Lehrer Architects Transforms an Infill Lot in Los Angeles into a Residential Compound for the Vulnerable

2021 Best of Year winner for Greater Good: Supportive Housing

Designed, permitted, and built in just 13 weeks, this community project is one centerpiece in the city’s emergency strategy to get homeless people into safe and healthy “bridge” shelters en route to permanent housing. By deploying prefabricated 8-by-8-foot pallet shelters, the Lehrer Architects LA team have transformed a forgotten, oddly shaped infill lot on the Orange Line busway into a welcoming compound for the vulnerable and unhoused. Quick to assemble, the 39 one-or-two-person homes provide private, autonomous space for oc­cupants, add real value to a previously underused property, and offer a template for the development of similar sites around the region. The architects en­livened the campus with modernist details: Color, applied to both the buildings and the ground, has the uplifting effect of a 3-D work of art, enhancing the individuality of the shelters while creating a coherent sense of community; chain-link fencing not only provides appropriate privacy and visual separation but also creates vibrant graphic patterns. The energy is palpable. “For us,” founding partner Michael B. Lehrer concludes, “projects like this are exhilarating.”

Lehrer Architects LA: Michael B. Lehrer; Nerin Kadribegovic; Erik Alden; Ashle Fauvre; Robert Mendez