SURFACE TENSION
Historically a divider, the El train corridor has recently become an attractor for retail and night life – as well as housing development. El Rosé fits eleven apartments and a ground level commercial space into a 36-foot-wide, 100-foot-long through-block parcel spanning from Front to Lee Street, a narrow, overgrown alley. The gritty site context inspired a textured, layered outer shell in a mix of dark gray corrugated metal and fiber cement lap siding. A range of profiles and widths organized in a quilted pattern creating visual variety along the south-facing lot line wall where windowing was not permitted by building code. A carved exterior corridor entry off Front Street leads to a central social courtyard and lightwell, creating a porous massing with bright pink carved social spaces visible throughout the urban fabric.