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Design, Bitches
Looking to Build a Granny Flat in Your Backyard? Meet the Firms and Designs Pre-Approved in LA
Sarah Favot
Favot is an award-winning journalist and adjunct instructor at USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. She previously was an investigative and data reporter at national education news site The 74 and local news site LA School Report. She's also worked at the Los Angeles Daily News. She was a Livingston Award finalist in 2011 and holds a Master's degree in journalism from Boston University and BA from the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada.
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
Led by Cristobal Amunátegui and Alejandro Valdés, the firm was founded in 2011 and has offices in Los Angeles and Santiago, Chile. Amunátegui is an assistant professor at the Department of Architecture and Urban Design at UCLA.
The firm designs work in various scales and mediums, including buildings, furniture and exhibitions.
Its one-story, two-bedroom with a covered roof deck 934-square-foot unit is pending approval from the city.
Connect Homes
Connect Homes has a 100,000-square foot factory in San Bernardino and an architecture studio in Downtown L.A.
It specializes in glass and steel homes and has completed 80 homes in California. Its designs have an aesthetic of mid-century modern California residential architecture.
It has two one-bedroom models pre-approved by the city, one is 460 square feet, which costs $144,500 with a total average project cost of $205,000. The other is 640 square feet, which costs $195,200 with a total project cost of $280,000.
Design, Bitches
The Los Angeles-based architectural firm founded in 2010 describes itself as having a "bold and irreverent vision." Its projects include urban infill ground-up offices to single-family homes, adaptive re-use of derelict commercial buildings and renovations of historic landmarks.
Its pre-approved design, named "Midnight Room," is a guest house/ studio. Its bedroom can be left open for a loft feel or enclosed as a separate room. The design is a one-story, one-bedroom at 454 square feet.
Escher GuneWardena Architecture
Founded in Los Angeles in 1996, Escher GuneWardena Architecture has received international recognition and has collaborated with contemporary artists, worked on historical preservation projects and more.
The company has been approved for two different one-story, one- or two-bedroom units, one at 532 square feet with an estimated cost of $200,000 and another at 784 square feet with an estimated cost of $300,000. The firm noted the costs depend on site conditions and do not include soft costs. Those could add 10% to 12% to the total construction costs.
First Office
First Office is an architecture firm based in Downtown Los Angeles. Its approved ADUs will be built using prefabricated structural insulated panels, which allow for expedited construction schedules and high environmental ratings.
The interior finishes include concrete floors, stainless steel counters and an occasional element of conduit.
There are five options:
- A one-story studio, 309 to 589 square feet
- A one-story one-bedroom, 534 to 794 square feet
- And a one-story two-bedroom, 1,200 square feet
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.
The design team behind "IT House" is Los Angeles-based studio Taalman Architecture. Over the past 15 years, IT House has built more than 20 homes throughout California and the U.S.
The IT House ADU standard plans include the tower, bar, box, cube, pod and court.
The city has approved four options, including:
- A two-story including mechanical room, 660 square feet
- A two-story including mechanical room, 430 square feet
- A one-story studio, 200 square feet
- A one-story including mechanical room, 700 square feet
The firm also has another two projects pending approval: a 360-square-foot one-story studio and a one-story, three-bedroom at 1,149 square feet.
LA Más
LA Más is a nonprofit based in Northeast Los Angeles that designs and builds initiatives promoting neighborhood resilience and elevating the agency of working-class communities of color. Homeowners who are considering their design must commit to renting to Section 8 tenants.
The city has approved two of LA Más' designs: a one-story, one-bedroom, 528 square feet unit and a one-story, two-bedroom, 768 square feet unit. The firm has another design for a one-story studio pending approval. That design would be the first 3D-printed ADU design in the city's program.
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
Founded in 2004, wHY is based in Los Angeles and New York City. It has taken on a landmark affordable housing and historic renovation initiative in Watts.
Its one-story, one- or two-bedroom 480 to 800-square-foot unit is pending approval.
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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Sarah Favot
Favot is an award-winning journalist and adjunct instructor at USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. She previously was an investigative and data reporter at national education news site The 74 and local news site LA School Report. She's also worked at the Los Angeles Daily News. She was a Livingston Award finalist in 2011 and holds a Master's degree in journalism from Boston University and BA from the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada.
Good morning Los Angeles!
