Greenway Meadows

Project Design

Don Empakeris Architects has designed market and low-income housing that is notable for its interlocking spaces, setbacks and receding and projecting forms that artfully break down density while creating opportunities for outdoor space.

One of these is Greenway Meadows (2021), a 39-unit complex of 100% affordable housing for seniors that was designed to optimize Santa Monica’s mild coastal climate, and create multiple spaces for casual encounters. It sits next door to Las Flores, designed and developed by the same team.

The design concept, says the architect, is based on an unfolded Swiss Army Knife, compact but revealing a multitude of functional parts.  The units are oriented around the perimeter and the 2-story residential wing facing 14th Street unfolds from the orthogonal grid, increasing the southern exposure to the courtyard.

Recessed alcoves provide spaces for wheelchair bound residents to utilize all four levels and light wells bring daylight and natural ventilation to the double loaded corridors in the western half of the building.

Dwellings have patios or balconies, and exterior walkways and stairs wrap around the courtyard, leading up the high point of the building, a roof deck with a BBQ, seating and eating area, community garden and breathtaking 360° views of the ocean, mountains and downtown Los Angeles.

More about Greenway Meadows.

More about DE Architects.

More about Las Flores, also designed by DE Architects.

More about Community Corporation of Santa Monica.

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Reflections

Living in the south for 30 years, I definitely know a porch. And coming here, the rooftop garden resembles a porch. It’s where residents meet, where we work with Savannah and the garden teams and after that meeting we all just sit around and talk and visit like you would on a porch. People today are very private and don’t necessarily want to invite people into their homes, so these porch-like spaces give people a chance to congregate without going into an individual’s home.
–Tanya H., Resident-Manager, Greenway Meadows

I think these social spaces give the residents this – it’s kind of a trendy word – third space. They have their home life, their work life, and then they have the outside. So this kind of a communal environment lends itself to building community, fostering relationships with their neighbors, and gives us just this really cool environment to have people just come in and enjoy and participate in whatever workshop or anything that we’re providing to them.
–Gabriela “Gabby” Avila, Resident Service Coordinator, Community Corporation of Santa Monica

Top: Greenway Meadows, birds-eye view. Photo by Adam Latham, Bel Air Photography; Bottom, clockwise from left: Greenway Meadows, courtyard. Photo by Adam Latham, Bel Air Photography; Gabby, Savanna and Tanya on Greenway Meadows roof; architect Don Empakeris. Photos by Frances Anderton.