The American Institute of Architects (AIA) just announced its 2025 Architecture Award winners. This is a program that celebrate the best contemporary architecture in the US, spanning all scales and budgets.
Firstly, I'm obligated to share that Studio Gang won an award for its Kresge College Expansion at the University of California, Santa Cruz. This is a beautiful project consisting of 4 new mass-timber buildings — three residential halls and an academic center — in the middle of a redwood forest in northern California.
But since we talk a lot about housing on this blog, I also wanted to highlight two projects by Brooks + Scarpa. The first is 11NOHO in North Hollywood, CA. This is a 5-storey apartment consisting of 60 suites, 12 of which are affordable (which allowed for a density bonus).
The second is the Rose Mixed-Use Apartments in Venice, CA. This one is a 4-storey apartment and is 100% affordable. I'd like to know how they got the pro forma to work, but regardless, it's proof that Europe doesn't have a monopoly on beautiful social housing projects.
What I really wanted to point out, though, are the projects' courtyards. Southern California has a rich history of courtyard buildings and these two projects offer a contemporary interpretation of this tradition. Both include an elevated courtyard and both have found a way to maintain a connection to the street.
What I like about this approach is that it's simultaneously extroverted (there's a connection to the broader urban context) and introverted (residents get a semi-private amenity).
I think this duality can be particularly helpful when you're designing and developing in a context that maybe isn't the most conducive to intimate urban spaces. It allows you to create your own new ground plane, while not turning your back on the city.
Coincidentally, it also happens to be one of the design moves that Globizen put forward in a recent submission to Salt Lake City for the redevelopment of a full city block in the Granary District.
Photos from Brooks + Scarpa
The Frank Gehry-designed Grand LA is a prominent mixed-use development in downtown Los Angeles that sits across from the celebrated Walt Disney Concert Hall (which was also designed by Gehry). Developed by Related, the project occupies an entire city block and contains a 305-room hotel by Hilton, 347 luxury rental apartments, 89 affordable apartments, and over 164,000 sf of retail space.
According to Bloomberg, most of the project is doing quite well. The hotel occupancy rate is at 69%, the hotel restaurant is busy, and the residential is more than 95% leased. The problem is the retail.
Since the project opened in 2022, most of it has gone unleased. Though two new anchors were just announced: an AI museum called Dataland and a permanent home for the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, which runs an executive MBA program in LA.
But these aren't traditional retail tenants. And it's almost certainly not what was being modeled when the project broke ground in 2019. Back then, everyone was still going into the nearby offices. And those humans would have brought foot traffic. This is one of the tricky things about development — you end up building through different macro environments.
But even in the best of times, it's generally hard to say with exact precision what will be successful. That's development. If there's comparable product, then you can comp against that (less risk). But if there isn't (more risk), you're faced with the question: Does comparable product not exist because there's no market for it, or does it not exist simply because nobody has done it yet?
If you're developing, it's because you believe the latter.
According to the WSJ, the US office market saw a significant increase in leasing activity in the first quarter of this year. Approximately 115 million square feet of space was leased, which represents a 13% increase from the previous quarter and the highest level since before the pandemic in mid-2019.
But then, tariffs for everybody! Now tenants are worried that a recession is coming, inflation is going to rise, and that so too will interest rates. Uncertainty is bad for business.
Here's where things broadly sit as of the beginning of this year:
The national office vacancy rate was 19.7% at the end of February 2025
San Francisco had the highest vacancy at 27.8%
$7 billion worth of office sales were recorded in the first two months of the year and the average price was $177 per square foot
The cheapest markets are/were in the midwest with Minneapolis-Saint Paul recording the lowest average sale price of $50 per square foot (versus $215 psf a year ago)
Chicago averaged $67 psf
The most expensive markets were places like San Diego ($662 psf), Manhattan ($450 psf), San Francisco ($282 psf), Miami ($239 psf), and Los Angeles ($207 psf) — we continue to see a flight to quality
Maybe things will get better later this year, or maybe they won't. It's impossible to know what comes next in this trade war.
Cover photo by Delia Little on Unsplash