28th Street Apartments

Los Angeles, USA

Architects: Koning Eizenberg Architecture, Inc.

Any: 2012

The restoration and expansion of a landmark YMCA built in 1926 restores principal spaces, reconfigures original housing, and innovatively adds replacement units. The design re-establishes this building’s role as an important community focus and brings living quarters in compliance with contemporary standards.

This classic example of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture, designed by noted architect Paul R. Williams, provided the African American community recreational space and accommodations in the 1920s but by 2007 had fallen into disrepair. We restored exterior and key historic features and enlarged housing units, which necessitated a new residential wing. Inventive integration of new building systems released the existing rooftop for use as a garden and social space to link the historic building to new construction. The thin, cross-ventilated addition is shaded to the south by a vertical photovoltaic panel array and wrapped to the north with perforated metal screens that feather at the corners to frame views of the city.