BOSTON — After years of living on the street and crashing on friends’ couches, Quantavia Smith was given the keys to a Los Angeles studio apartment that came with an important perk — easy access to public transit.

The 38-year-old feels like she went from a life where “no one cares” to one where she has a safe place. And the metro station the apartment complex was literally built upon is a lifeline as she searches for work without a car.

“It is more a sense of relief, a sense of independence,” said Smith, who moved into the unit in July. She receives some government assistance and pays 30 percent of her income for rent — just $19 a month for an efficiency apartment with a full-market value of $2,000.

“Having your own space, you feel like you can do anything,” she said.

Metro areas from Los Angeles to Boston have taken the lead in tying new housing developments to public transit, often teaming up with developers to streamline the permitting process and passing policies that promote developments that include a greater number of units.

Building housing near public transit helps energize neglected neighborhoods and provide affordability, city officials say, while ensuring a steady stream of riders for transit systems and cutting greenhouse gas emissions by reducing the number of cars on the road.

“Transit-oriented development should be one of, if not the biggest solution that we’re looking at for housing,” said Urban Institute Land Use Lab research director Yonah Freemark, who has written extensively on the topic. “It takes advantage of all of this money we’ve spent on transportation infrastructure. If you build the projects and don’t build anything around the areas near them, then it’s kind of like money thrown down the drain.”

The Santa Monica and Vermont Apartments, where Smith lives, is part of an ambitious plan by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority to build 10,000 housing units near transit sites by 2031 — offering developers land discounts in exchange for affordable housing development and other community benefits.

In Washington, D.C., the transit authority since 2022 has completed eight projects that provided nearly 1,500 apartments and a million square feet of office space. About half were in partnership with Amazon, which committed $3.6 billion in low-cost loans and grants for affordable housing projects in Washington, as well as Nashville, Tennessee, and the Puget Sound area in Washington state. Almost all are within a half-mile of public transit.

“Big cities face the greatest challenges when it comes to traffic congestion and high housing costs,” Freemark said. “Building new homes near transit helps address both problems by encouraging people to take transit while increasing housing supply.”

In Boston, the Pok Oi Residents in Chinatown is a 10-minute walk to the subway and a half-dozen bus stops. That’s a draw for Bernie Hernandez, who moved his family there from a Connecticut suburb after his daughter was accepted into a Boston university.

“The big difference is commuting; you don’t need a car,” said Hernandez, who said he can walk to the grocery story and pharmacy. His 17-year-old daughter takes the subway to school. Now, his car mostly sits idle, saving him money on gas and time spent in traffic.

“You get to go to different places very quickly,” Hernandez said. “Everything is convenient.”

States across the country are passing laws targeting restrictive zoning regulations that for decades prohibited multifamily construction and contributed to housing shortages.

Last month, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a state law allowing taller apartment buildings on land owned by transit agencies and near bus, train and subway lines.

“Building more homes in our most sustainable locations is the key to tackling the affordability crisis and locking in California’s success for many years to come,” said state Sen. Scott Wiener, who authored the bill.

California joins Colorado, which requires cities to allow an average of 40 housing units per acre within a quarter-mile of transit, and Utah, which mandates about 50 units per acre. In Washington, the governor this year signed a bill allowing taller housing developments in mixed-use commercial zones near transit.

“We want to ensure that there are mixed-income, walkable, vibrant homes all around those transit investments and that people have the option of using cars less to improve the environmental health of our communities,” said Rep. Julia Reed, who authored the Washington bill. “It’s about giving people the opportunity to drive less and live more.”

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey has made housing a priority. Among her most potent tools is a 2021 law that requires 177 towns or communities nearby to create zoning districts allowing multifamily development. The state provided nearly $8 million to more than 150 communities to help create these zones and threatened to cut funding for those that don’t. More than 6,000 housing units are in development as a result.

“You put housing nearby public transit (and) it’s great for people,” Healey said. “They can literally get up, leave their home, walk to a commuter rail and get to work.”

Among the first to comply was Lexington, which has approved 10 projects, including a $115 million complex with 187 housing units and retail space.

