Signal Hill’s New Affordable Housing Community

Signal Hill has (thankfully) approved Studio One Eleven’s design for Meta Housing’s 72-unit affordable housing project.

Choosing Meta/Studio One Eleven—one of four developers vying for the project, two of which dropped out—was a smart choice by Signal Hill due to two simple factors: they know the future affordable housing (including accessing much-needed tax credits) and they know the area.

The pair’s other Long Beach-area affordable housing project, the Long Beach Senior Arts Colony at Anaheim and Long Beach Blvd., scored a plethora of accolades, including the Los Angeles Business Journal’s the Best Multi-Family Project of the year, the Multifamily Executive Affordable Housing Project of the Year, the Multi-Housing News Award of Excellence Gold Award for Best New Senior Development, PCBC’s 2013 Gold Nugget Grand Award-Winner for best Senior Housing Community, as well as a design award from the American Institute of Architects.

One can only hope this Signal Hill project, sitting at Gundry Ave. and Hill St., will echo the same innovation.

Sitting on a 1.6-acre property, the community will be donated to the developers and divided into two areas, 1500 E. Hill St. and 2170 Gundry Ave.

“It’s essentially an affordable housing community at a village scale,” said Michael Bohn, principal at Studio One Eleven. “It incorporates a variety of building heights ranging from one to four stories, and encourages communal living with its open spaces.”

Included in the design are residential patios, porches, balconies, and unit entries along edges to activate streets and deter crime, as well as concealed parking. To encourage more communal activities, a community garden, a large patio adjacent to its community building with flexible green space, and a tot lot will all be built.

In the words of Signal Hill Councilmember Tina Hansen, the architecture of the development “brings dignity to residents that would make anyone want to live there.”

With construction set for December 2015, the project looks to be completed by May of 2017.