Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Los Angeles, like other cities in the United States today, does not build enough housing to meet demand, which has contributed to what is perhaps the nation’s worst affordable housing problem. In a frantic effort to alleviate this housing shortfall, California state housing officials recently tasked Los Angeles with an apparently impossible task: zone for 255,000 additional homes or forfeit billions of dollars in federal funding for affordable housing. For housing advocates in Los Angeles, this daunting challenge presents an opportunity to radically reimagine how the city houses its residents: given how densely populated the city is, adding so many new homes will require the design of daring new housing typologies, as well as visionary thinking regarding site-selection, implementation, and financing.
This proposal was created for the Fall 2022 Future of Housing Los Angeles studio at Harvard GSD. The semester-long project was directed by professor Dan D’Oca, for whom I am grateful. I would also like to express my appreciation to the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University, whose generous grant made the studio feasible. In addition, I would like to thank the Los Angeles stakeholders we met on our site visit and my peers for their informative remarks and suggestions.
A big-box, which dates back to the 1960s, is a physically large retail institution that is typically 50,000 square feet or larger on a site that is 8 to 12 acres, and it is typically a part of a chain of stores or light industries. By extension, the phrase can also refer to the business that runs the store.
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“At least 10 percent of existing big box real estate could be converted to housing. The building is already there, we can leave the density where it is and create affordable housing.”
- Ben Carson (Former HUD Secratary)“There has always been an incentive to chase retail and a disincentive to build housing.”
- Anthony Portantino (Member of the California State Senate)“To undo one of these complexes, big box and parking, is a multimillion dollar proposition.”
- Alan Mallach (Center for Community progress)
- Shana Bonstin (Los Angeles City Planning, Deputy Director of Community Planning)
“Housing is really about providing options”
The State of California defines big box retail as a “store of greater than 75,000 feet of gross buildable area and roughly 40 feet in height or lesser.”
Market 1. Los Angeles County 2. Northern/Central NJ
Empire
First year Rent psf/yr $14.92 $11.00 $9.04 $8.46 $8.37 $7.87 $7.35 $7.20 $7.07 $5.88 Source: CBRE 2021
This bill would permit the development to be proposed for a site zoned for office or retail commercial use and that meets the requirements of the above-described Middle Class Housing Act of 2022.
The idea behind big box housing is to use underutilized, low-density land in cities to build housing, especially in places like LA where there isn’t much open space. The difficulty, however, lies in finding a way to finance the housing that stays away from the conventional, market-driven development approach. Here, four tactics—more accurately, hacks—that have been modified for big boxes and based on successful models employed in neighborhoods with single-family homes and tiny lots are offered.
Modular construction and free plan
Big boxes feature a sizable amount of roof space, and their modular design allows for development on top. Roofs can be leased for an extended period of time to a community-owned non-profit organization, taking into account the financial loss of tearing them down. Since the roof is now unprofitable, it may represent a new market with very low rental costs. The non-profit can build any sort of housing and ancillary amenities and lease them to residents, much like CLTs. In this approach, there is solely long-term leasing; there is no ownership.
source: curbed
A new typology of big box housing currently does not exist in the market. Big box owners and other retail stakeholders are therefore relieved of the requirement to make a housing investment. In the suggested scenario, retailers may sell a big box store’s empty space, even a parking spot, to a neighborhood that would then, in a manner similar to the Baugruppen model, approach a bank and an architect to pool resources and turn the space into homes for the neighborhood’s residents.
MODEL source: shareable
How housing can be built, or more accurately attached, is another challenge, particularly in a big box that generates cash flow. Most larger boxes feature a lot of parking spaces, empty space, or even roofs that aren’t being used. Here, auxiliary housing units are proposed to temporarily transform a portion into housing that is either attached, detached, built within, etc., similar to accessory dwelling units at the scale of the single family home. The AHU model offers developers and non-profit organizations the chance to establish transitional housing or other types of temporary housing.
