Design, Bitches
Looking to Build a Granny Flat in Your Backyard? Meet the Firms and Designs Pre-Approved in LA
Adding a backyard home in Los Angeles is now nearly as easy as buying a barbecue.
Homeowners who for years have wanted to build a granny flat in their backyard, but dreaded the red tape, can now choose from 20 pre-designed homes that the city has already approved for use.
The shift, made official last week, will speed up a weeks-long process and bring more badly needed units to an overpriced market. It also has the potential to elevate the 14 startups and firms building the next generation of homes.
The designs for the stand-alone residences range from a 200-square-foot studio to a 1,200-square foot, two-story, two-bedroom unit. And many of the homes are filled with design flourishes, reflecting the diverse architecture of the city, from a house in the silhouette of a flower to one with a spiral outdoor staircase leading to the roof.
It's no surprise. The program was spearheaded by Christopher Hawthorne, a former architecture critic at the Los Angeles Times and now the city's chief design officer.
The firms are primarily local and startup architecture and design firms, while others are well-known with a history of building granny flats, also know as accessory dwelling units, or ADUs.
The standard plans avoid the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety's typical four-to six-week review process and can allow approvals to be completed in as quickly as one day.
Some aspects of the plans can be modified to fit a homeowner's preferences. Eight other designs are pending approval.
Mayor Eric Garcetti believes by adding more such units, the city can diversify its housing supply and tackle the housing crisis. Recent state legislation made it easier to build the small homes on the lot of single-family residences. Since then, ADUs have made up nearly a quarter of Los Angeles' newly permitted housing units.
Because construction costs are relatively low for the granny flats – the pre-approved homes start at $144,000 and can go beyond $300,000 – the housing is generally more affordable. The median home price in L.A. County in January was $690,000.
Here's a quick look at the designs approved so far:
Abodu
Abodu
Abodu, based in Redwood City in the Bay Area, exclusively designs backyard homes. In 2019, it worked with the city of San Jose on a program similar to the one Los Angeles is undertaking.
In October, it closed a seed funding round of $3.5 million led by Initialized Capital.
It has been approved for a one-story 340-square-foot studio, a one-story one-bedroom at 500 square feet, and a one-story, 610-square-foot two-bedroom.
The pricing for the studio is $189,900, while the one-bedroom costs $199,900 and the two-bedroom is $259,900.
Amunátegui Valdés Architects
Connect Homes
Design, Bitches
Escher GuneWardena Architecture
First Office
Fung + Blatt Architects
Fung + Blatt Architects is a Los Angeles-based firm founded in 1990.
The city has approved its 795-square-foot, one-story, one-bedroom unit with a roof deck. It estimates the construction cost to be $240,000 to $300,000, excluding landscape, site work and the solar array. Homeowners can also expect other additional costs.
Taalman Architecture/ IT House Inc.
LA Más
Jennifer Bonner/MALL
Massachusetts-based Jennifer Bonner/MALL designed a "Lean-to ADU" project, reinterpreting the stucco box and exaggerated false front, both Los Angeles architectural mainstays.
The design has been approved for a 525-square-foot one-story, one-bedroom unit with a 125-square-foot roof deck.
sekou cooke STUDIO
New York-based sekou cooke STUDIO is the sole Black-owned architectural firm on the project.
"The twisted forms of this ADU recalls the spin and scratch of a DJ's records" from the early 90s, the firm said.
Its design, still pending approval, is for a 1,200-square-foot, two bedroom and two bathroom can be adapted to a smaller one-bedroom unit or to include an additional half bath.
SO-IL
New York-based SO-IL was founded in 2008. It has completed projects in Leon, Seoul, Lisbon and Brooklyn.
Its one-story, one-bedroom 693-square-foot unit is pending approval. It is estimated the construction cost will be between $200,000 and $250,000.
WELCOME PROJECTS
Los Angeles-based Welcome Projects has worked on projects ranging from buildings, houses and interiors to handbags, games and toys.
Its ADU is nicknamed The Breadbox "for its curved topped walls and slight resemblance to that vintage counter accessory."
It has been approved for a one-story, one-bedroom 560-square-foot unit.
wHY Architecture
Firms that want to participate in the program can learn more here . Angelenos interested in building a standard ADU plan can learn more the approved projects here.
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"It's pretty overwhelming because I'm not an influencer," Grill told dot.LA Wednesday. "When I posted this, I didn't expect to have 500 notifications. My email box is unmanageable right now."
Grill quickly created Google forms to manage the rush of responses, one for investors and another for companies seeking capital. He plans to release the list next week.
"You had founders who are freaking out because their assumption is no one is investing." Grill said. "But investors are investing."
Luma Launch's Laurent Grill is cautiously optimistic about the state of VC investing.
Of the 150 responses he's received, only two investors have said they are not writing checks. They both wanted to see public markets stabilize before they jumped back in.
