Our 28th St Apartments site was featured in the “Awesome Building of the Month” series, published by the Foundation of Residential Treasures, Los Angeles (FORT:LA)! 28th St. Apartments was highlighted by FORT:LA as an example of how “existing buildings can be upcycled into livable places that also sustain the community’s connection to its past,” while also adding contemporary style and addressing modern community needs.
A brief excerpt of the piece is below:
Times changed, the building fell into decline and in the 20-teens the nonprofit developer Clifford Beers Housing (now Holos Communities) and the South-LA based nonprofit Coalition for Responsible Community Development (CRCD) worked with Koning Eizenberg Architecture to create housing in a striking convergence of old and new. The ground floor became a youth education and workforce development center with a computer lab open to the community, run by CRCD staffers decked out in green company T-shirts. They turned the upper floors of the YMCA building into permanent supportive housing dwellings.
Then they added a new 4-story building at the back of the site, with studio apartments with windows on both sides for cross-ventilation. There are a total of 49 dwellings, with 30 of them permanent supportive housing. Young people from CRCD’s South LA Youth Build program assisted with the construction. “Paul Revere Williams served as a champion and example for minorities during a time when racial discrimination and segregation was pervasive in Los Angeles,” said Cristian Ahumada, Executive Director and CEO of Holos Communities. “The 28th Street Apartments honors his legacy, by creating a space that fosters community and provides economic mobility for those most vulnerable.”
