Potter's Lane

2018 Builder's Choice & Custom Home Design Awards
Affordable Housing: Merit

Santa Ana, Calif.,-based SVA Architects turned to one of the most ubiquitous industrial elements—shipping containers—to provide the structure and metaphor for the Potter’s Lane veterans housing project in Midway City, Calif., “Potter’s Lane embraces its status as a symbol for the power of transformation for both its occupants and its construction materials,” the designers say. It’s the first such project built with shipping containers.

“The need for veterans’ housing is urgent,” explains SVA’s CEO and partner Ernesto Vasquez. “The shipping containers serve as building blocks that dramatically reduce the construction timeline.”

The 10,187-square-foot complex encompasses 15 affordable units, plus a unit for an on-site manager. A long narrow lot facing Jackson Street is configured with a two-story, C-shaped plan that places units at the front and back, with most situated along an exterior corridor that runs parallel with the courtyard along the north side of the structure. “The units are configured to create a central, private courtyard with amenities for learning and socialization,” says SVA’s senior associate partner Paul Zaleski. “The organization resembles a modern-day court home.” The on-site services for residents include individual and group counseling, medical care, veterans’ liaisons, and employment programs.

Three standard 20-foot long steel containers are assembled to form the open-plan units. Each 450-square-foot apartment is configured with a bedroom plus dining area, kitchen, and bathroom. The aesthetic is enhanced through the strategic placement of what the designers dub “exterior elements” that camouflage the structure’s rather pedestrian origins. These include a wood wall at the front façade that protects the main stair to the second floor and a series of metal screens support the second-floor corridor and provide vertical elements within the courtyard.

Sustainable features for the project, which is LEED Silver eligible, include a community garden with drought-tolerant landscaping; a reflective cool roof; R27 walls, R38 ceilings, and R19 floors; low VOC paint, primers, and caulking; and high efficiency ductless heating/cooling units.

The design shares affinities with California’s mid-century Case Study homes, which continue to influence both high- and low-end housing solutions. “The lessons learned here will help shape future standards for affordable housing nationwide,” says SVA’s president Robert Simons. -E.K.

“It’s smart, sustainable, and innovative for a market that desperately needs affordable housing.”— Juror Meg Graham