28th Street Apartments
Roof Deck linking old and new buildings
Welcome
2012
1949
2007
Reviving History, Strenghtening Community The 28th Street Apartments is an adaptive reuse and addition to an historic 1926 YMCA that was designed by renowned AfricanAmerican architect Paul Revere Williams. The building is listed on local, state, and national historic registers. The existing 4-story historic building consisted of 52 singleoccupancy rooms and a ground floor community space. Each unit was only 85–110 square feet, with a shared bathroom on each floor and a communal cafeteria on the second floor. In the rehabilitation, units were tripled in size to approximately 280 to 350 square feet, to provide kitchens and bathrooms in each unit. Expansion of the unit sizes in the historic building resulted in the elimination of approximately half of the units, providing 24 studio units. A new wing was added to the rear of the existing building, providing 25 studio units on a small sliver of land. The new wing is comprised of a 5-story building with at grade tuck under parking and 4 stories of housing above. The tenant mix is comprised of thirty units reserved for homeless and mentally ill Transition-Aged-Youth and adults, with twenty-three units at 30% Area Median Income (AMI) and seven units at 40% AMI. Eighteen units will be reserved for low income individuals with incomes at 50% AMI or below. There will be one unit reserved for an on-site manager. Kedren Community Mental Health provides a range of supportive mental health services for MHSA tenants living with mental illness that focus on recovery, empowerment and choice. The 28th Street Apartments features an approximately 7,000 square foot neighborhood serving center and gymnasium, separate from the housing that will be operated by Coalition for Responsible Community Development. The focus of the center’s activities will be to promote economic development and employment skill development for the surrounding community. CRCD will work with a variety of neighborhood serving groups to deliver services, including All People’s Christian Center, Youth Build and Los Angeles Conservation Corps.
Clifford Beers Housing and CRCD would like to thank the project team that made the rehabilitation of the 28th Street Apartments possible: Architect: Koning Eizenberg Architecture Mental Health Services Provider: Kedren Community Health Center General Contractor: Alpha Construction w/ Spectra Company Construction Management: AMJ Construction Management Historic Consultant: Historic Resources Group Property Management: The John Stewart Company Financial Consultant: California Housing Partnership Corporation Interior Furnishings: Collaborative House & Pacific Office Interiors Green (LEED) Consultant: Green Dinosaur Civil Engineer: VCA Engineers Mechanical and Plumbing Engineer: Khalifeh & Associates Electrical Engineer: OMB Structural Engineer: Parker Resnick Insurance: Binney Chase & Van Horne Land Use Consultant: Brown Meshul Attorney: Gubb & Barshay Title Insurance: Lawyers Title Insurance Auditor: Levitt & Rosenblum Environmental Consultant: Pacific Environmental Environmental Graphics: Newsom Design Art Conservator: Williams Art Conservation Inc.
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Group Photo, 1926 Paul Williams, the celebrated architect of this building, joins members of the 28th St. YMCA.
CRCD Program Space
Discarded closet doors were used to make this table
Gym Today
Before Restoration
Early Days
Kedren Conference Room
CRCD Break Space
Resident Lounge Tile and pool edge are still visible in the natatorium now used as a Resident Lounge
Restored YMCA Sign
Typical Unit in Historic Building
E. 28TH STREET
COMMUNITY ENTRY
COMMUNITY HALL COMMUNITY CENTER
DN
OFFICE
PALOMA STREET
CONFERENCE ROOM OFFICE ACTIVITY ROOM
OFFICE
UP
COMMONS
COURTYARD
ELEV.
EXISTING
ROOM
RECEPTION
LOBBY NEW
RESIDENTIAL ENTRY
ELEC.
TRASH
PARKING
ALLEY
Ground Floor
UNIT
UNIT
UNIT
UNIT
OPEN TO ROOF BELOW
DN
ROOF DECK ROOF
MECH PLATFORM
UNIT ELEV.
ELEV.
DN
UP
UP
DN UP
DN
LAUNDRY UNIT
Second Floor
UNIT
Third Floor
Residents Entry
New again The 28th Street Apartments occupy a wonderful example of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture designed by celebrated architect, Paul Williams. Built in 1926 for the YMCA, the building provided the African American community recreational space and accommodation for young men migrating to Los Angeles from around the country. When Clifford Beers Housing bought the building in 2007 the housing program had been abandoned and the ground floor community spaces had fallen into disrepair. Ornament was missing in many places and all building services needed to be replaced. Drawing on historic photos and documents the 28th Street cast stone balcony has been reinstated and the gymnasium restored. Paint was stripped from face brick and stone walls and missing wood and decorative metal grilles replicated. All community spaces were kept intact and although the indoor pool was filled - the space now serves as a resident lounge, its outline can be traced by following the wood strip in the floor. A fourteen inch interstitial floor, inserted between the ceiling of the ground level community rooms and the second floor, conceals new electrical, plumbing and sprinkler runs. Residential units on the upper floors were upsized to meet current standards requiring the addition of twenty five new units to maintain the historic count of forty nine. The replacement units and new elevator are housed in a five story addition behind the historic building. The strategy avoided intrusive seismic upgrades and kept the original exterior envelope of the historic building intact and in view.
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. Screens are also tabbed to reveal a pattern abstracted from the historic ornament that appears and disappears with different light conditions and viewing angles—an ephemeral foil to the solid masonry architecture of the historic building. Mechanical equipment is slung over the light well in a truss that doubles as an arbor to the east. The strategy avoids overloading the existing roofs and the pool wing roof is used instead as an elevated garden that both links and anchors old and new. Completed in 2012, the 28th Street Apartments is heading for LEED Gold. The historic building is brought back to life by inventive means and provides much needed supportive accommodations and community amenities.
Solar hot water panels
Solar photovoltaic panels
NEW
EXISTING
perforated screens
Unit
Unit
Unit
Unit
Unit
Reception Parking
ALLEY
Elevator tower and cantilevered residential units
Mechanical service platform
Roof deck
Trellis
Unit
Unit
Unit
Unit
Unit
Unit
Unit
Unit
Unit
Commons room
Community center Existing pool filled Interstitial floor
28TH STREET
view east from 5th Floor
Resident Lounge Terrace
Roof Deck
screen detail
View North from addition
Roof Deck and Addition
Busts of African-American leaders Booker T. Washington & Frederick Douglas are featured in decorative bas relief panels
1200 Wilshire Blvd. Suite 520 Los Angeles, CA 90017 213 316-0108 www.cbeershousing.org Clifford Beers Housing, Inc. develops quality supportive housing that is affordable for low-income households, including homeless and mentally ill populations. By combining permanent housing with appropriate social services, individuals living with a mental illness are supported in their choice to live independently in their communities, leaving behind homelessness and dependant living environments.
Coalition for Responsible Community Development (CRCD) is a neighborhoodbased community development corporation serving the Vernon-Central neighborhood of South Los Angeles. CRCD works with residents, businesses, community organizations, and civic leaders to foster a safe and economically vibrant community where young people have opportunities to thrive.
Kedren Community Health Center, Inc. has been providing mental health and Head Start/State Preschool and Family Services to the South Los Angeles Community since 1965. Kedren collaborates with various community based organizations and local businesses to ensure permanent housing and employment opportunities for mentally ill persons in recovery.
Book design by Koning Eizenberg, 12/2012