Sierra Bonita

Project Design

Most mid-rise multifamily buildings in Los Angeles are built using Type V, or wood-frame construction, often over a “podium” of one or two levels made of concrete. This system can produce expedient, formulaic buildings. Creative designers in LA are finding inventive ways to maximize the architectural opportunities.

One of those is Patrick Tighe, a prolific architect whose residential portfolio encompasses expressive, luxury single family homes and multifamily housing at market rate and low-income that is a dynamic, tectonic and materially inventive. To this he adds smart passive and mechanical environmental solutions and an abundance of porch-like common spaces.

He set a high bar for himself with Sierra Bonita (2012), a mixed-use building in West Hollywood containing 42, 100% affordable, one-bedroom units for people living with disabilities. Tighe pushed the building envelope with custom CNC-cut facade screens and a folding steel brace-frame extending up and forming a trellis clad in photovoltaic panels.

The apartments are arranged around a central, secluded courtyard, while commercial and retail spaces on the ground level face out onto the busy Santa Monica Boulevard. Each apartment has a private front porch overlooking the courtyard garden, facilitating social interaction among the residents. The capper is a rooftop deck, shaded by its solar powering trellis while facing a phenomenal view of the Hollywood Hills.

As the firm explains, “Our porches move past simple functional spaces to become dynamic, evolving elements of a structure’s aesthetic identity. They are key components of architectural expression, where form, materiality, and spatial experience converge to redefine how we engage with our environment.”

More about Sierra Bonita.

More about Tighe Architecture.

More about Pacific Landing and Courtyard at La Brea, also designed by Tighe

Architecture.

More about West Hollywood Community Housing Corporation.

Back to The Angeleno Porch Homepage.

Top: Sierra Bonita elevation. Photo by Art Gray; Bottom left: Sierra Bonita, roof terrace. Photo by Art Gray. Bottom right: Tighe Architecture team (Patrick Tighe, 3rd from left). Photo by Tighe Architecture.