Project Description

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ACE/121

Address: 121 North Kenwood St., Glendale, CA 91206
Phone Number: (818) 547-5789
Year Completed: 2017
Type: Family | Units: 70
Management: WSH Management, Inc.
Property website: ace121glendale.com

Partner/Lenders:

  • Western Community Housing, Inc.
  • City of Glendale Housing Authority
  • California Tax Credit Allocation Committee (CTCAC)

Meta’s artist communities are built to improve the living conditions and creative opportunities of low-income working artists and their families, thereby furthering their artistic practices and supporting the creative economy.

Meta’s artist communities:

  • Provide long-term affordable housing with rent restrictions in place for 55 years;
  • Create a peer-to-peer learning environment among the artists, who are qualified and selected through an inclusive outreach, education and intake process that links artists to affordable housing;
  •  Include free spaces for tenants to create, practice, perform, and exhibit.

ACE/121 resulted from the City of Glendale Arts & Culture and Planning Commissions’ vision for a defined Downtown Art & Entertainment District anchored by the historic Alex Theatre, Central Library, Museum of Neon Art, and Antaeus Theatre Company. While designating an “arts district” often gentrifies neighborhoods and drives out artists, ACE/121 ensures that artists can stay in place.

A key to Meta Housing’s success in reaching artists (who accounted for 800 of the roughly 5000 applicants), was a series of workshops designed to teach artists how to apply for affordable housing. ACE/121’s waiting list is closed.

Designed by Studio One Eleven, the community features an 800-square foot, tenant-run art gallery, a visual arts room, two music rooms, a dance studio, computer lab, tutoring area, and tot lot. Another notable amenity is a fully equipped, ADA-accessible woodshop with a jointer, thickness planer, tablesaw, oscillating belt sander, bandsaw, drill press, box joint jig, and random orbital sander.

In 16 months, ACE/121’s Gallery has hosted 12 exhibits plus talks and performances (7 by tenants and 5 by community collectives) and dozens of workshops for outside arts organizations. Exhibits topics have included Arts Education, Gay Pride, Armenian Futurists, Earth Day, Feminism, and new works by local artists. Attendance has varied from 40 to 300+ serving conservatively 1,500-2,000 people total. ACE is the backdrop of dozens of photographs and short films produced by local talent from within and outside the building and formal and social media reports.