Reese Davidson Community | Los Angeles, California | 2018

Architects: Eric Owen Moss Architects
Client: Venice Community Housing Corporation and Hollywood Community Housing Corporation
Photographers: Eric Owen Moss Architects

The site is an existing public parking lot located at the intersection of Venice Boulevard and the northern terminus of the Venice Grand Canal. The waterway bisects the property into two separate lots, which are connected by an existing on-site bridge that spans the Venice Grand Canal.

The project includes 140 units of affordable housing and permanent supportive housing, retail, community art space, and 395 parking spaces for project uses and public parking. Two above-grade parking structures are centrally located on either side of the Grand Canal and surrounded by residential buildings ranging in height from one to three stories that obscure the parking from an eye-level view.

Residential units are arranged in a modular fashion, with large openings that reduce the massing and serve as shared roof decks and alcoves for the residents. The west building features an elevated community room and roof deck located at the corner of North Venice Boulevard and Pacific Avenue. The east building's ground floor is set back from the street, providing increased landscaping along the sidewalk, with trees along the street and up through internal building courtyards. Residences on the first floor are live/work units for artists with roll-up doors to allow for an internal "Art Walk." Both buildings feature retail, and community spaces that front the Grand Canal, and their facades gradually lean outward to allow maximum daylighting into the canal. The plaza along the canal is configured as a public walk with landscaping and concrete terraces.