Los Angeles’s Skid Row is the location of the nation’s largest homeless population. As part of an ongoing collaboration with the Skid Row Housing Trust [SRHT], a non-profit that provides permanent supportive housing within the neighborhood, LOHA designed a management office that doubles as a gathering space for community meetings and training programs.
The SRHT management headquarters is a tenant improvement project entrenched within Skid Row, the community they serve. Working with a low budget, LOHA took the ready-made architecture of a warehouse space and utilized off-the-shelf materials to create a custom lighting installation that also covers the wide existing columns.
The resulting “forest of lights” elevates the space from a typical office and has become the signature backdrop to many SRHT events.
To transform a formerly dark hotel storage space, LOHA employed a bright color palette with white and yellow walls to help bring in natural light and create an inspiring environment to alleviate the daily challenges and stresses faced by the SRHT management team.
In addition to encompassing the operational offices of a non-profit, including a library and conference rooms, the headquarters also include flex-spaces that often host public events and training workshops for the local community.
A material resourcefulness and eagerness to design extraordinary and essential amenities within contextual and financial parameters has been integral to LOHA’s work with the Skid Row Housing Trust.
LOHA’s relationship with SRHT has additionally yielded three pro-bono studies for housing in distressed areas along downtown’s Skid Row. The provision of permanent homes for the homeless population is a fundamental step to developing a culture of urban pride, connectivity, and rehabilitation.
