Santa Monica Vermont

Project Design

In June 2021, LA Metro, the huge regional Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority currently overseeing the massive buildout of a network of trains and bus lines, updated a Joint Development Policy with a mandate to build as much affordable housing near mass transit as soon as possible. 

One of the projects to emerge from this program is Santa Monica Vermont (2025) in East Hollywood, Los Angeles, comprising 187 affordable studios and one, two and three-bedroom units on five levels, on land owned by the nonprofit Little Tokyo Service Center (LTSC), surrounding the Santa Monica/Vermont subway station.

The design by Koning Eizenberg aims to create high quality domestic space while energizing the public space, with its pink granite plaza and elliptical portal.

Amenities for the new residents, including play areas, laundries, picnic areas, and community rooms, are spread throughout the complex, along with a cascade of landscaped open space, outdoor stairs and bridges, connecting the social life of the housing to the public life below. Visibility onto the plaza also contributes to “eyes on the street” security.

Passersby of course cannot miss the vivid color palette of pink, green, orange and yellow. 

More about Santa Monica Vermont.

More about KoningEizenberg.

More about The Arroyo, also designed by Koning Eizenberg.

More about Little Tokyo Service Center.

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Top: rendering of Santa Monica Vermont, by KoningEizenberg; Bottom, left, view from terrace at Santa Monica Vermont. Photo by Brian Lane; Bottom, right: view up to Santa Monica Vermont terrace and staircases from plaza. Photo by Frances Anderton.