HERRYFORD VILLAGE was intended to be the same as hundreds of other neighborhoods Clark Realty Builders has developed with Torti Gallas and Partners on military installations across the country. But when an environmental impact study showed that several acres on the original site were unavailable for development, the Army was pressed to find a new location.
BARRY BERKUS, PRINCIPAL of B3 Architects, has one word to describe his client, KB Home, on The Park Houses at Playa Vista: brave. With their “contemporary brownstone” aesthetic, the four-story Park Houses use steel, glass, and colorful cement (a bold palette not often seen in production building) to create a high-end, high-density community that reduces sprawl while maintaining the feeling of single-family homes. Units share a common podium that houses garage space and utilities, but the living areas are separated by a six-foot code requirement—enough distance to make them feel like they stand on their own form. Unlike townhouses with common walls, this configuration allows for greater privacy, acoustical separation, and light.
BUILT IN 1942 AS temporary housing for shipyard workers during World War II, the homes in Tacoma's Salishan neighborhood were intended to have a 10-year life-span at best. After the war, however, the city converted the houses to rental units for low-income families, and they remained in use for nearly 60 years with no renovations; the result was an isolated enclave of poverty.
Ara Hovnanian is CEO of Hovnanian Enterprises, the 6th ranked company in the 2007 Builder 100.
Three dozen wounded Marines got to spend the holidays with their families, thanks to an $18,000 donation from the employees of Carlsbad, Calif.–based Barratt American.
