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XLooking to Build a Granny Flat in Your Backyard? Meet the Firms and Designs Pre-Approved in LA
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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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.
Here’s Why Social Media Startup Clash Just Rebranded As ‘Huddles’
At a time when seemingly every social media app is trying to copy TikTok, West Hollywood-based Huddles is going in a different direction.
Huddles, formerly known as Clash, is pivoting away from short-form video feeds and focusing on group chats that let creators talk to—and monetize—their biggest fans. The social media startup rebranded itself last week, using the name of its group chat feature that launched in June.
The app will still include short-form video, but the company said it will remove its “sit and scroll” discovery feed—a feature common on other apps, from TikTok to Triller to Instagram. Creators will upload videos directly to their profiles or Huddles group chats. Fans can pay monthly subscriptions to access paywalled content and private conversations.
“Plenty of distribution platforms and companies are going to try to compete with TikTok, and we have no interest in playing that game,” Co-founder and CEO Brendon McNerney told dot.LA. Although most social media audiences are “passive,” McNerney said there are still “tens of millions of fans who want to actually engage and not just sit there and scroll endlessly. They do love creators, and they want to be in a room with a creator digitally.”
The decision to remove short-form video feeds may seem especially surprising for Huddles, given the startup’s background. McNerney was a creator on Vine, arguably the first major short-form video app. His startup acquired Byte, which was created by Vine co-founder Dom Hofmann and billed as a sequel to Vine.
But after launching the Huddles feature—which can include both public and subscriber-only group chats—the startup said it saw a surge in downloads and creator earnings. More than 10,000 people joined the app within days of the feature’s launch and some creators saw free-to-paid conversion rates of up to 40%, well above the industry average, according to the company. The startup quickly made the decision to center the app on Huddles.
The rebrand required a new name, logo, and updated website, McNerney said. The company, which has raised almost $10 million since its founding in 2019, has also begun more marketing and pursuing partnerships with short-form video distributors. That includes a recently completed deal with Meta, which allows creators to shoot video on Huddles, share it to Facebook and Instagram and link back to their Huddles account. The goal is to incentivise fans to follow their favorite creators onto Huddles. As the social media titans battle to build the biggest audiences, Huddles wants to be the place creators can better engage their fans and, ideally, get them to fork over some money.
To that point, Huddles is now leaning into monthly subscriptions as the primary source of creator revenue. Previously, the app formerly known as Clash emphasized “Drops,” which were essentially one-time tips. Creators have set monthly rates ranging from a couple bucks to $30 per month, McNerney said. More than 5,500 creators are now on Huddles and they have collectively earned more than $130,000, according to the company. Huddles earns money by charging fans purchase fees, currently about 10%, McNerney said.
When the app was called Clash, the startup noticed that fans would spend most of their time trying to send creators “FanMail,” a feature that let people request content, ask questions or direct message creators. That user behavior is what informed the startup’s decision to launch Huddles and ditch the Clash name and video scroll feed.
“It’s a bold move, but it's a step in the right direction,” McNerney said of the rebrand. “It’s a step to what’s already working on the platform. That's why we were so confident in taking the swing.”
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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.
🔦 Spotlight
Happy Friday, Los Angeles.
The newest employee in the office does not need a desk, a salary or a coffee order. But it may have access to your company’s emails, financial records, customer data and software systems.
That raises a fairly important question: Who decides what an AI agent is allowed to do?
El Segundo-based cybersecurity company Saviynt is building its next chapter around the answer.
Carrick Capital Partners announced this week that it closed a $600M continuation vehicle for Saviynt, including a new $255M investment in the company. The transaction allowed Carrick’s existing investors to either take liquidity or remain invested, while also providing liquidity to Saviynt employees through a tender offer.
Continuation vehicles are not exactly known for making gripping Friday reading. The company behind this one is considerably more interesting.
Saviynt develops identity security software that helps businesses determine who can access their applications, data and infrastructure. Increasingly, however, “who” does not refer exclusively to a person.
Companies are deploying AI agents that can retrieve information, write code, communicate with customers and complete multistep tasks with limited supervision. These digital workers need access to company systems to be useful, but every new permission also creates another opportunity for sensitive information to be exposed or an unintended action to be taken.
