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Ricardo Charcas
Ricardo Charcas
Los Angeles has both a shortage of housing and an overabundance of parking throughout the city. There are over 18 million parking spaces in LA County which make up about 14% of its land area. This spatial imbalance reflects decades of automobile-centric planning and policy that has shaped the region into the sprawling and highly expensive metropolis it is today. The enormous supply of car parking brings countless detrimental effects to the city's urban environment while inhabiting valuable real-estate that could be dedicated instead to housing and other uses.
Many parking lots in the city were once the site of buildings in the early 20th century, especially those in Downtown LA. Their demolition mark a shift away from investment in American city centers and their residents, the consequences of which are still around in modern times. This project centers around the idea of returning this parking space back to people in the form of housing.
Before and after in Downtown LA
Thesis
Convert state and city-owned parking lots into social housing in order to provide homes as well as improve the urban environment of the city by removing auto-oriented space
City-owned parking lots and structures in Los Angeles
The City of Los Angeles owns numerous parking garages and lots, some of which can be converted into housing. These properties are already owned and managed by the city, therefore land acquisition is not an issue. An additional benefit is that building housing in these locations does not require the displacement of any existing homes or businesses, which is a frequent controversy in any new project proposal. The greatest benefits to this approach however are associated with the environmental and transit-oriented goals that can be achieved be eliminating spaces for cars, along with providing housing for those in need. With this strategy, choosing an appropriate site location that will support such a development is vital.
Proposal
This project proposes the conversion of a 7-level, city-owned parking garage located at 636 Maple Avenue in the Skid Row neighborhood of Downtown Los Angeles into a 40-unit subsidized apartment building with ground-floor supportive services. There are several key spatial attributes that make this site an optimal location. It has excellent proximity to transit, with a multiple bus stops along the same block, and the Pershing Square Metro Station a half-mile away. Public transport is a crucial resource for many low-income Angelenos. It is also surrounded by other multi-family apartment buildings, therefore the surrounding area can easily accomadate a zoning amendment from its current designation as a public utility.
Aerial overview of the site
The property (green) next to lots zoned for multi-family residental (orange)
An Google Earth rendering of the structure as it exists (left) and a rendering of the project (right) displaying five floors of one-bedroom apartment units and ground-floor social services.
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