MLK1101 Supportive Housing

2024 Residential Design Awards Merit Recipient

MLK1101 Supportive Housing

Responding to an urgent need in Los Angeles for housing, LOHA collaborated with Holos Communities to transform a vacant, unimproved lot in South LA into a 100% affordable housing community, providing 26-units for previously unhoused veterans and low-income families.

LOHA’s LEED Gold design aims to create an environment that encourages health and community, acknowledging that successful social spaces come from a mixture of planned and organic strategies. LOHA incorporates several design strategies that open the building towards the street and foster a sense of community.

Prioritizing social equity, health, and wellbeing over isolation, we opted for an L-shape that allows every apartment to receive sunlight and cross ventilation, reducing the need for heating, cooling, and artificial light. The building was certified LEED gold and features include high-efficiency heating and cooling, appliances and fixtures, solar water heating, electric vehicle charging and bike parking.

An elevated community garden and social hub sits atop the street level parking. To establish a street presence, the parking is tucked behind a storefront space, and a widened staircase connects the street to the community spaces. This stoop is a gathering space and a public gesture, encouraging the types of neighborly interaction often missing in supportive housing.

An outdoor garden with drought-tolerant plants and raised-bed edible gardens connects the community room to the living spaces. All the units are accessed through exterior walkways which vary in width for a more dynamic, staggered elevation and to create more informal gathering spaces for residents to socialize.

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The jury admires the dynamic, artfully composed use of cost-effective materials in this supportive housing project, the thoughtful approach to environmental strategies and the successful arrangement of shared spaces to foster connection within a tight infill site. All elevate this complex beyond the ordinary.

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Measure 1: Design for Integration

The LEED Gold design for MLK1101 Supportive Housing aims to create an environment that encourages health and community, acknowledging that successful social spaces come through a variety of planned and organic strategies. The design team incorporated several design strategies that open the building towards the street and foster a sense of community within the neighborhood.

Measure 2: Design for Equitable Communities

The ground floor contains street-front retail space for lease to a local small business, as part of the client’s Small Business Resiliency Program which includes discounted rental rates and a tenant improvement loan for the business that moves into the space. The space is open to all types of occupants and particularly looking for women and/or Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) owned businesses to apply or other community serving businesses.

Measure 3: Design for Ecosystems

MLK1101 features a unique green roof with native drought-resistant plant life, solar water heating, bike parking, electric vehicle charging, gated parking and entries, management and social services offices, outdoor green space, a community room, a community kitchen, and a community garden.

Measure 4: Design for Water

Stormwater later irrigated to drought-resistant landscape.

Measure 5: Design for Economy

MLK1101 is an urban in-fill project, but is innovative in providing reasonably sized units for supportive housing. This project ultimately aims to rethink the notion of providing cramped space as a solution to homelessness, striking a balance between space efficiency and a design that prioritizes natural light, fresh air circulation, and providing ENOUGH space for residents.

Measure 6: Design for Energy

MLK1101 was designed with solar collector array for solar water heating.

Measure 7: Design for Well-Being

Daylight modeling performed in early design phases. Prioritizing social equity, health, and well-being of residents over isolation, we opted for an L-shaped typology that allows every apartment to receive sunlight and cross ventilation, reducing the need for heating, cooling, and artificial light, and allowing for the inclusion of an elevated green patio for residents to relax and socialize away from the noise of the street.

Measure 8: Design for Resources

Structural system hybrid of wood frame and concrete. The building was certified LEED gold and features include high-efficiency heating and cooling, appliances and fixtures, solar water heating, electric vehicle charging and bike parking.

Measure 9: Design for Change

In addition to prioritizing passive survivability, the design cleverly capitalizes on a requirement for on-site parking by creating an elevated community garden and social hub that sits atop the street level parking. In order to establish a street presence, the parking is tucked behind a storefront space and a widened staircase that connects the street to the community spaces one level up. The goal of the two retail units at the street level is to generate income that will help subsidize the housing while providing workforce training to residents so that they can transition back into society.

Measure 10: Design for Discovery

We work directly with these clients on multiple supportive housing projects, always with an open communication for feedback and the desire to constantly improve.