Barrington 1503, a Co-living Hub for Los Angeles Students

There’s no mistaking one of Lorcan O’Herlihy’s multi-unit housing projects. Over the past fifteen years he’s been playing variations on a fruitful theme, carving away a block clad in ribbed metal to create terraces and courtyards. A contrasting color is used for the cuts, as though one were slicing into an apple. Several of these projects have been featured in THE PLAN and have won its annual awards.

The latest iteration is Barrington 1503, named for its street address in West Los Angeles. A four-story cube is hollowed out to create four sharply angled  corner blocks located on a 2.267 m² site and varying in size and internal configuration. Together these contain 79 bedrooms and a generous provision of bathrooms, kitchen-dining areas, study and recreation rooms. The blocks—black on the outside, white within-- enclose a courtyard and are linked by broad walkways and vertiginous open staircases.

Eighteen clusters of five-six bedrooms, ranging in size from 6.6 to 9.2 square meters, are tightly grouped around the perimeter of each block at each level, and there’s a pleasing variety in their fenestration.  Shared spaces open onto the inner walkways through sliding glass doors. Terraces and two thirds of the roof are set aside for recreation, leaving the rest for solar panels, plus limited basement parking.

Nearly a century ago, Moise Ginzberg pioneered such a model of community living in Moscow in an experiment to liberate the new Soviet citizen from the burden of property;  recently his Narkomfin block was restored and marketed to the new bourgeoisie. It’s unlikely that they’ll be demanding a collective kitchen or laundry. Stalin’s subjects took what they were given; typically several families were crammed into a few rooms with a shared toilet.

In contrast, this block provides choices, and most students like hanging out with friends. “By carefully structuring a gradient of social engagement, Barrington 1503 creates a layered transition between public and private realms,” writes O’Herlihy. “This project thoughtfully addresses the complexities of communal living, providing an environment that supports both interaction and solitude in equal measure”.

The lack of affordable housing in LA (and other large American cities) has become a national disgrace. The ranks of the homeless keep growing and some students are reduced to sleeping in cars. A full 70 percent of LA is zoned for single-family housing--a restriction that needs to be waived so that the city can be densified, especially around the new light-rail stations.

Barrington 1503 is a demonstration of how well-planned multi-unit housing can enrich the city, visually and socially, while mitigating the housing crisis. It’s a short bus ride from the UCLA campus and many more of its kind are urgently required.

>>> Discover Brunson Terrace by Brooks+Scarpa, a net-zero affordable housing in Santa Monica