Description by architects
Description by builder
Plans
Construction
Location
About contractor - Bernards
About builder - Mobile Modular (formerly Vesta Modular)
About manufacturer - Crate Modular
About architect - NAC Architecture
| Project | The Hilda L. Solis Care First Village |
| Contractor | Bernards |
| Builder | Mobile Modular (formerly Vesta Modular) |
| Manufacturer | Crate Modular |
| Architect | NAC Architecture |
| Containers | 66 x 40'HC |
| Total Area | 60,000 sqft |
| Unit Area | 160 sqft |
| Units | 132 |
| Fabrication Time | 10 weeks |
| Building Time | 5 months |
| Year | 2021 |
| Location | Los Angeles, California |
Awards
2022 Residential Design Award, AIA Los Angeles
2022 Award of Distinction, Modular Building Institute
2022 Best in Show, Modular Building Institute
2022 Finalist, ULI Americas, Terwilliger Center Award for Innovation in Attainable Housing
2021 Award of Merit, ENR California Best Projects
The Hilda L. Solis Care First Village (HSCFV), a large-scale interim housing project providing a wide range of amenities for both the unhoused and those in transition, recently opened in Downtown Los Angeles.
“What once was supposed to be a staging area to build a new Men’s Central Jail will now serve as a safe space to address the housing, mental and behavioral health needs of our residents experiencing homelessness,” Hilda L. Solis, the Los Angeles County Supervisor that initiated the housing project in September 2020, said in an official statement. “I am proud of what we have been able to accomplish, and that is re-imagining Los Angeles County with steps toward our commitment towards realizing a Care First, Jail Last model.”
In collaboration with the County of Los Angeles Department of Public Works, Solis selected Bernards, a local employee-owned construction management company, as the builder of HSCFV and local firm NAC Architecture as the principal designer. The campus provides housing for a wide range of services for the city’s unhoused population across four acres of former parking lots near Union Station, the city’s largest public transportation hub. The two main shipping container buildings on the campus contain 132 units of permanent housing. Each unit features a private bath, as opposed to the bunk-style set up more commonly seen in recent similar projects, and is fitted with individual heating and ventilation systems as a means of reducing the spread of COVID on-site. The several trailers across the site are designated for interim housing, while an administrative building centralizes several residential services, such as dining and laundry, as well as support service offices that include case management and counseling. The space in between the buildings is landscaped with facilities for a dog park, as many residents are likely to bring their pets.
“This project, to me, demonstrates that the greater needs of our population extend far beyond traditional thoughts of what infrastructure may be,” explained Bernards’ vice president Mike Funderberg. “Public Housing for those unhoused individuals on our streets, coupled with a long-term focus on ancillary services—such as mental and behavioral healthcare, which encompass true comprehensive redirection of the growing population of individuals experiencing homelessness—are long absent and much-needed infrastructure projects for our modern times.”
Beyond the fact that the project is now a center for a number of valuable social services to the city’s unhoused population, HSCFV is novel for the remarkable efficiency that went into its construction. At a cost of only $86,000 per permanent bed, work at the site began on October 11, 2020 and took less than five months to complete; a construction timeline virtually unprecedented in the history of housing projects in Los Angeles of this scale. These figures were made possible through the transformation of shipping containers into prefabricated modular units as the primary building envelope for the permanent housing units. Bernards subcontracted VESTA Modular, a full-service modular general contractor with offices across the country, to subdivide 66 shipping containers into permanent housing units before stacking them on-site, where their bright orange facades would later be softened by the crisp white walkways and staircases that surround them. The rest of the village is comprised of prefabricated modular units and mobile units that were designed to meet the specific demands of the site.
Bringing the initial estimated project cost of $57 million down to $48 million—$3 million less than the total amount given to the project through federal Coronavirus relief funding via the CARES Act—the successful use of shipping containers and other prefabricated structures at the Hilda L. Solis Care First Village suggests that this building technique might be seen more commonly in future affordable housing projects around the country.