Walking past earth-moving equipment and dump trucks at the construction site earlier this year, project manager Quinlan Locke said: “This is a landscape yard. It’s commercial. It’s meant for trucking. Two years from now, it’s going to be meant for people who live here, work here and play here. This is going to become someone’s home.”

Some advocates argue the lofty goals of transit-oriented housing are falling short due to fierce local resistance and lack of funding and support at the federal and state levels.

Higher mortgage interest rates, more government red tape, rising construction costs and lack of investment at transit stations also have contributed to a troubling trend — nine times more housing units built far from public transit versus near it in the past two decades, according to a 2023 Urban Institute study.

In Massachusetts, 19 communities still haven’t created new zones. Some unsuccessfully sued the state to halt the law, while residents rejected new zones in others. Lexington eventually shrank its zone from 227 acres to 90 acres after residents complained.

“If we allow the state to come in and dictate how we zone, what else are they going to come in and dictate?” said Anthony Renzoni, a selectman from the town of Holden, which sued the state and is drawing up a new zoning map after residents rejected the first one.

In Los Angeles, the six-story complex where Smith lives in East Hollywood is home to 300 new residents since opening in February. The area has gained a Filipino grocery and a medical clinic. A farmers market is set to open early next year.

Half of the building’s 187 units are reserved for formerly homeless residents like Smith, who had been living in a rundown motel via a voucher and before that on the street. She’s been assigned a case worker and is getting help with basic life skills, budgeting and finding work.

Equally important: Smith, who can’t afford a car, doesn’t need one.

“I’m very, very fortunate to be somewhere where the transit takes me where I want to go,” she said. “Where I want to go is not that far.”

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For more than 40 years, LRS Architects has blended experience with innovation, delivering designs that shape communities and advance sustainable development. Based in Portland, the firm specializes in commercial, residential, and civic architecture, earning a reputation for tackling complex projects with creative solutions.

A standout example of LRS’s work is Slabtown Square, a key development in Portland’s Con-Way master plan. Transforming a former industrial site into a dynamic mixed-use neighborhood, the project features a public plaza and a festival street, demonstrating the firm’s ability to integrate community-oriented design into urban redevelopment.

LRS is also a leader in mass timber construction, adaptive reuse, and transit-oriented development, incorporating environmentally responsible practices into each project. The firm’s team-driven approach ensures that every design reflects both technical expertise and a deep understanding of how people interact with the built environment.

As an employee-owned firm, LRS fosters mentorship and collaboration, empowering emerging architects to contribute ideas and grow within the profession. This investment in talent has helped the firm remain at the forefront of the industry, continuously evolving to meet new challenges.
LRS Architects goes beyond designing buildings – it creates spaces that serve communities today while anticipating the needs of tomorrow.

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The Hollywood Transit Center in Northeast Portland is being reimagined. The Portland Design Commission on Thursday unanimously approved plans for Hollywood HUB Housing, a new 12-story, 120-foot-tall building with 224 affordable units.

As part of the project, a new ramp for pedestrians and cyclists will be added to the end of the Interstate 84 pedestrian bridge. Also, a vacated portion of Northeast 42nd Avenue, bordering Halsey Street, between the building and businesses, will be turned into a “paseo” with new landscaped walkways and seating areas. The designs of those public areas are being led by Mayer/Reed.

Hollywood HUB Housing is the first proposal under TriMet‘s Transit-Oriented Development Guidelines. The agency owns the site, but BRIDGE Housing is developing the building, which was designed by Holst Architecture. Some apartments will be for people who earn up to 30 percent of area median income (AMI) and the rest will be for people who earn up to 60 percent of AMI. Approximately 57 percent of units will have either two or three bedrooms.

Hollywood HUB Housing “will provide safe and high-quality housing for … low-income families who have historically been priced out of this highly amenitized urban area of Hollywood,” said Sarah Schubert, director of real estate development for BRIDGE Housing.

Before gaining the Design Commission’s approval, the development team had to contend with a Difficult Development Area boundary that bisected the site and led to a less-than-ideal design in which the building was shoehorned in. That proposal, during a design advice hearing, drew strong criticism from commissioners who called it “unsafe” and liable to create a “hostile” pedestrian environment.

