Palm 4

2018 Residential Architect Design Awards / Multifamily Housing / Award

“The integration with the landscape and the siting of this project is great. The interior is so modest, but also really sweet. It’s a very simple but nicely detailed solution.” —Stella Betts

Manhattan Beach is among the most desirable neighborhoods in Los Angeles—and, at a median home price of more than $2.8 million, one of the most expensive. The developers behind Palm 4, a four-unit apartment building about a mile and a half from the ocean, wanted to create an inexpensive alternative aimed at younger families starting out in the neighborhood, while also demonstrating the efficiencies gained through environmentally friendly strategies.

The 8,008-square-foot building, designed by local design/build firm RAS-A Studio, is square in plan, with each unit occupying about a quarter of the structure (each apartment also gets a parking spot beneath the building). Every unit has its own front door to the outside, and has a slightly different layout from its neighbors—thanks to light wells, private terraces, and other features that the developers tasked the architects with inserting into the building. The light wells extend upward, above the roofline, where they are clad in a fluted polycarbonate skin that both allows light in and, at night, glows warmly from the interior lighting.

Those features are carefully placed to take advantage of coastal breezes and act as thermal chimneys, ventilating hot air upward and out of the apartments while drawing in fresh cool air via windows below. The building combines environmental and economical friendliness with its white roof—which reduces cooling needs and therefore energy usage—and a stormwater basin, which provides water for some of the tenants’ needs. The exterior is surfaced in low-maintenance, dark epoxy stucco interspersed with raked white plaster, both of which lend definition to the building’s volume.

The project replaces an older duplex on the site, and yet it doesn’t feel crowded—proof that good design can make even a tightest Los Angeles block feel spacious and private.

See the full list of winners of the 2018 Residential Architect Design Awards.

Project Credits
Project: Palm 4, Manhattan Beach, Calif.
Client: Minaret Development Partners . Jeff Bowers, Bryan Murphy
Design/Build Firm: RAS-A Studio, Redondo Beach, Calif. . Robert Sweet (principal-in-charge); Paul Miller, AIA, Charles Chambers (project team)
Structural Engineer: Palos Verdes Engineering
General Contractor: Dave Powers Construction
Landscape Architect: FormLA Landscaping
Size: 7,264 square feet (residential); 4,072 square feet (parking garage)
Cost: Withheld

Materials and Sources
Appliances: JennAir, Zephyr
Bathroom Fixtures: Duravit, Hansgrohe
Cabinets: Ikea (Sektion boxes); Gordon Woodcraft (custom fronts)
Ceilings: National Gypsum Concrete: Board formed Concrete
Countertops: Caesarstone
Exterior Wall Systems: GMC Paper Products (building paper); Sto (stucco); Polygal Topgal (polycarbonate)
Fabrics/Finishes: Daltile (ceramic tile); Cletile (encaustic tile)
Flooring: Shorty’s Hardwood Floors (solid white oak)
Gypsum: National Gypsum
Insulation: Owens Corning
Paints/Finishes: Sherwin Williams
Windows/Doors: Fleetwood Sliding Doors; Milgard Windows