Los Angeles Times, 2021
For years it was just another dreary piece of the downtown Los Angeles backdrop — a vacant lot between the county jail and the rusted hulk of a factory.
But since Thanksgiving, two three-story buildings, flanked by a village of trailer homes, have sprung up on the former industrial site.
When the last touches of landscaping are done next month, the 232-bed Vignes Street development will have shattered the axiom that homeless housing takes years to build and is exorbitantly expensive. From start to finish in under five months and at a cost of about $200,000 per bed, it has shaved years and hundreds of thousands of dollars off a traditional homeless housing project.
“When did we ever think we would be able to do something so fast at such a low cost at such an opportune time?” said L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis, who initiated the project with a motion adopted by the Board of Supervisors on Sept. 29. “I was amazed. By Oct. 11, the site work had begun.”
Conceived as an experiment, the project is a hybrid of permanent and temporary structures and will be used flexibly for both housing and shelter.
Unlike traditional homeless housing projects that are either designed for permanent residency with services or for short-term shelter, the Vignes complex will have both. The two main buildings, constructed of once-used shipping containers, will have 132 units of permanent housing. The trailers, each divided into five units, will be for interim housing. The administrative building will house dining facilities, laundry and support services such as case management and counseling to serve both the permanent and interim residents.
The main buildings, placed on concrete foundations to make them permanent, may open as interim housing and transition with time.
“The goal is house people as quickly as you can,” said Sarah Dusseault, a commissioner with the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority who advised Solis on the project. “Get people into housing right away, even if it’s going to be operated as temporary.”
The trailers, placed on temporary supports, can be moved in the future, leaving open the option to build permanent multistory buildings to expand the housing.
The experiment took advantage of unique circumstances and might be difficult to repeat.
In some ways the project was shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic. The bulk of the funding came from the federal CARES Act, allowing the county to sidestep the usual convoluted process of finding money for affordable housing. And the health emergency provided justification for exemptions from environmental review and competitive bidding.
Another bonus was the 4-acre downtown parcel. The property had long been a factory that manufactured oil well equipment and later a machine shop. The buildings were leveled in 2018, and the county had bought the property as part of the jail replacement project that the Board of Supervisors later shelved in its decision to shift resources from jail to community care.
Those advantages, however, don’t entirely account for the project’s speed and cost.
Miguel Santana, who spent decades as an administrator in both the city and county before serving as the chairman of a citizen committee overseeing the city’s $1.2-billion Proposition HHH housing bond program, credited the county’s public works culture as particularly suited to building quickly and efficiently.
The county Department of Public Works typically assembles a team including those responsible for land use, social services and construction, he said. “It’s clear whose responsibility it is to get it done, when and by what budget,” Santana said.
There were also intangibles that motivated everyone involved, said Mark Pestrella, the director of public works.
“We’re so delighted to be part of the solution for homelessness,” he said. “Public servants are all so excited to be given the opportunity to make a difference. People just dig in when they need to.”
The authorization in Solis’ board motion to skip competitive bidding allowed Pestrella to seek out Bernards, a design and construction firm that he said was reliable and would work with the county “hands-on in a construction, not just contracting, relationship.”
Bernards subcontracted with VESTA Modular, a national company with experience handling one of the big roadblocks in modular construction.
VESTA found a manufacturer in Boise, Idaho, for the 20 wood-frame trailers that would be shipped by truck to the site for the interim shelter. A 6,000-square-foot administrative building with offices, meeting space, a commercial kitchen and laundry was shipped in sections from Texas.
The once-used shipping containers that made up the two main buildings came from Carson. By a stroke of luck, CRATE, a 2-year-old container conversion company, had capacity in its factory after another job was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The modular construction kept the basic cost to just over $86,000 per bed for the main buildings and $50,000 per bed for the trailers. Exterior elevators, the administrative building and site preparation, including removal of underground gas tanks, brought the total to $48 million, or $206,000 per unit, not including the county’s cost of $24 million for the land.
Solis said she initially had qualms about using shipping containers but was won over when she saw the interiors.
