Social Agenda Meets Elegance On Maltzan’s Skid Row

Even as he designs a gargantuan glass house for Michael Ovitz, architect Michael Maltzan is remaking bits of Los Angeles’ skid row — not for gentrifying interlopers but for the homeless people who live there. “Here architecture is used as a tool not only for aesthetic upliftment, but also to forge both a strong sense of community and a visual presence for the poor in a city that often seems to have forgotten them.”