LATEST NEWS

Desirable, attainably priced townhomes and flats are within walking distance of work and play

(Santa Monica, CA – May 4, 2018) – KFA announces the topping off of Seabluff, an exciting new condominium community of 75 contemporary townhomes and flats designed by KFA and developed by homebuilder New Home (NYSE: NWHM).

Playa Vista, developed by Brookfield Residential, is a “Silicon Beach” tech hub and a new, walkable community of residences, open space, recreation, entertainment, shopping and dining located across from the Ballona Wetlands on L.A.’s Westside.

“A project like Seabluff is what KFA does best. One of our firm’s goals has always been to create housing that contributes to a neighborhood where residents can walk to shopping, dining and amenities. Seabluff connects directly to Playa Vista’s walking trail system and is minutes away from the high-tech companies that are located in Playa Vista,” said KFA Partner John Arnold, AIA.

Seabluff is within walking distance to The Campus at Playa Vista, an office complex that is home to tech companies such as IMAX, Google, YouTube Space L.A., Yahoo, and ICANN, and media firms including Group M, Fullscreen and 72 and Sunny.

“Seabluff’s units are luxuriously sized and amenitized, and the projects’ outdoors spaces are equally expansive and well-appointed.  Six of the units are price-controlled to make them affordable for community service employees, such as teachers and firefighters bringing a layer of economic diversity to the project.  This is important to us,” Arnold added.

Seabluff prioritizes connectivity and outdoor living. Units include contemporary, one- and two-story designs with open floor plans, warm wood accents, patio decks and multiple shared courtyards.  Residences range in size from one-bedroom units to larger townhome residences with up to three baths plus den.

Residents of Seabluff will also enjoy Playa Vista’s urban village and a strong sense of community. Home to 29 urban parks, including Concert Park, which is a community favorite for concerts, movies, picnics, food trucks, and yoga classes, Playa Vista is defined by open spaces in every direction.  The neighborhood also features a spacious resident activity club, a 51-acre preserved wetlands system, and plenty of outdoor restaurants and retail.

To download press release: KFA Seabluff Topping Off PR Dr 3

I remember being at the huge, rowdy grand opening party for the Pacific Electric Lofts in downtown LA, circa 2006. In the middle of the speeches, a city official recognized all the newly moved-in residents in the crowd, and someone yelled out, “Welcome to our home!” That was a revelation for me about architecture.

I love being a part of creating homes for people—the places where they will experience their lives and pursue happiness. I like to think that the places we create play a role in that pursuit – making people’s lives more pleasant, joyful, comfortable or just plain easier as they move through their days. I love collaborating with clients to figure out the puzzle of housing, from the initial concept through funding, design development, and into the details of living units.

An open secret about me is that my first passion was landscape architecture, which was my undergraduate major. I “switched” to architecture for grad school, but the root of my passion was still my driver: how do we experience the spaces of the world, and how do objects – whether a tree, or a wall, or a telephone pole – define the quality of the space and our movement through it. I’m as interested in designing the spaces between buildings and fitting them in their location as I am with the buildings themselves, something that continually vexed my professors in architecture school.

On weekends I tool around the city on my bike quite a bit – exploring the beautiful mess of LA, and looking at how the city functions and flows, parsing its history through landscape features. If I’m near one of KFA’s completed projects, I’ll stop in and poke around to see how it’s being used, and to see what we got right and what we didn’t. About a year after it was finished, I dropped into NoHo Senior Villas, one of my favorite projects, developed with PATH and Clifford Beers Housing for seniors at risk for homelessness. I cajoled my way into the locked building and was able to roam. I was riding up the elevator with a resident and I asked her how she liked living there. She said she loved it, and was able to tell me a few specific things she loved about it – the outdoor spaces being one of them. When I told her I was the architect, she teared up, thanked me, and told me how living there changed her life. That was a moment of true satisfaction with my work.

John joined the KFA team in 1999 and has enjoyed the opportunity to be involved in both LA and KFA’s continuing growth and evolution. John has focused on the full range of multi-family housing types including adaptive reuse projects, hotels, affordable family and senior housing, and market-rate condominiums and apartments. He enjoys working with developers and communities throughout the design process to find the project that best fits each site and meets client goals. John is also an active volunteer in his South LA neighborhood, helping out with planning and historic preservation issues. As time permits, he spends vacations with Habitat for Humanity building homes in India and Sri Lanka.