Isla Intersections

Project Design

Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects (LOHA) has been in the vanguard of multifamily housing in Los Angeles, both affordable and market rate, with a bold architectural voice and emphasis on social interaction, both within complexes and with the surrounding neighborhood.

At Isla Intersections (2024), he and the nonprofit developer Holos Communities, with whom he built MLK1101, took on an opportunity that came with a challenge: a site donated by the City of Los Angeles, which is trying to expedite more housing, that sits beside one of the world’s busiest freeway interchanges, the meeting of the 110 and 105 freeways.

So the team’s job was to create lemonade out of lemons, which they did with a basket of strategies. They designed a building, containing 54 units of supportive housing, to fit the triangular site. It is made of repurposed shipping containers, which are stacked, arranged into towers, and oriented at angles to minimize noise and air pollution from the nearby traffic. These towers are connected by a series of walkways to create a single unified building around a quiet courtyard and a sequence of pocket parks, or terraces, some with planters filled with vegetables, that ascend dramatically through the building. These offer a range of activities, and dramatic views onto the cars gliding past and the endless fabric of LA.

They also transformed an adjacent road into the Annenberg Paseo (landscaped by Agency Artifact), with leafy trees, a cooling water feature, and widened sidewalks to calm the road and invite pedestrian life around the local businesses. 

The project is intended to act as a catalyst for change for the neighborhood in South Los Angeles, and has transformed a leftover space into a distinctive place with multi-tiered social and environmental benefits.

More about Isla Intersections.

More about Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects.

More about MLK1101, also designed by LOHA.

More about Holos Communities.

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Reflections

It’s a mini mansion to me. I love the building, and I make sure it stays clean.
–Tyrone McCoy, resident who had spent two years living on the street, from An Urban Island as Affordable Housing, in Metropolis.

Top: Stairs and terraces ascend at Isla intersections; Bottom left: walkway at Isla Intersections; Bottom right, Isla Intersections, from above. All photos by Eric Staudenmaier.