People/Products

In housing-strapped Los Angeles, city officials are counting on multifamily developments, as well as small-lot single-family homes, to boost capacity and stabilize soaring prices. But most developers squeeze as many units as possible onto sites to maximize profits, giving no thought to aesthetics, common areas, or context. The resulting eyesores have ranged from forgettable to out of place to outright offensive, and often they exacerbate local traffic and parking problems. Not surprisingly, they’ve soured many Angelenos on the very idea of higher-density housing.