There is a here there.
There is a there there.
There is a their there.

Dilemma

The project of housing has always been confronted by two primary concerns: difference within repetition, and the acquisition of substantial precincts of property in order to fulfill larger planning aspirations. In its proposal for a project for housing in Long Beach, Livable Places Incorporated (LPI) presents us with an opportunity to address both concerns within a renewed spirit of innovation and the desire for community.

Upon examination of the problem we are immediately faced with a dilemma: how to make architecture within a constrained budget, under such extreme conditions, and in response to a complex and widely varying spectrum of owner profiles? Like evolutionary cycles, how might we engineer complexity over time while maintaining coherence?

We begin with a set of scenarios that suggests the incorporation of extremes, producing a broad band of housing and lifestyle types. We resist the urge to plan the ends, and instead choose to plan the means.

Flexible Strategy: ten acre site

In response to the reality that individual parcels within the ten acre site will probably be acquired by LPI incrementally over time, we develop a flexible strategy employing a tiling system of building types on single lots. Avoiding the deadening effect of a visionary master plan, the tiling strategy promotes development of a whole coupled with a feedback response, insuring a clarity of the parts and a sense of the whole (the community) in the same instance.

As a serial repetition, two or more different tiles can produce a wide spectrum of difference within a pattern of development over time. Because the tiles are engineered to couple in a variety of ways, the accretion of a larger whole, regardless of the final pattern, will always be varied yet coherent. In this project the acquisition and development of individual properties over time will slowly build into to a larger whole, allowing for flexible feedback and responsiveness in its planning along the way.

Tile Types

The first domestic tile is made up of up to three mini-point tower types on a standard 45 x 130 parcel. At the other end of spectrum, the second domestic tile is composed of six units, each punctuated by interior courtyards. While the first tile affords longer exterior views and open space, the second tile is characterized by horizontal space and open planning according to a variety of domestic scenarios. The third domestic tile envisions a live-work condition where more generic volumes can be subdivided as required by their occupants. A fourth tile punctuates the overall site plan as a network of social spaces and programs, complementing the primary landscape of domesticity to make a larger urban fabric. Pocket parks, grey water collection systems, carwashing areas, small farmers markets, event spaces, community centers; all are possible and necessary programs essential to the building of community.

Long Beach Boulevard: one acre site

As the first phase of development, the Long Beach Boulevard site offers a significantly different condition than the softer interior development. We propose a different set of tiles that acknowledge the unique conditions that exist here, yet share the same range of domestic aspirations proposed for the larger field.

The proposed density of development is forty six units per acre. On grade parking, accessed by an alley at the back of the site is covered by a second ground of domestic tiling. Along the boulevard, split level live-work units descend to the street to take advantage of the potential interface with pedestrians and the Blue Line corridor; accountants, insurance salesmen, palm readers, architects and art galleries would flourish. Double height spaces and deep cantilevered courtyards allow for passive cooling, privacy and sky. Situated on the new ground above, one, two, three and four bedroom units are tiled to form a variety of outdoor spaces and textures. Tower units to the east open the rear portion of the development to views of the neighborhood beyond. A future scenario envisions the development of a small school to the north, complementing the neighborhood with a built landscape whose geometry imagines a more nuanced, multiple use greenspace for the community.