In other words, AI agents may be tireless employees. They are not necessarily trustworthy ones.
Saviynt is addressing that problem through Zuma, its platform for discovering, securing and governing AI agents, large language models and other nonhuman identities alongside a company’s human workforce. The goal is to give businesses one place to determine what every identity can access, whether it belongs to an employee, a contractor, a software application or an autonomous agent operating at machine speed.
The opportunity appears to be growing quickly. Saviynt has surpassed $300M in annual recurring revenue, up from approximately $10M when Carrick first invested. The company says bookings have increased by more than 80% this year while customer retention remains at 96%.
The new investment was completed as part of the final close of Saviynt’s previously announced $700M Series B, which valued the company at approximately $3B. Carrick’s continuation vehicle was led by Coller Capital and co-led by HSBC Asset Management, giving the investment firm more time and capital to remain behind one of its strongest-performing companies.
For Saviynt, the funding will support further development of its identity platform, deeper integrations with major cloud and software providers and its push to become a central security layer for the agentic workplace.
That ambition reflects a broader change taking place inside companies. The first wave of enterprise AI focused largely on what the technology could generate. The next phase is about what it can actually do, and whether businesses can maintain control once AI moves from answering questions to taking action.
Saviynt is betting that identity will become the gatekeeper.
AI agents are gaining access to the digital workplace, whether corporate security teams are ready for them or not.
Someone still has to hold the keys.
More from this week’s LA startup and venture scene below.
🤝 Venture Deals
LA Venture Funds
- Fulcrum Ventures participated in Critical Materials Group’s $10.3M seed round, led by Overmatch Ventures and joined by Victory Six Advisors. The Austin-based defense manufacturer will use the funding to develop and commission modular, automation-ready production systems designed to expand domestic manufacturing capacity for munitions and advanced energetic materials. - learn more
- Fusion VC participated in Newlight’s $9M seed round alongside lomarlabs, BIRD Energy, Undeterred Capital and CiRi Ventures. The San Francisco-based maritime technology company recently demonstrated its hydrogen-hybrid retrofit on an 8,500-nautical-mile commercial voyage, reducing fuel consumption by 24% and carbon dioxide emissions by 28%. - learn more
- Rebel Fund participated in Metal’s $4.5M seed round alongside a16z, Y Combinator, Gaingels, Indus Valley Capital, Phaze Ventures and Pioneer Fund. Metal will use the funding to build an AI-native operating system that helps founders identify relevant investors, manage outreach and automate other parts of the venture fundraising process. - learn more
- UP.Partners participated in Reframe Systems’ $40M funding round, led by Energy Impact Partners and joined by Counterpart Ventures, E12 Ventures, Global Brain, Thin Line Capital and LACI Impact Fund. The homebuilding startup will use the capital to expand its network of robotics-powered microfactories, which it says can construct homes three times faster and at 35% lower cost than traditional methods. - learn more
- Clocktower Technology Ventures participated in Sharpi’s $4M seed round, co-led by NXTP and ONEVC and joined by MAYA Capital. The Brazilian startup will use the funding to expand its team and develop autonomous AI agents that connect WhatsApp conversations with enterprise systems to automate B2B sales tasks such as order processing, customer follow-ups and demand generation. - learn more
LA Exits
- Extensiv, a California-based provider of warehouse management and fulfillment software, has been acquired by Descartes Systems Group for approximately $120M in cash. The acquisition adds Extensiv’s AI-enabled inventory, order, billing and omnichannel fulfillment tools to Descartes’ logistics network, strengthening its offerings for third-party logistics providers and ecommerce brands. - learn more
- DocSolutionUSA has been acquired by Stewart Information Services alongside ProTitleUSA, adding mortgage document generation and automation capabilities to Stewart’s title services platform. The companies provide title, document and due diligence services for mortgage servicers, investors and capital markets clients; financial terms were not disclosed. - learn more
- Fysh Foods, the Los Angeles-based plant-based seafood brand founded by creator and entrepreneur Zoya Biglary, has been acquired by City Roots Hospitality in an all-cash deal with undisclosed terms. City Roots plans to introduce Fysh Foods’ raw fish alternatives across its New York City restaurants and potentially expand the brand beyond the city as its restaurant portfolio grows - learn more