However, Grill sees the results as suspiciously positive, especially when investors insist that everything is "business as usual" amidst one of the most serious public health and economic crises of the last century.
"Something is off about that," said Grill. "I don't trust it."
He suspects deals have significantly declined, though no one wants to completely shut their doors. There are optics to consider and also the fear of overlooking the next great unicorn. "We live in an industry of FOMO, because if people aren't investing they are worried they are going to miss a deal," Grill said.
Ironically, Grill's Luma Launch, which he leads along with Matt Lydecker, is one of the firms that has paused investing. He says he wants to focus on getting their portfolio companies' house in order before deploying new capital.
"Our companies are dealing with how they're going to hit payroll," said Grill. "We have one company that has a case of coronavirus in it."
Grill says Luma is unique because it is corporate-backed and does not have a fund it has to deploy in a given timeframe. Founders needing money should find it somewhat reassuring that most firms still need to deploy their capital, though Grill worries about what conditions will look like in six months to a year from now when firms have to fundraise from limited partners who could have taken a severe hit in a broader economic downturn.
"If LP's are hurt, we're probably going to be looking at a long time before there's liquidity for fundraising," he said.
For now, Grill is focused on connecting founders and investors in the immediate crisis who might have a harder time meeting each other with offices closed, conferences cancelled, and face-to-face meetings postponed indefinitely.
"There's no benefit for me to do this, other than to help the community," Grill said. "We need people to step up who have the ability to step up."
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Photo by Walter Cicchetti/ Shutterstock
Various forms of 'closed system' payment cards for transit agencies in SoCal and beyond.
Photo by Maylin Tu
Currently, the majority of California transit agencies offer their own “closed loop” form of payment, like a TAP card. You can’t pay for the bus or train directly with a credit or debit card when you board. You also can’t pay with a TAP card in San Francisco or a Clipper card in L.A. because each transit agency operates its own payment system. Multiply that by about 797 separate transit agencies in California (including paratransit) and a lack of interoperability translates into a lack of equity.
“Trying to give people money as a government entity right now is incredibly hard,” said Hunter Owens, benefits and delivery data manager at Caltrans. “The technology choices we made are screwed up.”
In L.A. County, 26 agencies accept TAP as a form of payment — but achieving consensus on low-income and senior discounted fares across all 26 agencies has proven impossible.
Additionally., 38% of bus riders, the majority of whom are low-income and people of color, pay their bus fares with cash. But new financial products like Venmo and Cash App, make it much easier for riders to pay without opening a traditional bank account.
Caltrans, for instance, is working with Square’s Cash App to bring unbanked and under-banked riders into the cashless future through a debit card they can use to pay for transit.
During its pilot with Monterey–Salinas Transit, 30% of new Cash App card customers in the region joined as part of the program. And by the end of August of last year, 93% of transactions were for food, not transportation.
“We literally use transit to bring them into the financial ecosystem,” said Gillett.
It’s expensive to be unbanked or under-banked — when American families received stimulus checks during the COVID-19 pandemic, an estimated $66.6 million went to check cashers, which take a portion of the funds. A family of five cashing a $3,900 check would have paid around $195 in fees.
The problem extends beyond equity. With so many different products, and so few options to pay for them, it becomes a basic question of access.
When people from around the world visit for the World Cup in 2026 or the Olympics in 2028 (which the city is touting as “car-free”), how will they figure out which pass to choose?
L.A. Metro alone has 750 fare products, ranging from the student GoPass to the regional EZ Pass. In addition, Metro is piloting a new program, the Sports and Entertainment Integrated Ticketing Program, that will bundle a transit pass with tickets to concerts or sporting events.
L.A. Metro’s current payment system contract ends in two years, and the agency is looking at new possibilities, including the mobility wallet being tested as part of the universal basic mobility pilot in South L.A. Participants will be able to pay for a range of mobility options with their TAP card, including ride-share and scooter-share (though it will still be a closed loop system).
Transitioning Metro’s payment system to an open loop system will require an extensive procurement process. Even if riders can pay for multiple forms of mobility with TAP, they will still need a TAP card to ride.
Ultimately, the future of paying for transit lies in an account-based system system, said Mark Lulic, senior industry consultant for Endava. When payment is tied to an individual account, that account can be integrated into multiple payment systems. Cities like New York and San Francisco have already started to implement an account-based system.
“When you start talking about that, that's an entirely different infrastructure issue. Now you're talking about telecommunications, not only telecommunications in physical locations, but also remotely on buses,” he said.
Eli Lipmen, executive director for nonprofit Move LA, questioned the efficacy of spending money on payment systems when fares are projected to bring in just $107 million to offset a $8.8 billion annual budget.
Between the payment system of the future and the current reality of coordinating with 26 different agencies, Manish Chaudhari, executive officer for TAP, said this week's panel is just the first stop on a long ride.
“We cannot spin up a whole new system in one night and create something wonderful,” he said.
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