“The environment is quite impressive,” she said. “It’s just like being at a Best Western, only smaller.”
The trailers “won’t be something that typically surrounds a homeless or interim shelter,” she said. Each will be divided into five residences with their own refrigerator and bathroom.
“That’s going to be the biggest eye-opener for other public officials,” Solis said. “Treating homelessness can be done with dignity and respect.”
Solis foresees the development as a step in the transformation of a gritty industrial district on the murky boundary between Chinatown and downtown into a community oriented around social benefit.
Plans are already in place for an expansion onto the property to the north where California Drop Forge manufactures precision components for the aerospace and medical markets. The company is scheduled to relocate by next year.
Two neighbors are Homeboy Industries, a celebrated gang rehabilitation and reentry program, and the California Endowment, a foundation dedicated to expanding access to healthcare. Both organizations are in mutual discussions on how to use other nearby properties.
Solis said the county is working with them to come up with a master plan she called Hope Village.
The massive jail complex to the east could also be incorporated someday. At Solis’ request, the county is working on a plan to close the jail as part of the Board of Supervisors’ new incarceration policy.
Los Angeles Times, 2021
Description by architects
The Hilda L. Solis Care First Village provides interim housing and support services for 232 people formerly experiencing homelessness. This critical project came into being over a truncated six-month construction schedule at the start of a worldwide pandemic. Construction was initiated in October 2020 by the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, who took decisive action to utilize $51 million in federal CARES Act pandemic relief funding. The integrated design and construction team's challenge was opening the facility within six months to meet funding source-imposed deadlines.
Shipping containers repurposed for living units
Off-site modular construction was quickly selected as the preferred delivery method for meeting the aggressive schedule. Modular construction supported the concurrent fabrication of buildings at multiple off-site locations. Repurposed shipping containers were locally available in Los Angeles and allowed the production of housing units to start within two weeks. NAC collaborated with three separate modular vendors to design 132 permanent and 100 temporary units with a full private bathroom for each resident. The campus-like setting also includes a 6,000 SF resource building with a full kitchen, dining area, and administrative support spaces.
Reimagining a brownfield site
Located on a 4-acre brownfield site adjacent to Union Station in downtown Los Angeles, the project initiated the repurposing of a site acquired to replace the Men’s Central Jail with housing services. The site was previously identified in December 2019 as potentially suitable for developing permanent and/or interim housing, as the location is near major transportation hubs and services. An extensive construction effort was needed to mitigate the contaminated site, establish utility services, and provide building foundations for the modular buildings. NAC's experience with public works design and permitting, and construction was key in completing this highly innovative effort.
Trauma-informed care
The site incorporates low-barrier, trauma-informed care, and harm reduction policies and procedures into its program design and housing operations. Seven structures comprise the development totaling 63,339 SF. A unit layout provides a dedicated restroom with a shower, water closet, and sink for each unit. The self-contained integrated design provided safety and dignity to some of the County's most vulnerable populations at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Creating community in the spaces between
Balancing the need for production efficiency at every turn with a desire to create an integrated community setting, the design team leveraged the three-story exterior circulation balconies to overlook and animate the linear open spaces between each building. The one-story resource building providing a full kitchen, dining area, and support service spaces for the residents anchors the northeast corner of the radial site plan.
Innovative, respectful solution
The NAC design team is proud of remaining committed to the individual and collective needs of the residents throughout the development process, ultimately providing an innovative, respectful housing solution. The project provides safe, secure shelter, meals, and case management on a 24-hour basis for adults experiencing homelessness. Now operated by the Weingart Foundation, the Hilda L Solis Care First Village welcomed its first residents in March 2021.
Description by builder
Mobile Modular (formerly Vesta Modular), in partnership with Bernards, Crate, ProSet, Guerdon, L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis and the Public Works professionals in the city of L.A. completed one of our most interesting modular construction projects to date.
In under five months, our teams constructed an innovative and flexible modular homeless shelter complex in a 4-acre former industrial site in downtown L.A. that features both temporary and permanent structures.
