The 2017 AIA | LA residential design award winners

It’s a common complaint that many new buildings in LA are boring, uninspired, and expected. Allow us to produce evidence to the contrary.

The Los Angeles Chapter of the American Institute of Architects has announced the winners of its residential and residential design awards. So we’ve rounded up the winners (excluding those built outside of LA). You are beautiful, creative and smart.

From an apartment complex for disabled veterans in the valley to a renovated Frank Gehry house in the Westside neighborhood of Sawtelle, the projects are the best in their field. They were created by AIA | designed by LA members and must have originated after 2013.

“The program is characterized by outstanding achievements in contemporary home design in all sizes and variations,” says AIA | LA. The winners were selected by a jury made up of professional architects and planners, the editor-in-chief of Interiors and the president of real estate company The Agency.

Enjoy!

It costs less than $ 200,000 to design and build A 1,000 square meter starter house, says the architect Lehrer Architects. Here is a rendering of a prototype fitted with skylights, floor-to-ceiling glass windows, solar panels, and rain barrels. Michael B. Lehrer, Nerin Kadribegovic and Benjamin Lehrer

The IVRV house, designed by SCI-Arc was built for an Army veteran and his family in South LA. What appears as the front entrance is actually a “thickened threshold” to an indoor / outdoor entrance space with a large screen, the inside of which is coated with T102 “to trap and neutralize harmful particles in the air”. Joshua White

The living spaces in this modern guest house “are oriented towards an inner courtyard and turn away from an unsightly alley” that is located at the rear of the compact property. It was designed by Schmidt Architecture. Paul Vu

MU77 is built into a hillside in the Hollywood Hills. This place “presented strenuous challenges … when he pushed the building downhill over the ridge.” Arshia Architects says the 5,000-square-foot home “cushions the intrusion of onlookers on Mulholland Drive”. Paul Vu, Brandon Vogts

Patrick Tighe Architecture played with geometrically shaped windows in the design of this three-story home one block from the ocean in Redondo Beach. Art Gray

In this artistic building in West Hollywood, formerly homeless LGBT youth with very low incomes and people living with HIV and AIDS live. It was designed by Patrick Tighe Architecture and John V. Mutlow Architects Inc., Art Gray, Bran Arifin

According to Bestor Architecture, the strategy for this small lot development of 18 houses on 0.8 acres in Echo Park, called Blackbirds, was “stealth density”. Two detached houses, for example, “are connected by blinking and the roofline creates the illusion of a house mass. Laure Joliet, Iwan Baan

Cloverdale749 was designed by Lorcan O’Herlihy Architect. With a size of 10,500 square feet, the density limits will be “exceeded again” and built to the full size of the property. Lawrence Anderson

The Elysian in Echo Park was formerly part of a Metropolitan Water District campus designed by modernist architect William Pereira. It was converted into apartments by David Lawrence Gray Architects who brought 13 new double-height penthouses to the top. Geoff Captain

In remodeling and expanding this 1960s mid-century home in Studio City, Assembledge + used a free “simple, elegant” palette of materials. “Michael Weschler

Dan Brunn Architecture renovated this Sawtelle house, originally designed by Frank Gehry. Its standout features include a sculptural staircase and an open-air garden for meditation. Brandon Shigeta

During a comprehensive renovation, the AND studio on Mulholland Drive was opened and expanded in the 1970s to make better use of the location and the view on the slope. Media carrot photography

An ORA-led renovation of this 1980s Manhattan Beach house included an asymmetrical roof made of corrugated iron, Douglas fir beams, and gnarled cedar boards. Eric Staudenmaier

To earn: Marina Tower model apartment in Long Beach designed by Ted Hyman Nick Merrick, Hedrich Blessing Photographers

The Rear Window House is a “discreet yet” modern addition “to a converted old bungalow in Culver City. Designed by Edward Ogosta Architecture, the addition is a master suite with laundry room and library. Steve King

This affordable residential complex, designed by Kevin Daly Architects, features four free-standing residential buildings that are arranged like puzzle pieces around a star-shaped courtyard. Ivan Baan

Jacobschang Architecture designed this Hollywood house made of stucco and cedar in a 30 year old hedge made of ficus trees. Michael Wells Photography

The Crest Apartments in Van Nuys were designed by Michael Maltzan Architecture, Inc. They have 64 apartments for low-income renters and ex-homeless veterans with disabilities. On the ground floor there is a communal kitchen, lounge and communal garden. Ivan Baan