Located along the border of the Skid Row neighborhood and the historic downtown core of Los Angeles, the Star Apartments sets a new model for housing, urbanism, and increased density within the city. By conservative estimates over one-third of the population is homeless, with some 2,500 people occupying beds in shelters or transitional facilities and over 1,000 people sleeping on the streets , making the 0.4 square mile neighborhood the site of the highest concentration of homeless individuals in the United States and Los Angeles the nation’s “homeless capital.” The project provides 102 healthy and stable homes for individuals experiencing chronic homelessness and who are “frequent utilizers” of health services in the County of Los Angeles. The building responds to both the physical and social context of the Skid Row neighborhood by fully integrating individual apartments, extensive community and recreation spaces, and supportive social and medical services within the same building. The building design facilitates a recovery process for formerly homeless residents based on positive re-socialization, healthy interpersonal relations, and wellness. The LEED for Homes Platinum project is the first affordable, permanent, supportive housing project to incorporate modular construction. During design the project team determined that prefabricated modules lifted into place over a new structural podium built over the existing structure would enable a higher quality of construction, meet tighter construction tolerances, and ensure sustainability goals for the project were met.

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