Background of the Problem:
Homelessness in L.A. and across the U.S. is not a new problem, but its depth and complexity increases almost every year. In 2020, more than 66,000 people were experiencing homelessness — a sharp 12.7% increase from 2019 —according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.
Many projects have sought to solve homelessness in L.A. Among the most notable efforts has been the $1.2 billion Proposition HHH, the goal of which is to triple supportive housing production in L.A. Progress on the initiative has been very slow, and one culprit can be found in traditional construction methods themselves, which present several key obstacles that can slow down housing projects.
“The goal is (to) house people as quickly as you can,” said Sarah Dusseault, a commissioner with the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority who advised Solis on the project. “Get people into housing right away, even if it’s going to be operated as temporary.”
The CARES Act of 2020, an economic stimulus bill prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic, provided the largest part of the funding. Such direct federal dollars allowed officials to avoid some of the time-consuming, nuanced ways in which the county typically acquires funding.
Our Solution:
Modular construction both reduces costs and truncates construction timelines. That is why off-site modular construction was presented as the solution to being on-time and on-budget for the proposed Hilda L. Solis Care First Village Homeless Housing Shelter complex. In late 2019, led by Chair Hilda L. Solis, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to begin exploring short- and long-term housing options, and in October 2020, the county broke ground on the property.
The project features a 232-bed homeless housing complex. The two main buildings boast the unique and trending feature of being made almost completely from modified shipping containers. The buildings are designed to serve homeless populations who might be in need of permanent residency and additional services, AND those who might only need temporary or short-term shelter.
The project also features temporary and relocatable trailer complexes that each include 5 housing units. These buildings are meant to provide a clean, sleek space that offers individual restrooms and refrigerators in each unit.
In addition to the housing units, the main administrative building has the following room types:
- Dining Facilities
- Laundry Services
- Support Service Offices
- Meeting Rooms
- Administrative Offices
In all, more than 60,000 square feet of living space was delivered to the Vignes Street site in under 90 days, including the following:
- 66 shipping containers modified and outfitted by Crate Modular in Carson, California
- 20 mobile trailers from Guerdon in Boise, Idaho
- 2 modular elevators from Phoenix Modular Elevator in Mount Vernon, Illinois
- 9 wooden-frame modules for the administration building from Palomar in De Soto, Texas
How We Did It:
Simply put, we did it by employing two related construction types that allow for time efficiency—modular construction and shipping container construction.
With modular construction, building units are assembled almost entirely offsite in a factory-like environment that is designed to increase construction efficiencies. Additionally, the actual building site can be fully prepped for construction while the modules are being assembled.
Units made from repurposed shipping containers were also fabricated in factory settings off-site while crews laid foundations, utility lines and similar elements onsite. This coordinated logistical approach —bringing people and materials together, nationwide, to work simultaneously, would be necessary to ensure the project’s successful completion within the short timeline.
While not technically “modular construction,” shipping container construction utilizes the same principles and benefits that allow you to finish the interior layouts and wall construction, window installation, and insulation process offsite. Once the shipping containers are on location, they can be bolted together quickly, drastically cutting down the time spent onsite.
The buildings themselves were assembled in such a way that they can easily be moved, removed, and updated for more permanent buildings as housing demands change over time. Timeline:
The Hilda L. Solis Care First Village Homeless Housing Shelter complex is an eye-opening example of how the construction of homeless housing not just in L.A. but all over the country can be done in a short period of time.
“When did we ever think we would be able to do something so fast at such a low cost at such an opportune time?” said L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis, who initiated the project with a motion adopted by the Board of Supervisors on Sept. 29. “I was amazed. By Oct. 11, the site work had begun.”
The entire project, from project approval to its completion in May 2021 with homeless people taking occupancy, took only eight months, with actual construction taking a remarkable five months.