The problem for the development team was that it would lose an associated 30 percent boost in tax credits – about $10.2 million – if the design had to deviate from the confined site plan.

But prior to Thursday’s hearing, an agreement was reached between the Internal Revenue Service, Oregon Housing and Community Services (OHCS) and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that will allow the team to build on both sides of the DDA boundary and for the tax credit to carry over.

That was an unprecedented administrative interpretation to be granted, according to the American Bar Association, BRIDGE Housing Executive Vice President Kurt Creager said during Thursday’s hearing.

With the boundary dilemma solved, the design team was able to utilize the site properly, Holst Architecture senior associate Dustin Furseth said.

The 233,000-square-foot, irregularly shaped structure will stand out on all sides and feature a kinetic window pattern on the exterior, where every other level is the same, with accent panels in four shades of green lining the insides of the windows.

“I really like the form of building,” Commissioner Chandra Robinson said. “I think that it’s dynamic, and it needs to be – because the context of Hollywood in that area is really, very, very visible. You can see it at different speeds from different angles.”

One modification was approved: a reduction of the minimum landscaped area from 15 percent to 8 percent. Near a building with such density (a floor area ratio of 7:1), a large amount of green space would be trampled because there wouldn’t be enough for so many people, Design Commission Chairman Brian McCarter said.

Mayer/Reed is providing landscape architecture as a member of Holst Architecture’s housing team and also providing landscape architecture, urban design and experiential graphic design as a member of David Evans and Associates’ team.

The Bureau of Development Services in March approved the design of the paseo. It will include a new tribute to the victims of the May 2017 attack on a MAX light-rail train; the existing one will be removed to allow construction to take place. The development team collaborated with the mural’s artist to find a way to bring the words, colors, and imagery from the community-based artwork into the new design.

“I think back to before Interstate 84 was ever built in Hollywood, and Laurelhurst used to thread together and connect together,” McCarter said. “The freeway just wiped out all of that connection, and I think for the last 70 years, the south side of Hollywood has really been kind of a forgotten, fragmented edge with kind of some throwaway parcels left over after the freeway acquired all their land. And this is a super strong project to reestablish … some north-south depth to the Hollywood District.”

Late last year, Raimore Construction was selected as the general contractor for the paseo portion (infrastructure improvements) of the project.

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TriMet‘s board of directors has selected Raimore Construction as the general contractor for the Hollywood Transit Center infrastructure improvement project.

The transit center, between Northeast Halsey Street and Interstate 84, is being reimagined. The largest piece will be HollywoodHUB – a 12-story, 234-unit affordable housing building that is being developed by nonprofit BRIDGE Housing for the site’s west side. Plans for the 120-foot-tall building are still in the design phase, according to a TriMet spokesperson. The land use review process is expected to start next spring.

The addition of the building will lead to relocation of bus stops to Halsey Street. A vacated portion of Northeast 42nd Avenue, immediately east of the new building, will become a public plaza. Also, the intersection of Halsey Street and 42nd Avenue will be redesigned as a ‘T’ shape.

A new landscaped walkway as well as redesigned pedestrian and bicyclist connections are planned too. The walkway will lead to a new ADA-accessible ramp and stair structure that links to MAX light-rail platforms.

The upgrade of the ramp and stair structure will require removal of the temporary tribute mural, according to the HollywoodHUB website. “The May 2017 tragedy will inform the design ethos and expression of the overall site to create an inclusive public space that fosters a sense of belonging,” the website states.

Raimore Construction’s scope of work will involve the project’s infrastructure portion. It will entail selective demolition of the existing stair and ramp structure, plaza construction, and integration of a new traction power substation (for light-rail operations) within the new stair and ramp structure.

TriMet’s initial contract with Raimore for preconstruction is $136,520; another contract will follow. The contract for the housing portion will be separate.

In addition to TriMet and BRIDGE Housing, project team members include Holst Architecture and Hacienda CDC.

A construction start date is still to be determined. Public access and use of the pedestrian bridge will be available throughout construction and maintenance activities.

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