While working for Los Angeles radio station KCRW, Frances Anderton, who hosted the popular show DnA: Design and Architecture from 2002 to 2020, would frequently speak with proponents and opponents of ballot initiatives and design projects that promoted higher-density apartments. During those interviews, she noticed something particular: Even those firmly set in the “YIMBY” camp seemed to express a quiet disdain for multifamily housing.

“I would get an undertone in the conversation—there is a hierarchy of housing and at the top of the heap is the single-family home. That is what people want,” Anderton explains. “There was a collective understanding that apartment living was necessary but not necessarily a great option.”

That public perception undergirds many of the fights against affordable housing; coupled with an overall lack of knowledge of the mechanisms both political and financial that enable density to occur, the public is more likely to see affordable housing as scourges and is less equipped to advocate for such developments even if they favor them.

Awesome and Affordable: Great Housing Now, a new online resource for those curious about affordable housing in California, is trying to make a dent in those knowledge and appreciation gaps. Founded this year by Anderton and Friends of Residential Treasures: LA (FORT:LA)—a nonprofit organization dedicated to celebrating great works of Los Angeles residential architecture—the website is designed to promote existing affordable apartment developments while also providing tools and information to better understand how such housing gets built.

Anderton co-authors the site with David Kersh, the former executive director of the Carpenters/Contractors Cooperation Committee (a nonprofit organization of union carpenters and construction contractors). Each month, they feature one “awesome” affordable housing development. Currently featured is Vista Ballona, a 50-unit building by FSY Architects. The building profiles include basic building information, a vivid description of its architectural features, sustainability information, and myriad other details that justify its “awesome” classification.

“Awesome can mean multiple things that can sometimes be a little bit subtle—taking a bunch of challenges and finding the best solution,” says Anderton. “A building that’s not in a great location, it’s near the freeway, but configuring that building in a way that you don’t hear the freeway noise. It is landscaped, so you mitigate the pollution.”

The monthly features encourage Angelenos to visit those affordable dwellings as a means to build their appreciation for multifamily architecture. The political and financial education, however, is somewhat heavier. Kersh, who spent his career working between carpenters and contractors and legislative decision-makers to increase construction efficiencies, has watched the housing movement grow and evolve—and continually become more opaque.

“I’ve watched how housing has become so legalistic—zoning, change this law or that law. And I think there’s been almost a sense of, We need to be able to speak a different language. I think what we’re trying to do is kind of tap into that,” Kersh says. Awesome and Affordable thus provides a Housing Terminology Playbook, a comprehensive glossary that seeks to clarify basic language used by designers, lawmakers, and advocates—phrases like area median income, parking minimums, and more—as well as a guide to various organizations and ballot measures that are frequently referenced in the media.

While the building stories and articles posted on the site are lengthy—keeping such appeals shorter might keep readers’ attentions—the formula creates a relatively comprehensive pedagogy for building excitement and appreciation for density and affordability while also offering just enough knowledge for readers to be able to perform small but significant tasks that can move housing forward. Whether or not Awesome/Affordable will have large-scale impacts is unclear, however, as Anderton notes it is not a means to direct voters in any particular direction.

“What our project is trying to do is approach this from a very emotional perspective but also be very well versed with sort of the techno-jargony lingo and try to realize how we can move the ball forward on both fronts—by understanding the mechanics but also by understanding that we need to be emotionally communicative,” Kersh says. Readers, likely those already YIMBY-curious, could visit the proclaimed “awesome” buildings to see what exists near them, to learn about how to get involved in a local nonprofit housing advocate, or even to pick up some language to use when calling their representatives to advocate for proposed multifamily buildings or new laws that make them possible.

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Top image: The Arroyo by Koning Eizenberg Architecture (Eric Staudenmaier)