If you want to be featured or know folks who want to be featured, feel free to contact me on LinkedIn. This week, we talked to entrepreneur Daniel Broukhim about his ecommerce subscription service, FabFitFun.
🏃♀️ Quick hits
Cofounder Brothers: Daniel co-founded FabFitFun with his brother Michael in 2013, pivoting from running a digital agency and lifestyle newsletter. The core business is a seasonal subscription box service delivering full-size beauty, fashion and lifestyle products.
Expansive Mindset: Daniel attributes their success to differentiating with full-size products across categories, evolving the membership offerings over time, and maintaining operational and financial discipline.
New Frontiers: FabFitFun has expanded into a membership model with sales, brand partnerships, trade financing and other offerings beyond just subscription boxes. Daniel sees opportunities in further growing the membership.
During the pandemic, we had an explosion of ecommerce activity as everyone sheltered at home waiting for the vaccine. In that time, an already massive user behavior exploded. It went from a convenience to a mainstay of our weekly behaviors. But in the last 2 decades, we’ve already seen waves of ecommerce trends and startups come and go, the game has changed and it was fascinating for us to speak with FabFitFun, an ecommerce box subscription service company that has survived and thrived through multiple headwinds of the ecommerce waves.
So what is FabFitFun?
"FabFitFun is a membership and as part of that membership you get a seasonally curated box with full size beauty, health, fitness, fashion, wellness, home, technology products and you're paying $60 a season but you're getting a guarantee of at least $200 and an average of about $300 in products."
But it didn’t start out like that. Daniel Broukhim, cofounder and co-CEO, told us about how it all started.
"My brother and I started the business together. Initially, we were running as a digital agency and building products for other people. One of those was a newsletter that we had developed for Rachel Zoe called The Zoe Report. We built a newsletter called FabFitfun initially as a healthy lifestyle newsletter. And then we were running that for a few years and then we realized that the newsletter business wasn't the direction that we wanted to go in. We decided to take a new direction and launch an e-commerce business, partially because as a newsletter and media business, we're going to VIP events and events and they give us these swag bags and we thought to ourselves, oh, why not take that swag bag concept and consumerize it?
By following their noses and seeing opportunities in front of them, the two brothers, Michael Broukhim and Daniel Broukhim, landed into a business that they really loved and turned out to be very lucrative. But it wasn’t without its stumbles, with a capital intensive business like ecommerce, even though money was constantly coming in, they had to leverage quite a bit until they finally raised and took it to the next level.
"By the time we actually did raise money, we were a million dollars in credit card debt in and out within two weeks. I don't even think our investors knew that, but we just kind of pushed it right to the limits."
It’s always bizarre to hear stories like this, when entrepreneurs go all the way to the edge and still make it out, with the scar tissue but wisdom to take on the next challenge. We wondered what made the brothers keep going.
"We also had seen some other subscription services do well, including some subscription boxes, but they were mostly focused on single categories like beauty or food. And a lot of them were giving you sample size products. We're like, oh, why not supersize the experience, give people something where they're really getting value for what they're paying for much more like free samples in a box and have an eye towards building a broader membership over time."
"We added bells and whistles to the memberships itself, like our sales. We generate more revenue from our sales than we do from the box itself in some ways…or an equal amount. And I don't think any other subscription box company has that dynamic, but we do. So we really are in fact a real membership."
It’s this broader and opportunistic mindset that converged with a larger potential and sustainable userbase that has stuck with them til today. But we think it’s also the entrepreneurial and compatible spirits of the brothers that really made this happen, at the core.
"Co-funding with my brother has been great. You know, I think naturally it's a progression. And I'm happy to say that things have gotten better with time. Now it's like, hey, you know, flip a coin, loser gets to do more work than the other person. It's like you get older and you're like, okay, you know, I love working. I love what we're doing, but if you want to take on that responsibility, go for it and I'll take on this one."
Daniel also took us through the more obvious basic things of business, “just like discipline around finances and how you spend and how efficient you are at running your company” as well as the difficult moments “"There are moments where I was like, oh, this is really stressful. There were some moments where I thought I might not make it."
But we think this speaks to the resilience of the team. At one point, Daniel had cancer, but his attitude about it speaks to the deep strength of the team to build, sell, and surive “I had cancer but at no point in time did I think FabFitFun wasn't going to be the company that stood the test of time."
