4 ms·

Buildings that could have been beautiful and enrich the city and the lives of tenants will end up being stack of containers to bypass government imposed minimum

Buildings that could have been beautiful and enrich the city and the lives of tenants will end up being stack of containers to bypass government imposed minimum wage and endless regulations. No wonder why soviet union buildings looked like a bland block of concrete. If this is not a cautionary tale on the dangers of regulation, I don't know what is. Congrats to Costco for finding a trick and getting things done, despite the government.

xscott 2y ago
That is not what happens in practice. Typically you get stick and stucco construction with flat roofs, picking the cheapest possible labor and construction materials, while putting on drywall and paint to make it look attractive for the 10-15 years it will last until termites and rot set in to the fragile bones. But it fools most people, and if you're wealthy you're going to move to a newer area before that 15 years is up anyways.
vidarh 2y ago
Soviet Union buildings started looking like bland concrete on purpose when Khrushchev decided housing everyone was more important than Stalin's focus on appearances. The buildings of that era were meant to be temporary, and only remained because their economy failed. There were many awful things about Khrushchev, but at least the housing policy appears to have been a genuine attempt at improving things for ordinary people. Even though the housing was poor quality and ugly, it was a step up when they were introduced.
mlyle 2y ago
I don't think the renders of the actual planned development look at all like a stack of containers. That heritage will show inside, though: there's probably not going to be any rooms that are really wide. But modern apartments tend to not have too many of those anyways.
- m463 2y ago
  I would imagine some rooms will be double-wide. more seriously, it seems mobile homes nowadays come in 14, 16 and 18' widths and 66 to 80' lengths. It seems shipping containers are 8' wide and usually 20, 40 and 45' long. I suspect there are ways to make multiples of these dimensions. I also wonder why you couldn't just take a truck and load it up with a stack of walls that are laid out with a crane.
  - mlyle 2y ago
    Yah, you tend to end up with rooms that are 1x or 2x 12', 14', or 16'. Having a module that doesn't have at least one side wall is problematic
- Dylan16807 2y ago
  It's a bunch of identical one bedroom apartments, plus shorter studio versions and a corner version with an extra bedroom. The inability to make really wide rooms won't be missed. And the amenity sections do have lots of big rooms. So I don't think it will show.
Dylan16807 2y ago
It's going to look like an apartment building. I don't see an issue.
majormajor 2y ago
The rendering of the Costco plan looks no worse than the typical 5-on-1 that gets built all over LA and would have been built with traditional methods. How you're assuming that there is a difference in how it will "enrich the city and the lives of tenants" based on that render is beyond me. You decry regulation in the same sentence you wish buildings were beautiful and life-enriching. You wildly overrate the style, comfort, and safety of stuff that gets built in countries without the sorts of regulations that the US has today.
- dragonwriter 2y ago
  > The rendering of the Costco plan looks no worse than the typical 5-on-1 that gets built all over LA Probably in part because modular construction isn't uncommon with those 5-over-1s, it's not some hack specific to this law; surprisingly enough, most projects can't get away with paying below the local prevailing wage whether or not there is a specific law requiring it, so if modular construction enables a net cost reduction where there is a prevailing cost regulation, it's going to be a net cost reduction for most similar construction without the regulation, too.
dragonwriter 2y ago
> Congrats to Costco for finding a trick and getting things done, despite the government. Getting housing built is the purpose of the law; modular construction is a common way to build in urban California even where the builder isn't using this law, and still involves local labor (the modules don't assemble themselves) to which the prevailing wage requirement applies. There's no trick here, they are doing exactly what the state government was trying to get done when it wrote the law bypassing local government power.

xscott 2y ago

That is not what happens in practice. Typically you get stick and stucco construction with flat roofs, picking the cheapest possible labor and construction materials, while putting on drywall and paint to make it look attractive for the 10-15 years it will last until termites and rot set in to the fragile bones. But it fools most people, and if you're wealthy you're going to move to a newer area before that 15 years is up anyways.

vidarh 2y ago

Soviet Union buildings started looking like bland concrete on purpose when Khrushchev decided housing everyone was more important than Stalin's focus on appearances. The buildings of that era were meant to be temporary, and only remained because their economy failed. There were many awful things about Khrushchev, but at least the housing policy appears to have been a genuine attempt at improving things for ordinary people. Even though the housing was poor quality and ugly, it was a step up when they were introduced.

mlyle 2y ago

I don't think the renders of the actual planned development look at all like a stack of containers. That heritage will show inside, though: there's probably not going to be any rooms that are really wide. But modern apartments tend to not have too many of those anyways.

m463 2y ago
I would imagine some rooms will be double-wide. more seriously, it seems mobile homes nowadays come in 14, 16 and 18' widths and 66 to 80' lengths. It seems shipping containers are 8' wide and usually 20, 40 and 45' long. I suspect there are ways to make multiples of these dimensions. I also wonder why you couldn't just take a truck and load it up with a stack of walls that are laid out with a crane.
- mlyle 2y ago
  Yah, you tend to end up with rooms that are 1x or 2x 12', 14', or 16'. Having a module that doesn't have at least one side wall is problematic
Dylan16807 2y ago
It's a bunch of identical one bedroom apartments, plus shorter studio versions and a corner version with an extra bedroom. The inability to make really wide rooms won't be missed. And the amenity sections do have lots of big rooms. So I don't think it will show.

Dylan16807 2y ago

It's going to look like an apartment building. I don't see an issue.

majormajor 2y ago

The rendering of the Costco plan looks no worse than the typical 5-on-1 that gets built all over LA and would have been built with traditional methods. How you're assuming that there is a difference in how it will "enrich the city and the lives of tenants" based on that render is beyond me. You decry regulation in the same sentence you wish buildings were beautiful and life-enriching. You wildly overrate the style, comfort, and safety of stuff that gets built in countries without the sorts of regulations that the US has today.

dragonwriter 2y ago
> The rendering of the Costco plan looks no worse than the typical 5-on-1 that gets built all over LA Probably in part because modular construction isn't uncommon with those 5-over-1s, it's not some hack specific to this law; surprisingly enough, most projects can't get away with paying below the local prevailing wage whether or not there is a specific law requiring it, so if modular construction enables a net cost reduction where there is a prevailing cost regulation, it's going to be a net cost reduction for most similar construction without the regulation, too.

dragonwriter 2y ago

> Congrats to Costco for finding a trick and getting things done, despite the government. Getting housing built is the purpose of the law; modular construction is a common way to build in urban California even where the builder isn't using this law, and still involves local labor (the modules don't assemble themselves) to which the prevailing wage requirement applies. There's no trick here, they are doing exactly what the state government was trying to get done when it wrote the law bypassing local government power.