Pacific Landing

Project Design

Patrick Tighe is a prolific architect of a wide range of building types, including subsidized multifamily housing that is dynamic, tectonic and materially inventive, while socially generous.

Pacific Landing (2022) in Santa Monica is a mixed-use, 100% affordable, all-electric housing project with 37 homes designed for people living with disabilities and those on limited incomes. The 4-story building replaced a gas station that once occupied this corner lot on the busy thoroughfare named Lincoln Boulevard.

As with earlier housing designed by Tighe Architecture, like Sierra Bonita, Pacific Landing is built using a standard mid-rise, wood construction system, known as Type V. To give it character and a domestic scale, they broke down the large volume into several smaller components, which are separated by voids and accentuated with greenspaces.

Tighe has said about Pacific Landing, “We took this imagery of an iconic home, and we abstracted that piece to create these volumes. And with a very few simple moves we came up with these abstract shapes. It’s a corner building; we wanted to celebrate that corner. And in the end we decided to tessellate it with mosaic tiles to bring a little life and vitality to the building.”

For the residents, life is enhanced with ample common spaces, including the central courtyard and play space for children, and a high-level terrace with views of the mountains, where children sometimes sit and do their homework.

From courtyard to the high terrace, Pacific Landing has “porches,” which serve, says the firm, “as vital connectors between the domestic sphere and the public realm, facilitating interaction and dialogue within the community and far beyond. The spaces are ones of transition that encourage informal social engagement. This accessibility fosters a sense of communal responsibility, transforming porches from passive architectural features into active spaces of exchange, cooperation, and mutual support. By enabling spontaneous encounters and fostering social capital, our porches contribute significantly to the cohesion of communities and act as the doorstep to the making of neighborhoods.”

More about Pacific Landing.

More about Tighe Architecture.

More about Sierra Bonita and Courtyard at La Brea, also designed by Tighe

Architecture.

More about Community Corporation of Santa Monica.

Back to The Angeleno Porch Homepage.

Reflections

He has a safe place to play, which he didn’t have before. And to have a building that is all electric, sustainable is great, plus it’s also low-income, so it’s right under our budget thankfully.
–Amanda Valadez, resident, speaking about her son.

Clockwise from top: Pacific Landing, elevation. Photo by Tighe Architecture; Bottom, left, bridge between sections of Pacific Landing. Photo by Chuen Wu; Bottom right, Tighe Architecture team (Patrick Tighe, 3rd from left). Photo by Tighe Architecture.