In a world of single-family zoning, we we’re pleasantly surprised to stumble across this recent article in the New York Times highlighting the history of a small New Jersey town and its success with “light-touch density” (LTD): small lot single-family homes, townhouses, triplexes, and fourplexes permitted on land zoned for single-family development. California has taken...Read More
Apartments, ADUs and Small Lots—oh my! As a response to the state’s push to meet current housing needs, new developments are popping up across Los Angeles at an increasing rate (Reminder: Los Angeles is currently short 456,643 housing units). Many residents would like to prevent new housing developments for a few fear-based reasons—loss of neighborhood...Read More
I don’t know about you, but every time I read a sentence containing the abbreviations “SB” or “AB” my brain immediately hurts trying to figure out which state senate or assembly bill is being referenced. The research for this blog found me in an avalanche of state bills that all started to intertwine. How is...Read More
Welcome back to our informal discussion about rising housing costs in Los Angeles. If you missed it, make sure you check out Part 1. If you’re back for Part 2, thank you for being here! I promise this one is shorter than the last. If you remember, we’ve been looking in depth at two critical...Read More
Our previous blog, The Great LA Delay: Why Residential Development is Taking Soooo Long, detailed how the convoluted permitting process is wreaking havoc with design and development in Los Angeles. In Part 2, we tell you about a possible “Secret Weapon” that could help smooth the permitting process, we’ve got some news on how this...Read More
This blog is part two of the latest in our “Architecture in Practice” Series. If you didn’t catch the first part of this post, start here. Why houses cost so much in Los Angeles We were SO excited to officially own the lot, and somehow, we came up with a design approach almost immediately. (Fun...Read More
First comes ownership, then comes design. I know what you’re all thinking. What ever happened to that spec house you guys were doing? Well, package a really strange pandemic that keeps going on and on and on with a very busy practice and next thing you know, the spec house got moved to the back...Read More
About three years ago, our team started looking for properties to develop in-house. If you haven’t noticed, there isn’t a ton of vacant land in Los Angeles. Finding something affordable with decent building opportunities is even harder. To evaluate each lot that came up in our land search, we had a mental checklist to see...Read More
Welcome to the start of our “Architecture in Practice” journey. If you missed our introduction piece, check it out here: Architecture in Practice. As we mentioned previously, early in her career, Tracy had the opportunity to act as both architect and developer (with her family) for three small spec houses in Santa Maria. This seems...Read More
We’re putting our Architecture Practice to work. Architects love designing. Seeing their imagined project upon completion is exciting. But there’s that in-between part that some feel they might be missing out on. So…Tracy A. Stone Architect has decided to jump in…and develop our own project. We are about to join our favorite readers, clients and...Read More
In our endeavor to be lifelong learners, we’ve started a new tradition at Tracy A. Stone Architect called… wait for it… “read the magazines that get mailed to the office.” Originally, we had decided to purge all the unwanted subscriptions (and if you know the design and construction industry, there are TONS that mysteriously show...Read More
