Santa Monica Vermont Apartments | KoningEizenberg Architecture

International Chapter Named Award for Residential Architecture - Multiple Housing

Santa Monica Vermont Apartments is an assured and sophisticated work of urban architecture that transforms a fragmented, transit-adjacent site in East Hollywood into a coherent and highly active piece of the city. In doing so, it repositions affordable housing as both civic infrastructure and a catalyst for urban renewal. 

The project is particularly accomplished in its handling of scale and adjacency. At ground level, the building extends and intensifies the public realm, repairing the plaza and establishing a continuous, legible urban edge. Retail, community uses, and movement corridors are orchestrated to support permeability, safety, and daily activation. Above, a layered system of courtyards, bridges, and shared spaces mediates density with generosity, producing a residential environment that is socially connected and spatially clear. 

Central to the project’s success is its delivery model. Developed in partnership with LA Metro, the project aligns transport infrastructure with housing provision, demonstrating how co-development can unlock under-realised urban land while embedding long-term public value. 

The architecture demonstrates discipline in its material and formal expression while maintaining a strong civic presence. Its construction logic and planning efficiency respond directly to the economic constraints of affordable housing without diminishing architectural quality. 

In its integration of housing, transit, and public life, the project offers a compelling and transferable model for contemporary urban development.

International Chapter Architecture Medal / Medallion

The International Chapter has not awarded its Medal for an outstanding international project since the Medal was created in 2022.  

This year, while the jury has recognised several outstanding category winners, one stood out for the depth of its endeavour, its bravery, and for the joy provided to those in need within the damaged downtown of a great world city.   

That project is the Santa Monica Vermont Apartments multiple housing project by Koning Eizenberg near Los Angeles, USA.  

The project is bold, responsive, and restorative in a city that has become polarised in recent decades of urban decline. The project is supported by local authorities and a not-for-profit developer, who have embarked on a program to bring affordable housing to these damaged areas.   

An unsuccessful urban space, adjoining an existing subway entrance became the site for a five-storey building designed to include affordable apartments. A sense of space and dignity results.  

The architects, Koning Eizenberg, were the first to admit, with suitable modesty, that they are not alone in this genre of architectural work in Los Angeles. However, their example of brinkmanship, and in providing a sense of place, clarity and joyfulness to those in need of a new start was, we thought, admirable.