Plans
Construction
Location
| Address | 1000 N Alhambra Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90012, United States | |
| Phone | +1 213-667-3403 | |
| Website | https://hildalsolis.org/ |
About Bernards
Bernards is an employee-owned multidisciplinary commercial builder and construction management company delivering technical expertise and outstanding construction services to developers, corporations, educational institutions, and public agencies.
Bernards has been recognized for industry excellence by organizations including Engineering New Record (ENR), AIA Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Business Council, the Los Angeles Business Journal, Cal-OSHA, Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA), the City of Los Angeles, and the Los Angeles Conservancy.
The company is proud of their collaborative partnerships with talented and visionary architects, engineers, developers and subcontractors, and the resulting projects that define excellence in design and construction, sustainability, preservation, technology, materials, and safety.
| Los Angeles Corporate | |
|---|---|
| Address | 555 First Street, San Fernando, CA 91340 |
| Phone | 818 898 1521 |
| Fax | 818 361 9208 |
| NMcFayden@bernards.com | |
| Orange County Office | |
| Address | 2569 McCabe Way, Suite 100, Irvine, CA 92614 |
| Phone | 949 461 3650 |
| Fax | 949 461 3965 |
| mretama@bernards.com | |
| Inland Empire Office | |
| Address | 3633 East Inland Empire Boulevard, Suite 800, Ontario, CA 91764 |
| Phone | 909 941 5225 |
| Fax | 909 941 5224 |
| ahansen@bernards.com | |
| Central California Office | |
| Address | 1781 E Fir Avenue, Suite 205, Fresno, CA 93720 |
| Phone | 559 420 7505 |
| Fax | 559 412 4744 |
| gjames@bernards.com | |
| San Jose Office | |
| Address | 1798 Technology Drive, Suite 244, San Jose, CA 95110 |
| Phone | 408 912 1649 |
| Fax | 408 912 1649 |
| JLane@bernards.com | |
| San Diego Office | |
| Address | 9325 Sky Park Court, Suite 200, San Diego, CA 92123 |
| Phone | 858 355 9523 |
| Fax | 858 355 9523 |
| ahansen@bernards.com | |
| Website | https://www.bernards.com/ |
| https://www.instagram.com/bernards.builders/ | |
| https://www.facebook.com/BernardsBrosInc | |
About Mobile Modular (formerly Vesta Modular)
VESTA Modular has joined Mobile Modular to better serve your modular building and storage needs. We’re still committed to delivering high-quality, modular building solutions but now with expanded nationwide coverage as well as more modular experts ready to assist!
As a nationwide leader in the modular building industry, Mobile Modular proudly offers a wide array of modular buildings for rent lease or purchase serving all major industries. Mobile Modular expansive portfolio of prefab and custom modular buildings includes mobile offices, modular complexes, portable classrooms, modular kitchens and more! With over 40 years of exceptional service and industry expertise, Mobile Modular is your partner for your growth and expansion needs.
For over four decades, Mobile Modular has been providing comprehensive modular building solutions nationwide to meet the space needs of all major industries such as, education, commercial, construction, foodservice, government, health care, industrial, hospitality, petrochemical and retail.
Mobile Modular Management Corporation rents, leases and sells modular relocatable and permanent buildings. Since its beginning, Mobile Modular has continuously grown and expanded its locations and services to better serve our valued customers. Our comprehensive solutions provide everything you need to set up, install and utilize your modular building quickly and efficiently. Our goal is to provide each customer with a building designed to meet their specific needs and a level of individual service that exceeds expectations.
| Address | 5700 Las Positas Rd, Livermore, CA, United States, California |
| Phone | +1 855-368-8156 |
| info@mobilemodularrents.com | |
| Website | https://www.mobilemodular.com/ |
| https://www.facebook.com/mobilemodularmanagement/ |
About Crate Modular
CRATE Modular is California’s first and only proven manufacturer of multifamily housing and school buildings made from recycled shipping containers.
| Address | 3025 E Dominguez St, Carson, CA 90810, United States |
| Phone | +1 310-299-7680 |
| info@cratemodular.com | |
| Website | https://cratemodular.com/ |
| https://www.facebook.com/CRATEmodular/ |
About NAC Architecture
Welcome to NAC, where curiosity and collaboration drive our services. We believe that great architecture comes from a shared vision and value diverse input. We have the resources to take on large projects while delivering community-focused attention. Our interdisciplinary teams sharpen outcomes with direct experience, insight, and project support.
