The Star Apartments are in the heart of Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles, and the building offers 102 apartment units for formerly homeless individuals. The new modernist structure provides a startling contrast to the rows of tents for the homeless lining neighboring streets. The Star Apartments’ striking street profile comprises asymmetrically arranged, prefabricated rectilinear boxes that suggest an updated version of Moshe Safdie’s Habit 67 in Montreal (1967). Instead of razing the street-level retail units, architect Michael Maltzan used them as a platform on which to build the housing units.

The building contains four terraced floors of residences, along with a variety of community and public health facilities, including an on-site medical clinic, a 15,000-square-foot Health and Wellness Center, and the new headquarters of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services’ (DHS) Housing for Health Division (designed pro bono by the Gensler Architecture firm). Other amenities include a community garden, running track, exercise and art rooms, and a library. Laundry rooms are located on each floor and feature views of the city. The lower cost of the prefabricated units allowed the developers to use higher-quality materials in the individual apartments. The building has earned Platinum LEED certification. Just down the street from the $40 million Star Apartments is the $160 million One Sante Fe development, also designed by Maltzan.