Archinect - News

TALLER announces plans for a first-ever rowhouse development in Los Angeles

2022-10-18T17:39:00-04:00

Los Angeles-based architecture firm Taller has announced plans for what would be the first project built under L.A. County's compact lot subdivision ordinance on a single parcel of land at 925 Brannick Avenue in East Los Angeles. Plans call for razing an existing single-story, two-bedroom house, clearing the way for the construction of four single-family homes.

The plan is one of a series of novel attempts to deliver to market the much-needed stock of "missing middle" housing brought on by developer recalcitrance and new zoning laws that incentivize multifamily development more heavily. The residences range between 885- to 1,118-square-feet and will be constructed using an insulated panel system that TALLER says is 30 percent stronger than typical stick-framed designs.

"[The] Brannick Homes are a deliberate investment into a working class neighborhood with deep roots in Los Angeles," the firm describes in a statement. "The homes are state-of-the-art projects that prioritize contextual aesthetics, sustainability, great design, and—of course—attainability. They have been thoughtfully wrought to maximize efficiency in order to keep building costs low, allowing for the new homes to enter the market at below-median prices and still remain profitable to our investors."

Folded facades define an origami-inspired residential development in Portland

2019-09-24T14:00:00-04:00

Many residential developments today try to balance the issues of density and materiality with neighborhood scale, and the Origami residences by Waechter Architecture are no exception.

The 12-unit townhome development occupies an entire city block in northeast Portland's Piedmont neighborhood and is designed by the architects to present a sculptural configuration that simultaneously gestures to the surrounding ranch houses while also pointing toward a more urban vision for the city.

Overall view of the backyards for the project. Image courtesy of Jeremy Bittermann.

To achieve this somewhat contradictory design objective, the architects deploy a continuous wall of folded facades that hearkens to old school row house and pitched roof typologies all at once. "We wanted to avoid a strategy of either fragmented individual buildings or a monolithic block," writes Ben Waechter, founder and principal of Waechter Architecture.

Concept model highlighting the project's massing. Image courtesy...

Easy on the Environment, but Not Necessarily Neighbors’ Eyes

2014-08-18T15:03:00-04:00

When Thomas Paino, an architect, decided to remodel a rowhouse he had bought in Long Island City, Queens, his ambitions were nothing short of trying to save the world — at least so far as a two-family home could contribute to the cause. [...] And he came up with a daring design in the hopes that neighbors, passers-by, perhaps even the world would take notice. He succeeded beyond all expectations.