Views at 270, Hollywood

The project provides 56 affordable housing units over subterranean parking, a 13,000-sq.-ft. Walgreens drugstore, 1,250-sq.-ft. free-standing retail site and a mass-transit hub for the surrounding community.

The $13.6-million project's significance stems from the massive coordination of a national retail developer, city planning officials, and a local non-profit housing developer. Walgreens desire to be on the bustling corner of Sunset Boulevard and Western Avenue led to the multi-year development process culminating in a project that met the intent of the Station Neighborhood Area Plan and found favor with the local civic leaders.

This project was endorsed by the office of the mayor of Los Angeles, the office of the local councilman and the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency, and was the first to be completed using a portion of the $100-million Mayoral Housing Trust Fund.

The initial stages of this project brought the developer (and landowner) of Walgreens to design a typical, stand-alone retail store. Walgreens' criteria based the initial site plan in the rear corner of the site, well away from the urban corner. As meetings with the city planning departments were held, a compromise was set to locate the building directly at the Sunset Boulevard frontage and construct a small retail building at the corner to form as much street frontage as possible. The project was then submitted for approval. The planning commission approval was obtained, but challenged by the Los Angeles City Council because the project did not represent the best use of the intersection.

The Station Neighborhood Area Plan had been adopted and required that the building height be graduated from neighboring residential areas (at a very low-height restriction) toward commercial areas up to 65-ft. Due to the Walgreens "required" site layout, the primary mass of the project was set nearest the adjacent residential neighborhood. To mitigate the impacts, the project massing is eroded at the edges by variables such as varying roof heights and stepping wall planes to break down the massing of the residential structure.

Other challenges were varied and consisted of the coordination for access to residential lobbies and parking versus on-grade parking for retail, loading access for retail portion, egress and fire department access, and access for disabled people.

Judges' Comments:

• "This is the type of project that needs to be done in L.A.--and elsewhere."
• "The builder did not disrupt the community during the construction phase."

Project Team:

Owner: Hollywood Community Housing Corp.
Architect: M2A Architects
General contractor: Benchmark Contractors Inc.
Engineering team: Saiful/Bouquet (structural)
Donald F. Dickerson & Associates (mechanical, electrical)

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