Strategy & Analytics
Exploring evidence-based strategies, our in-house data and analytics studio reveals the best intersection of facilities planning, finance, operations, and performance. NAC brings over 40 years of national expertise utilizing research, data, and analytics to inform strategy and develop creative solutions that will help you realize a more resilient, sustainable future.
Planning
Planning is the first step on an adventure. Let’s visualize where you can go from here and respond with resilience. We bring a variety of tools to explore multiple perspectives and reveal the many paths you could take, along with trustworthy data to make those strategic decisions.
Participation Movement
We are all one team—participants in a common goal to discover and give shape to your dreams. Our process begins not with answers, but collaborative, creative, and inclusive engagement to share ideas freely. We orchestrate a forum where voices come together via in-person participation, virtual gatherings, digital outreach, formal presentations, and more. We want to hear from you!
Architecture
Our teams thrive on projects that matter and have purpose to elevate the everyday experiences of individuals and communities. We value diverse points of view, relentless curiosity, and opportunities to tackle big challenges. We’re pursuing a more humane world through design, research, and innovation. What are you working on and how can we help?
Energy Planning
Energy Planning is an all-encompassing, iterative approach to fulfilling the energy requirements of your establishment. At NAC Engineering (NACE), we collaborate closely with you to create dependable, resilient, and practical energy solutions. Our services comprise energy management, procurement, sustainability, and on-site electricity generation. By seamlessly integrating with the design process from the outset, NACE facilitates optimal user experience while minimizing expenses.
Interior Design
Understanding how design can support wellbeing and belonging in the physical environment is essential to our practice. Design has the power to elevate one’s sense of place and connection to their surroundings. With a focus on the experience we are creating for people, our integrated interior design team uses scale, color, lighting, material, and furnishing to craft authentic space.
Lighting Design
Lighting brings the spaces we occupy to life—sculpting our experiences within three dimensions to reveal and enhance the project’s purpose. Integrating technology with beauty, and engineering with architecture, our innovative experts not only refine environments to promote human wellbeing, but also to deliver efficient solutions for sustainable outcomes.
| Columbus | |
|---|---|
| Address | 827 Yard St, Columbus, OH 43212 |
| Phone | 614 899 4830 |
| Fax | 614 899 4831 |
| columbus@nacarchitecture.com | |
| Los Angeles | |
| Address | 837 N Spring St, Third Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90012-2323 |
| Phone | 323 475 8075 |
| Fax | 323 475 8074 |
| losangeles@nacarchitecture.com | |
| Seattle | |
| Address | 2025 1st Ave, Suite 300, Seattle, WA 98121-3131 |
| Phone | 206 441 4522 |
| Fax | 206 441 7917 |
| seattle@nacarchitecture.com | |
| Spokane | |
| Address | 1203 W Riverside Ave, Spokane, WA 99201-1107 |
| Phone | 509 838 8240 |
| Fax | 509 838 8261 |
| spokane@nacarchitecture.com | |
| Shanghai NAC|LINK Studio | |
| Address | 461, E, 602 Pengjiang Road, Shanghai, 200072 |
| Phone | +86 13916570157 |
| shanghai@nacarchitecture.com | |
| San Diego | |
| Address | 374 N Coast Hwy, 101, Encinitas, CA 92024 |
| Phone | 619 832 2024 |
| sandiego@nacarchitecture.com | |
| Website | https://www.nacarchitecture.com/ |
| https://www.instagram.com/nacarchitecture/ | |
| https://www.facebook.com/nacarchitecture | |
The Hilda L. Solis Care First Village (HSCFV) - Shipping Container Housing Complex for Homeless, Los Angeles, California