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Affordable Housing Can Go Green |
 Affordable housing doesn’t get any more ambitious than the City of West Hollywood’s new Sierra Bonita mixed-use project, currently under construction on Santa Monica Boulevard. The 42 unit building will be completed in late 2009. Financing combines $1.1 million in CDBG funds with $14 million in public and private funds. Apartments will rent to very low income disabled households and will include onsite supportive services. The non-profit developer, West Hollywood Community Housing Corporation, will occupy offices in the first floor commercial space.
Following standards set by the award winning La Brea Gateway shopping center, the Sierra Bonita project is a bellwether for the City’s eastside redevelopment area. Rome Prize winning architect Patrick Tighe designed the project with a “green” approach - the building uses airways wrapping around a central courtyard to maximize natural light and ventilation. Photovoltaic solar panels serve dual uses by producing energy and acting as architectural elements. Sierra Bonita is also a prototype for the City’s Green Building Program, which took effect October 1, 2007. The new city ordinance uses a point-based system in categories such as location, exposure, natural heating and cooling, recycled materials, indoor air quality, and other factors. |
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Sierra Bonita All-Affordable Mixed Use Project Hosts Beam-Signing Event |
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West Hollywood Community Housing Corporation held a special "Beam-Signing" event on Wednesday morning, October 15th from 10:30 to noon at 7530 Santa Monica Boulevard, the construction site of our current project, Sierra Bonita Apartments. This will be the first all-affordable mixed use project in the City of West Hollywood, and Sierra Bonita is also a pilot project for the City of West Hollywood's green building ordinance. The ground floor will house the new offices of West Hollywood Community Housing Corporation.
Honored guests included LA County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, Mayor ProTem Abbe Land, and Councilmembers John Heilman and Sal Guarriello. Read and view more photos |
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