Non-profit developer Community Corp. of Santa Monica has secured $5 million in new funding for the construction of new affordable housing on an infill site at 1342 Berkeley Street.

East elevation for Berkeley StationBrooks + Scarpa

In a letter issued on June 9, the City of Santa Monica announced that it would commit nearly $5.7 million from its housing trust fund for the project, which would consist of a four-story building featuring 13 one-bedroom apartments. Five of those units are to be set aside for transition aged youth (between the ages of 18 and 24) earning up to 60 percent of the area median income level (AMI), with the remaining eight apartments reserved for families earning up to 30 percent of AMI.

The project, called Berkeley Station, is being designed by Brooks + Scarpa as a test case for the firm's NEST Toolkit, which is described as a flexible "kit of parts" that can be used for affordable housing developments across the Los Angeles area. Plans call for a roughly 11,000-square-foot building composed of prefabricated modular units and clad in saturated blue cement panels, which would be arranged to provide upper-level outdoor space for residents, while also leaving space for a community garden at street level. No on-site parking is proposed.

The use of the NEST Toolkit will give Community Corp. access to $1 million in additional funding through the Los Angeles County’s Housing Innovation Challenge Grant, supplementing a permanent loan, and grants from other non-profit and public sources.

South alley elevation for Berkeley StationBrooks + Scarpa

Berkeley Station will rise just north of Santa Monica Boulevard’s intersections with Yale and Stanford Streets, where three market-rate apartment buildings are either planned, under construction, or recently-completed.

Community Corp. and Brooks Scarpa are also working on Brunson Terrace, a larger 48-unit affordable housing complex now under construction in the Pico neighborhood.