What

Low-Rise: Housing Ideas for Los Angeles is a $100,000 design challenge asking architects and landscape architects to help us imagine appealing and sustainable new models of low-rise, multi-unit housing. There is no fee to enter.

When

Launched November 2020, with proposals due in February 2021.

Who

Organized by the Mayor’s Office and Christopher Hawthorne, the Chief Design Officer for the City of Los Angeles, with support from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the James Irvine Foundation, and Citi. Part of a larger research initiative, overseen by the Mayor’s Office of Budget and Innovation in collaboration with Urban Institute and other partners, on new paths to homeownership and housing affordability in Los Angeles.

Why

To promote housing affordability, new paths to homeownership, and innovative models of sustainable residential architecture. To support emerging architects and excellence in design. To confront historical patterns of racial and environmental injustice in housing policy in Southern California. To develop healthy models of post-COVID living.