and middle income home buyers. Not based on a bidding process but at a fixed price. The purpose of any rules should be

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to make sure that the very people who are currently being priced out of the city, including minimum wage workers, young people, the elderly and those who make a median income, can stay within the city, own a piece of it and continue to contribute to the greater community.

Conflicts would be determining how to draw the rules to equitably distribute homes. This is difficult and there is no way to make it perfect. The costs of acquiring land and construction could also be a major hurdle in creating these homes.

This is where government subsidies could play a role. Other conflicts could include other developers who could see any new homes at lower rates as a potential threat to their business models.

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1. Peripheriques Marin+Trotter Architects

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1. Bestor Architecture : Low Rise Housing Ideas for Los Angeles Competition 2. Danielian Associates and Urban Arena : Low Rise Housing Ideas for Los Angeles Competition 3. Omgivning and Studio-MLA : Low Rise Housing Ideas for Los Angeles Competition

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1. Le Corbusier : Immeubles-villas, 1922 2. Peripheriques Marin+Trotter Architects 3. Peripheriques Marin+Trotter Architects

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Week 05 Resquache Los angles was conjured out of thin air by developers. There is a strong architectural history here, but I'm thinking of the vernacular homes. Mail-order bungalow kits sold by sears and others, the fairytale homes, spanish style homes with arches and a large picture window, and the mass-produced homes of post WWII. Take it a step further and incorporate the changes made by generations of inhabitants. Especially the home-made addition.

The resquache style of people repairing

and enhancing their homes with whatever they have. Can the spirit of these homes be learned from? How do they expose the needs and desires of their inhabitants?

How can they inform future architecture?

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1. Cinderella home - Jean Vandruff 2. makeshift patio

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South LA home Sci-Arc grad thesis 2017, Keith Marks Sci-Arc grad thesis 2017, Keith Marks East LA home

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Week 06

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Catalogue of homes in South Los Angeles - photos by Brandon Lopez

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Catalogue of homes in South Los Angeles - photos by Brandon Lopez

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Week 07

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Week 08 Adding Architecture to the Dingbat The dingbat apartment building is a ubiquitous part of the LA landscape. It was winning solution for a growing Los Angeles of the 60's and 70's. The dingbat was easily slotted into existing neighborhoods, taking up one or two single family plots and in return, providing between 6 and 12 units. In some central parts of LA such as Hollywood and surrounding areas, the dingbat is the affordable home for many residents. They were cheaply constructed, livable, if not ideal, and practical, providing space for your car. This form of dense housing was all about efficiency. Cheap to build and maximizing the available space with as many livable units as possible. Yet a city of dingbats is a little insufferable.

Its maximization of usable space erases

most landscaping, leaving nothing but pavement and stucco walls. Los Angeles is once again at a need for more living space.

Can the city add more livable space into existing neighborhoods without erasing the landscape? Is it possible to integrate landscape into increasingly dense neighborhoods? Is there a better use of space that may not provide as many units but gives back more in living conditions, the feeling of space and the integration of landscaping?

The Hayworth Dingbat Apartment Historic District, a particularly dingbat-intensive neighborhood in Hollywood. Photographer: Bing Guan/Bloomberg

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1. Modern Dingbat, Culver City. Photo Brandon Lopez 2. The Hauser, Classic Dingbat Midcity. Photo Bing Guan/Bloomberg 3. Modern Dingbat, Culver City w spatious underground parking. Photo Brandon Lopez

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Week 09 Community Land Trusts How do you make space for affordable housing in an increasingly unfordable city?

Community land trusts could be part of the answer. One of the most successful is a trust called the Los Angeles Eco Village, located in Koreatown. It was established din 1993 an not only provides stable and affordable housing for its residents, but is also a community that is run by them.

They are responsible for the upkeep and improvements to the building and the gardens that surround the land. A quick look at their website reveals that this commu-

LA Eco Village. photo from website

nity has attracted many accomplished and busy community organizers, artists and others striving to make their city and the world better. They are a more tight-knight community than your average apartment building and the residents feel a greater ownership of the property. Though none are able to build intergenerational wealth through the property the way a privately owned single family home does, it is another model for how to organize and maintain residential property and community in a metropolis like Los Angeles. Not to mention, creating community unlike any other part of the city.

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1. La Eco Village, Google Maps screenshot 2. Map of LA Eco Village location 3. LA Eco Village resident. photo from website

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Week 10 More Greenery in Los Angeles Like everything in America, the "American Dream" of home-ownership is deeply tied to ideas of race and white supremacy. A big part of the allure of suburbia was to get out of the inner cities, also known as "white flight." As urban centers became more black and brown, white middle-class Americans flocked to the suburbs, a place where laws and covenants explicit restricted home ownership to whites only.

It wasn't until the protests and sit-in's of the 1960's that those legal race barrier began to fall.

The Suburban home, a symbol of prosperity and security to all Americans of every background was crafted out of notions of race and place. It is a powerful symbol.

One that still holds sway over the psyche of all occupants. Even as older neighborhoods have become more diverse the suburban home still seems to engender feelings of NIMBYism in many of its newest residents. Is this American icon intrinsically part of segregation, or merely guilty by association? Can carefully densified suburban areas take on new powers of connection and community?

Police arrest and carry off CORE picketers from outside a home in Torrance. Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection

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1. Nazi party members old NAACP and CORE demonstrators in Torrance: “White Men Unite.” Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection 2. CORE sit-in demonstrators at the Southwood Homes sales office, 1963. Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive.

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Project

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Week 11 Put Your Best Face Forward How South LA homes address the street.

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Week 12 A Vegetative State Residential vegetation of South LA.

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Week 13

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