Star Apartments was selected as one of seven finalists for the prestigious Mies Crown Hall America’s Prize (MCHAP) 2014/2015 Awards. The MCHAP is a biennial prize that acknowledges the best built works of architecture in the Americas.
Star Apartments was awarded a 2016 American Architecture Award from the Chicago Athenaeum and European Centre for Architecture. The annual awards program recognizes the best new buildings designed and constructed by American architects and by international architects for buildings designed and built in the United States. The American Architecture Awards are the nation’s highest public awards given by a non-commercial, non-trade affiliated, public arts, culture and educational institution. An exhibition of all the award winning designs will open in Athens, Greece.
LA Times: For years, many Los Angeles residents have watched with alarm as homeless encampments spread across the city, from the sidewalks of skid row to alleys in South Los Angeles, behind shopping centers in the Valley and even on the bluffs above the Pacific Ocean.
Skid Row Housing Trust’s Six Four Nine Lofts development was awarded $5.3 million in California cap-and-trade funding through the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program (AHSC). Six Four Nine Lofts will create 55 supportive homes for homeless and disabled individuals in Downtown Los Angeles’ Skid Row neighborhood. A ground-floor medical clinic, with dental, optometry, pharmacy and mental healthcare services, will be operated by Los Angeles Christian Health Centers and is expected to serve 7,500 people each year. In addition, a portion the funding will be used for pedestrian and bike infrastructure improvements around the development, including a new Metro Bike Share Hub. “This development will not only provide homes for people experiencing homelessness, but it will also place housing and medical services near improved transit options,” said Ben Rosen, the Trust’s Director of Real Estate Development. “By making the community more sustainable, Six Four Nine Lofts is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 19,182 metric tons.”
New York Times: “By the People: Designing a Better America,” opening on Friday at the Smithsonian’s Cooper Hewitt, taps into a rich vein of entrepreneurial beneficence. It is about the intersection of poverty, prosperity, innovation and design, and it couldn’t be timelier. If stories like the one from Chattanooga unavoidably turn out to be more complicated than any museum display can make clear, the spotlight is at least pointed in the right direction.
Piece by Piece is hosting their Gala & Exhibition on October 20th at the iconic Los Angeles Times Building. The exhibit will display for sale individual works of art from over 25 Artisans, as well as community art made by over 290 participants from Skid Row and South Los Angeles. There will be special performance by the Urban Voices Project, a Skid Row choir that endeavors to provide healing through music. Tickets are available online!
In partnership with Skid Row Housing Trust, Piece by Piece provides low-income and formerly homeless people free mosaic art workshops using recycled materials to develop marketable skills, self-confidence, earned income and improved quality of life. Their participants learn and practice mosaic technique, ultimately achieving Artisan-level skill and earnings for their work.
Learn more about this inspiring event.
Yesterday morning, I had the great privilege of hosting a broad coalition of elected officials, civic leaders, philanthropic partners, nonprofit service providers, and homeless advocates at Skid Row Housing Trust’s New Genesis Apartments, which gathered to urge Angelenos to vote yes on Proposition HHH on the November 2016 ballot. The proposition – “Housing and Hope to End Homelessness”- would allow the city to finance 10,000 units of permanent supportive housing over the next 10 years. It would triple the rate at which Los Angeles currently builds safe, stable, and affordable housing that is desperately needed by thousands of individuals who are currently homeless.
Permanent supportive housing in Los Angeles has a 90% success rate at ending homelessness, and is 43% cheaper than leaving people on the street where they are dependent on emergency services and temporary shelters for care. Not just an apartment, permanent supportive housing offers voluntary on-site health, mental health, recovery and case management services so that formerly homeless individuals can stabilize their lives on their own terms. Unfortunately, there is not enough housing to help all of those in need, and the waitlist is long. Visit yesonhhh.com to learn how Proposition HHH would dramatically accelerate the work that is being done, bringing this proven solution to scale.
Proposition HHH is a common-sense approach based on evidence and years of hands-on experience: Homes end homelessness. It would bring tens of thousands of our neighbors – men, women, children and veterans – home. We were honored to host the launch of this important campaign, which was covered by the LA Times, KCRW, MyNewsLA, ABC, CBS and many more. Join this historic effort to end homelessness in our City by spreading word and voting yes for Proposition HHH this November.
Mike Alvidrez
CEO, Skid Row Housing Trust
City of Los Angeles CAO Miguel Santana, City Council President Herb Wesson, Councilmember Mike Bonin, Mayor Eric Garcetti, Executive Secretary-Treasurer Los Angeles County Federation of Labor Rusty Hicks, Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Councilmember José Huizar, United Way of Greater Los Angeles President and CEO Elise Buik (not pictured), and Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Gary Toebben (not pictured) listen to formerly homeless advocate Sylvia Hernandez stress the urgent need for housing.
Permanent supportive housing – decent, affordable, community-based housing that offers voluntary support services – has proven to be most effective at helping individuals who struggle long-term homelessness. However, Los Angeles only has enough of permanent supportive housing to help 20% of those in need. We are proud to announce that Bank of America awarded the Trust $20,000 to help us continue creating safe and stable homes for some of our most vulnerable neighbors. With the support of partners like Bank of America, we aim to develop or renovate over 1,200 units of permanent supportive housing over the next five years. “Tackling the immediate needs of our homeless neighbors who continue to struggle with access to affordable housing is important to assist them with regaining and maintaining long-term stability,” said Raul A. Anaya, Los Angeles market president, Bank of America. “By supporting nonprofits like Skid Row Housing Trust, we can strengthen our community and play a vital role in its overall economic health.”
This summer, interns from Gensler Los Angeles raised $2,000 to purchase supplies for Welcome Home Kits for the first-ever residents of Crest Apartments, the Trust’s newest permanent supportive housing property.
Welcome Home Kits help ease the transition from homelessness into housing by providing essential kitchen ware, cleaning supplies, and personal hygiene items. On August 1st, the interns put the kits together alongside staff from National Equity Fund, which assisted in the financing of the Crest Apartments. In the next few weeks, new residents moving into Crest Apartments will each receive one of these kits, which will also include handwritten notes of support from the interns.
We are thrilled to work with innovative partners like Gensler and National Equity Fund who care deeply about every step of the permanent supportive housing process. Stay tuned over the coming months as we celebrate the official grand opening of the Crest Apartments, which will provide 64 units of permanent supportive housing in L.A.’s Van Nuys neighborhood.
