All photos: Eric Staudenmaier The Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) is a second house built in the backyard of a first house to provide additional income for a “single family” homeowner. Los Angeles has now legally liberalized the lawto allow these types of dwellings to go up all over the city. The moral reasoning: this will increase…
The houses are unoccupied, neglected. The parched grass grows high, bottles and cans are everywhere, and their owners are seemingly oblivious to their blighted properties. This is not a slum. This is Columbus Avenue between Hamlin and Kittridge, where some absentee owners have allowed large parcels of land to fall into abuse, or permitted and…
(Photos: Andrew B. Hurvitz) Last year, on a visit to Japan, I discovered alleys that were vibrant, clean and functional. In a country where 127m live on land mass that is smaller than California, space is put to good use. Little houses, imaginatively designed, are integrated into narrow streets and alleys. (Photos: Dezeen) Whether an entrance is…
A block south of Oxnard, between Kester and Natick Avenues, four residential streets dead end at Califa. A time capsule of a neighborhood; neat, tidy, middle-class, without trash, graffiti, mattresses and old sofas; this section of Posoville (Part of Sherman Oaks) is either Van Nuys or Sherman Oaks depending upon your biases. The sunny aura…
