Project Description
2010 RADA
Multifamily / Merit
This West Hollywood, Calif., project combines an impressive mix of uses in less than an acre. Architects Julie Eizenberg, AIA, and Hank Koning, FAIA, LEED AP, managed to weave 31 condominiums, seven affordable housing units, ground-floor retail, and more than 75,000 square feet of parking into an oddly shaped corner lot. “All this parking is worked into the project, but it doesn’t turn its back to the street,” marveled one judge.
Part of the developer’s deal with the city was that the project would include public parking, so the architects tucked it underground and behind the ground-floor portions of the four-story building. They layered the residential parking over and behind the street-facing housing units, using wood screens strategically to hide the cars from public view.
The jury also admired the way material changes mark the transition from flats and retail to townhomes and studios. The former uses sliding wood shutters, while the latter features corrugated metal. “The street had so much expedient stucco,” Eizenberg says. “We wanted to add texture.”