Today, there still new horizons for the company as they shift to expanding their offerings even further:
"We're also opening up the platform so that people can shop whether or not they have a membership and at the very least browse it. People don't realize how much stuff we sell and how good the prices are and how good the products are. And so we want to give people an ability to experience FabFitFun without necessarily having to commit or commit to something that might be the subscription box because maybe not everyone's a subscription box subscriber, but there is something else that they would sign up for as part of the membership and that would propel them to become a FabFitFun member and then experience all the other things that we have to offer them."
Keeping this in mind, we finally asked them what their advice was to startups and businesses trying to tough out the economic downturn. After all, this wasn’t their first rodeo.
“Even though there's less money in the ecosystem, fundraising becomes a little tougher. I mean, you think if you can really build a business in this environment, you can do anything. So I always have sort of an eye towards action. If someone really wants to get going and do it, then I would tell them there should be nothing holding them back."
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Christian Hetrick
Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.
Big Wins: Dodgers Take the Title ⚾, ChatGPT Levels Up🚀
06:54 AM | November 01, 2024
🔦 Spotlight
Happy Friday, LA! It’s been a week of big wins, on and off the field. 🎉
⚾️ First up, let’s talk Dodgers. With a thrilling 7-6 comeback victory over the Yankees in Game 5, the Dodgers clinched their eighth World Series title, their first since 2020. The city is buzzing, and fans are ready to celebrate! A parade kicks off this morning at 11 a.m., starting at City Hall and winding down to Flower Street, with a ticketed celebration at Dodger Stadium for those wanting to keep the festivities going.
Image Source: Dodgers
💻 Meanwhile, in the tech, OpenAI just rolled out a game-changing update for ChatGPT. Plus and Enterprise users can now access real-time internet search, powered by Microsoft Bing, bringing ChatGPT's responses fully up-to-date. This means users can now ask about the latest news, hotspots, or recent LA startup announcements, and ChatGPT will pull in fresh, relevant answers directly from the web. Previously limited to information up to 2021, ChatGPT’s new browsing capabilities make it a valuable digital assistant for anyone needing real-time insights in fast-paced industries like tech and entertainment.
Image Source: ChatGPT
🔍 The real-time search feature also includes “Browse with Bing,” allowing ChatGPT to source information from multiple sites for detailed answers to complex questions. Whether you’re exploring the latest venture capital trends in LA or curious about the best local spots, ChatGPT’s new browsing power helps you stay ahead with the latest info. This leap forward in AI functionality makes ChatGPT even more versatile and powerful for everyone, from business owners to everyday users.
From the Dodgers’ World Series win to OpenAI’s latest ChatGPT update, there’s a lot to celebrate in LA this week. Here’s to champions, innovation, and a city that’s always pushing boundaries. 🌆✨
🤝 Venture Deals
LA Companies
- Final Boss Sour, a Los Angeles-based gaming-themed snack company specializing in healthier sour snacks, has raised a $3M Seed funding round led by Science Inc. to expand its product offerings and operational capabilities. - learn more
LA Venture Funds
- Smash Capital led a $50M Series B round for Read AI, a productivity-focused AI company, bringing its total funding to $81M. The company offers a platform that enhances meeting efficiency through features like note-taking, summarization, and transcription. Additionally, Read AI introduced "Read AI for Gmail," a free Chrome extension that integrates information from various applications, reducing the need to switch between apps. The funds will be used to increase the company's headcount in engineering, data science, and business teams. - learn more
- Distributed Global participated in a $25M funding round for Nillion, a company that provides decentralized privacy solutions designed to secure sensitive data using advanced technologies like secure multi-party computation. - learn more
- Alexandria Venture Investments and Tachyon Ventures participated in a $115M Series A funding round for Axonis Therapeutics, a Boston-based biotechnology company developing innovative medicines targeting KCC2, a key mediator of brain inhibition, to treat neurological disorders. - learn more
- Act One Ventures participated in a $5M Seed funding round for Latii, a construction materials supply chain startup, to enhance its platform that connects contractors with suppliers, aiming to streamline procurement processes and reduce costs in the construction industry. - learn more
- F4 Fund participated in a $3M Seed funding round for Final Boss Sour, a Los Angeles-based gaming-themed snack company specializing in healthier sour snacks. - learn more
- SmartGateVC participated in a pre-seed funding round for Ritual Dental, a company revolutionizing dental care by integrating advanced technology and microbiome science to provide personalized, preventive treatments. - learn more
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