SANTA ANA, Calif. — Before the coronavirus pandemic, Innovative Housing Opportunities’ Golden Circle project was going to be a standard dense, high-quality mixed-use office, retail, and affordable housing development in Santa Ana.
The retail and office commercial portion was going to be designed mostly with a lot of interior space and not many outdoor features. The housing units’ design was standard, and the overall development would feature some indoor and outdoor components.
What You Need To Know
- The coronavirus is forcing some architects and developers to make changes to their building designs
- Innovative Housing Opportunities and architecture firm Studio One Eleven are incorporating more outdoor spaces to be part of the $95 million, 160-unit mixed-use Golden Circle project in Santa Ana
- With more people working from home, some are redesigning their home to have office space
- The Golden Circle project is slated to break ground in early 2022
But the coronavirus pandemic changed those plans. Innovative Housing Opportunities, a Santa Ana-based affordable housing developer, and its architect, Long Beach-based Studio One Eleven, shifted the project’s design to adapt to a post-COVID 19 world.
“What the coronavirus made us do is create more outdoor spaces,” IHO President and CEO Rochelle Mills said. “We thought we were doing good indoor and outdoor space design, but then coronavirus comes, and we realized we weren’t.”
The $95 million 160-unit development with 12,000 square feet of commercial space is currently in the entitlement stage. It is slated to break ground in early 2022 and completed the following year.
The new schematic design now features plenty of outdoor space and highlights how architects and developers are shifting their buildings’ design plans to meet a new way of living, working, and shopping.
“In a COVID and the post-COVID world, people may still feel skittish being indoors, so we had to come up with a design and design spaces with a lot of outdoor features,” Mills said.
In the past several months, state lockdowns, quarantine orders, and work-from-home mandates have changed how people live, work, dine, and shop.
Recent reports have shown living and working in a dense apartment or office environment are no longer the standard. More people are moving to the suburbs where there is more open space. Others that own homes are reconfiguring their areas to have an office. Many brick and mortar restaurants that were only indoors are offering outdoor dining. And remote work is here to stay, experts say.
“We are seeing a lot of changes, and it varies from building to building,” RIOS COO and Creative Director Jessamyn Davis said. RIOS is a Los Angeles-based design firm. “There are a lot of workplace changes. Historically, we’ve always had densely populated offices. That might not be something people are going to be comfortable with [post COVID]. Having a permanent physical desk will go away. Many people might find that they’ll only get together in an office for specific reasons and not come in every single day because they can accomplish their work from home.”
Homes have also changed, Davis said.
People are creating dedicated spaces in their home for an office.
“Homes are multifunctional now,” she said.Davis said RIOS has recently reconfigured their office headquarters in Los Angeles to adapt to the new office environment.