Mark

HOOVER APARTMENTS
SILVERLAKE, CALIFORNIA


In an effort to resist the formulaic repetition of multiple-dwelling speculative development, the design for Hoover Street Housing attempts to provide attributes of single family living within a dense communal structure. Offering an affordable alternative to the single family residence and to the large anonymous apartment structures in Los Angeles, this design emerged as a negotiation between L.A. City Zoning regulations, a steep 5,400 square foot hillside lot and a fixed construction budget.

The influence of the automobile remains the primary determining factor in the physical density and zoning of Los Angeles. Tolerances for parking lot design, automobile access and the number of spaces-per-dwelling-unit collectively determine development density throughout the city’s various neighborhoods. For this property, the challenge was to comfortably locate four dwelling units on the property, while balancing the provision of nine parking spaces with the atypical geometry of the building lot. A foundation system of concrete soldier piles, retaining walls and a structural concrete slab retain the excavated hillside and provide a sectional tabula rasa, effectively flattening the lot to accommodate the subterrainean parking requirement.

Above the parking level is a three-story framed structure with four units, each of which is entered from a collective “porch”. While this space is inherently urban in its potential for both community and for friction, it is also the departure point for the individual dwelling units. Within each unit, autonomy is defined spatially through authentic interconnected configurations. Views towards the ocean, the hills and the urban sprawl are provided on a minimum of three exposures for each unit, as are private outdoor spaces, which are defined by building orientation and the sectional nature of the hillside.