Some years ago, San Francisco architect John Maniscalco came across one of those opportunities that demand a certain stamina: an aging two-story house was available for a relative bargain price but required lengthy negotiations with the city’s historic-preservation board in order to overhaul.

Urban dwellings can feel highly compartmentalized, composed of segregated levels.

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.

The flat, overhanging roof of the new house echoes the horizontal composition of the original modernist house, meant to evoke the vast Los Angeles horizon.

A two- to three-hour drive from the bright lights of Southern California’s largest cities, Borrego Springs—a small town bordering the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in northern San Diego County—became the world’s second official Dark-Sky Community in 2009.