SIMILAR MODELsource: city of Kansas
Numerous large boxes are finding it difficult to remain operational after the outbreak. These are referred to as ghost boxes.
In certain situations, especially when the big box construction is too inefficient to be retrofitted, it may be a wise move to demolish and rebuild. Here, a large lot subdivision strategy could be used to develop these properties into residential lots rather than another type of commerce. This model adheres to the traditional developer-driven methodology.
A framework that includes a market, financing, housing, big box shape, and building feasibility choices is offered to help visualize this new housing type. Depending on the needs of the site, iterations can be made by combining and contrasting these alternatives.
This section presents the experiences of a Black and Latino community residing in a Big Box Housing in the neighborhood of Green Meadows. The case demonstrates how a vacant industrial warehouse, also recognized as a “Ghost Box,” was transformed by the neighborhood through an incremental process, providing the community agency through wealth and livelihood.
Green Meadows is a South Los Angeles neighborhood with a 2000 census population of 30,558 people. It is one of the densest neighborhoods in the county, with an average population density of 12,785 persons per square mile. The majority of the neighborhood’s residents are Black (44.1%) and Latino (54.1%). With only 3.6% of residents possessing a bachelor’s degree and a median age of less than 25 years, housing is a pressing issue in this community. Currently, 10,906 households make up the neighborhood, and 47.1% are homeowners. The neighborhood is highly populated and contains no vacant land suitable for housing construction.
Green meadows Big box housing was financed utilizing the Finance-it-together technique (FIT). Collectively, community members established a non-profit trust sponsored by the community and philanthropic partners. The trust acquired the property in 2022 by utilizing grants such as the density bonus and Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC). AWS Warehousing leased the acquired site for two years to generate cash flow for the development of housing infrastructure. As demand soared, a portion of the warehouse was redevelopment into apartments. While the remaining structure remained to serve as AWS warehouse space, the trust decided to invest simply in an effective structural framework of a high density apartment in order to reduce costs. In lieu of selling or leasing land at affordable prices, communities might build their homes on these units. As the demand for homes increased, the trust decided to gradually modify elements of the building. Economically, the trust flourished by meeting market returns and offering affordable property ownership at the same time.
The existing warehouse had a 12m × 13m modular structural grid, which enabled for the creation of a 9m x 4m indoor unit and a 3m x 4m outdoor space. Using this unit, a toolkit of plans was produced for creating various sorts of housing units, including one-bedroom, two-bedroom, studio, dormitory, community kitchen, etc. The inherent flexibility allowed homeowners to construct in phases. As homeowners purchase a unit area or a group of unit areas, they could use the toolkit to select and build the desired house type. This method lessens the pressure on the trust as a developer and enables them to meet demand as necessary.
Apartment and Bungalow Courts were utilized to inhabit the Big Boxes Through the establishment of corridors, circulation spaces, courtyards with cutouts in the roof, and other community spaces, the project established areas for community use and social interaction. The themed courtyards were a Big Box interpretation on the Los Angeles Bungalow court type. The mixed housing option ensured the presence of senior citizens, children, working professionals, and students on the same property.
The Green Meadows Trust allowed for the development of the Green Meadows Big Box Housing. The proposed model systematically provided affordable housing, fostered a sense of community belonging, and offered opportunities for wealth creation. The establishment of supplementary programs, such as a center for skill training, empowered the youth population in the neighbourhood. Community members were encouraged to engage in entrepreneurship via zones for small-business commerce. Since the expense of land was borne by the trust, communities were able to acquire wealth with minimal capital outlay.
Financial Agency through Big Box Housing Trust
Community Owned Small Business
CommonInterest groups in Mixed Housing
Green Meadows Neighbourhood REIT
Limited Equity Corps for Units in the BBH
Commercial community roof trust for roof activation
New Cooperatives within 650 Units of BBH
Green Meadows Investment Trust
Auxillary Facilities: Skill Training Center, Health Center, Community Centers
