Artists have long served as conduits for change in marginalized neighborhoods, braving difficult environments in exchange for low rent and often unwittingly paving the way for mainstream inhabitants.

Rather than assume that senior citizens want their housing gussied up in wood shingles and faux Victoriana, the architects of Parkview Terraces in San Francisco treated the project’s residents as people looking to the future rather than the past.

We don’t have money for fancy materials, but abundant light and air, which can make a huge difference in your living environment, are free,” says Joan Ling, executive director of the Community Corporation of Santa Monica (CCSM).

“It took me 50 years to get here,” says Alice Cornell about her home in Jackson, Wyoming. Cornell vacationed in the region at age 12, and decided then that she wanted to live there someday.

No one told Jackson Clements Burrows Architects they weren’t supposed to play with stacking blocks on a tennis court—and the Australian firm’s clients are glad.