Lehrer Architects Squeezes 19 Homes Onto a Tiny Lot in Los Angeles
On a 4,500-square-foot lot in Filipinotown, Los Angeles — about half the size of a typical single-family lot in the city — Lehrer Architects has completed Loma Verde, a thin, six-storey building with 19 studio apartments for formerly homeless residents.
The lot at 405 North Westlake Avenue once held a single-family home. Now it holds a vertical, wood-framed building with open-air corridors, offices for case managers, bicycle parking and a roof garden with expansive views, according to Dezeen (Dezeen, 27 August 2026).
Each studio runs from 270 to 300 square feet (25 to 27.8 square metres). The building is what architects call a "single-loaded slab" — a thin block with dwellings on one side of a corridor only — with bends and folds in its exterior walls that break up the facade. Michael Lehrer is the founder and principal of the firm behind the project.
The developer is Holos Communities, a nonprofit organisation. The building's amenities include a furnished rooftop deck, secure entries, long-term bike parking, fully furnished units with high-efficiency appliances and a live-in manager, according to Holos Communities' website (Holos Communities).
Earlier reporting on the project described a shorter building with fewer units. Urbanize Los Angeles reported in July 2025 that Loma Verde had topped out — meaning its structure had reached full height — as a four-storey building with 18 apartments and no on-site parking (Urbanize LA, 7 July 2025). Holos Communities' own project announcement similarly described a four-storey, 18-unit building (Holos Communities, 7 July 2026). The firm's project page, by contrast, called it a five-storey building (Lehrer Architects).
The most recent description, from Dezeen on 27 August 2026, settles on six storeys and 19 studio apartments — the figures used here.
What makes the project notable is the density packed onto such a small parcel. Supportive housing — a model that pairs affordable rent with on-site social services such as case management — has become a key tool in Los Angeles's response to homelessness. Loma Verde puts that model onto a lot that many developers would walk past, trading a single home for nearly twenty.
