Fantabulous design: + low-income housing

"A Ray of Hope"
At the intersection of Santa Monica Boulevard and 26th Street, this low-income family housing project recently won the AIA national honor award for Kanner Architects.
The AIA jury said of the building: "A ray of hope — the architects used the light and breezes, which are free, wonderfully. The building is beautiful in a clean-scrubbed way while creating a safe haven."

The final design invites daylight and the region’s mild climate, historical precedents of Southern California Modernist architecture, into the building and reflects the human scale of residents and pedestrians.

The design incorporates dual-glazed and laminated windows along both street-facing sides to eliminate street noise and Drywells were dug beneath the project to collect and disperse storm water runoff and minimize the project’s impact on the city’s storm sewer system.

The exterior features a vibrant pattern of white walls, colorful panels and Hardie siding, a durable man-made composite that has the appearance of wood.
The purpose of the colors is to create a sense of individuality to the units and break up the long façade of the building with individual colors, so that someone can say, 'I live in the unit with the red tone or the blue tone.'

A generous landscaped courtyard designed to encourage family and community interaction.

Living spaces are organized in a linear fashion to facilitate cross-ventilation, a natural cooling system that eliminates the need for energy-intensive rooftop air conditioning equipment mechanical equipment that disrupts views, makes noise and can be seen from the street.

http://www.kannerarch.com/