Formosa1140

The Los Angeles region is notorious for its lack of urban public space; LOHA’s design for Formosa1140 addresses this condition by radically parceling out a third of its privately-owned building site as a publicly-managed pocket park for the City of West Hollywood. Formosa1140 simultaneously creates density and green space and models a replicable prototype for incremental community-driven city development. By pushing the housing volume to one side of the building lot, LOHA provides each residential unit with park frontage. Formosa’s facade is achieved through a unique choreography of per¬forated metal sheathing and fenestration. This variation of privacy screens and open balcony voids within the facade allows for the public realm of the park to intrude into the private volume of the building. Formosa1140’s permeable envelope promotes an urbanity of resident-community interaction. Due to cross-ventilation and other passively sustainable features, Formosa1140 exceeds the strict standards of the City of West Hollywood Green Building Program as well as the California Standards for low energy consumption. Located in a redevelopment area previously blighted by high deterioration, crime, and abandonment, Formosa1140’s award-winning red form grounds its park, brightens its neutral surroundings, and has helped catalyze the revitalization of West Hollywood.