Santa Monica's first residential high-rise in over 50 years appears to be moving forward. This is thanks to Santa Monica's "offsite" pilot program allowing the developer to pay a $14 million fee instead of including 64 affordable units on site.

Los Angeles is ugly by choice (video by @streetsforall.org)

Guess the floorplate efficiency for these three projects: hint: 1) is 8 floors, 2) is 24 floors, and 3) is 62 floors

Jamison Services has filed for a condo subdivision for their 507-unit project at 3550 Wilshire Blvd, which is in the process of being converted from office to residential. Unclear if they actually plan on making this a for-sale project, or if it's a just-in-case measure

This is completely true. No need to Google it.

It's insane how much historic preservation in LA has a single family bias. You'll have random nondescript homes with historic designation, and then this 1926 apartment building has never even been surveyed.

What! This is in Long Beach??

Be careful what you wish for

Under LA's new "Objective Design Standards" for historic districts, the building on the left would be prohibited, and the building on the right would be encouraged

LA's new proposed "objective design standards" for historic districts are horrific. They're going to result in it essentially being illegal for new buildings to match the historic character of these districts.

It's interesting that, with the exception of the ballroom, the "return to Classicism" in Federal architecture is really verging on New Formalism

Compare LA's 1930 zoning map to 2026: - Areas that were not-yet-zoned in 1930 were predominately added as single-family - Most of the downzoning to R1 that occurred was in South LA or NE LA

In honor of SB 79 going into effect yesterday, I spent 6 hours compiling LA's 1930 zoning map

A housing typology that only exists in Los Angeles: the 36-bedroom triplex

An amazing 3BR/1.5BA, 1050sf small lot home plan posted by @bobbyfijan.bsky.social on Twitter

One street in this neighborhood is zoned multifamily. Half of the parcels on the street have been redeveloped in the past five years. Surely there's nothing to learn here.

Projects will typically have 3-4 units per floor. Right now, any parking has to be underground, but the city council is looking to change that These are two recent LA projects that I think give an idea what LRO buildings might be like

Because the Low Rise Ordinance is structured as a bonus program, projects require affordable units, and you cannot stack additional bonuses on top. In LR-1, you need to provide one Moderate Income unit, and in LR-2, you need to provide either two Moderate Income units or one Lower Income units

FAR and height are based on unit count. In addition, projects where 20% of units have 3+ bedrooms get an additional floor of height and 0.5 FAR. Also note: this program uses the lot area FAR definition, not LA’s buildable area FAR definition.

Here are maps of eligible areas: 1) On the Westside 2) In Mid-City 3) On the Eastside 4) In the Valley Lighter shades are LR-1, and darker is LR-2

Where does the Low Rise Ordinance apply? Until 2030, LA has exempted “low resource” transit stops. Second, LA has exempted Local Historic Resources (so no HPOZs) Third, LA has exempted HILLSIDE fire zones. The ordinance also only applies in Residential zones (no C or M zones)

SB 79 goes into effect on Wednesday. Here’s what you can build in the City of Los Angeles 🧵⬇️

Hate to do a “told you so,” but… So many people didn’t believe me when I said there was no chance the street light assessment would pass

To find out, I took a deep dive into the inspection status of every project that permitted in Feb. Of 38 projects, 20 had no progress, and only 11 were actively under construction. By unit count difference: some of the largest projects (including the 800-unit Costco) started construction.

Compare the size distribution of projects so far this year to last year and to 2021. A much higher portion of projects were both over 100 units and over 200 units.

Average project unit count shows a different trend: In the 2010’s and 2020’s, mean project size has held steady, usually averaging between 50-60 units per project. For 2026: 89 units per project!

Apartments in LA have been getting progressively smaller. In the 2010’s average building square footage per unit hovered around 1,100 sf In 2026, the average is 773 sf. The biggest decrease has occurred since 2022, likely because of the emergence of ED1-style micro unit buildings.

However, when you dig under the surface, the data gets really interesting Almost every number is an outlier. First, there was huge variation per-month. 2-4 unit projects also saw variation, but far less extreme.

Los Angeles’ 2026 housing permitting numbers have been a roller coaster. On the surface, it looks like really good news: in the first six months of 2026, LA permitted more apartment units than the ENTIRETY of 2024 or 2025…

This is a really cool historical listing. Built in 1935, it's part of the remnants of the Sugar Hill neighborhood, a wealthy, predominantly Black enclave that was destroyed for the construction of the 10 Freeway