The Park Aquatic
FALL 2024 / STU1501 / Prof. Dan D'Oca
Los Angeles is facing a critical housing crisis, with upwards of 200,000 units being needed, LA is desperate to keep up with the pace. With over 70% of Los Angeles’ developable land zoned for single-family housing, we must peek into these neighborhoods to see what we can use. Taking stock of the existing vacant single family lots reveals a market of slivers, pork-chops, almost-squares, and one-off polygon lots. A closer look shows most of these lots exist on varied sloped sites, which can be expensive to excavate and build on - the likely cause of their vacancy. Vacancy - Sliverlake proposes an alternative for these seemingly forgotten sites, employing a series of small housing units stepped up to the site.
With typical starter home costs in Los Angeles being twice the median income, a smaller, low impact unit is the perfect place to begin. This new model is prototyped in Silverlake, CA (affectionately, Sliverlake), as a lower cost alternative to the traditional ‘starter home’. With plentiful access to public transit, shopping amenities like Sunset Junction, and many stairs to climb and explore - Silverlake makes an ideal neighborhood for young homebuyers.
This new ‘starter-home’ model utilizes the existing small-lot subdivision allowances but takes on a new formal approach focused on individual unit ownership. While this may not maximize unit numbers on standard lots, this approach allows for lower-cost, lower-impact excavation on otherwise unused sloped lots. This ‘villa’ approach avoids the bulky townhome or apartment complex, creating a softer density housing solution inline with the existing single family context. Vacancy - Silverlake offers first-time buyers an alternative route to home ownership, using up the otherwise vacant.
