TCA Architects

Whisman at The Sevens

tcaeditor - Dec 03, 2025

Located in the heart of the Bay Area’s vibrant tech and creative corridor, Whisman at The Sevens delivers 144 thoughtfully designed moderate- and low-income workforce housing units dedicated to Whisman School District teachers and staff who struggle to find affordable homes locally. As Architect of Record, TCA refined and advanced the previously entitled design, updating plans to align with current client programming needs and evolving City guidelines. The architectural expression emphasizes a balanced interplay of vertical and horizontal elements, with massing that steps down to three and four stories to respect the surrounding neighborhood scale and seamlessly integrate the community into its residential context.

Sevens

tcaeditor - Nov 27, 2025

Situated on 9.8 acres in Mountain View, California, Sevens is a 716-unit, three-building multifamily “campus-like” community, featuring 572 market-rate residences and 144 affordable workforce housing units dedicated to the Mountain View Whisman School District’s employees and teachers. The Green Point Platinum-rated development brings people together through thoughtful amenity spaces designed for connection, creativity, and everyday convenience. Landscaped courtyards and pedestrian paseos link a variety of shared and dedicated amenities (including a 3,300 SF ground-floor teacher space) to support a balanced lifestyle. Parking is discreetly integrated into the site through a shared structure, minimizing visual impact while maintaining convenience for residents and visitors. Serving as Architect of Record, TCA advanced the previously entitled design, refining plans to meet updated client programming as well as City guidelines.

Agate at Palm Desert

tcaeditor - Oct 29, 2025

Agate at Palm Desert is a garden style 3-story walk-up affordable housing project. 150 units are provided within 8 buildings of two types 12-plex and 23-plex. Each building includes ground floor units with generous covered private patios and the upper levels of central stairways. In addition, a central laundry facility is provided on the ground floor of building #4 to serve the community. The site is entered from Gerald Ford Drive through a vehicular entry with desert landscaping and enhanced paving. Site visitors are greeted with the standalone recreation building containing the leasing offices, mailroom, maintenance area, resident lounge, and resident services. Continuing from the rec building, the resident parking is provided on a continuous looped road, providing easy access to the apartment buildings and creating a buffer zone from the surrounding single family communities and the 10 freeway. The project proposes a parking ratio of 1.8 stalls/unit for a total of 270 parking stalls. Of the provided parking, 150 spaces are provided at carports.

6TH STREET PLACE

tcaeditor - Oct 14, 2024

6th Street Place addresses the widespread homeless population of downtown Los Angeles. 6th Street Place uses modular construction, and services will be provided by The People Concern, a case management and advocacy organization with deep ties to the Skid Row community. The concept of community is at the core of the project’s design. Each pre-fabricated module is articulated individually on the façade, giving identity to the resident within it. Together, the modules form a cohesive building, just as a collection of individuals make a complete community. Not only does 6th Street Place provide much needed housing, but a strong sense of community through art and architecture. Built in a factory and assembled on site, modular design is environmentally friendly by reducing construction waste and impacts to the community.

Burbank Boulevard Senior Housing

tcaeditor - Oct 04, 2024

TCA redesigned Burbank Boulevard Senior Housing from an existing entitlement. The project provides much needed affordable housing to senior citizens. Small unit sizes maximize the capacity of the project, thereby providing a higher rate of housing. The compact units provide accommodation for single senior occupants, complete with individual kitchen and bathing facilities. Additional common amenity spaces provide recreational uses for the residents. Furthermore, laundry facility along with an office space is provided at every level to accommodate the residents of said level. The site is surrounded by low density multi-family housing to the East, West and North, and single family homes share the rear yard boundary to the South. The proposed setback and street dedication places the new building consistently along the prevailing setback line along Burbank Boulevard. Within walking distance are neighborhood amenities, such as a supermarket, a pharmacy, a bank, and restaurants. Public transportation by way of bus lines run along Burbank Boulevard and Van Nuys Boulevard. The project complies with all applicable access standards.

Veterans Village at San Antonio Drive

tcaeditor - Oct 01, 2024

Veterans Villas at San Antonio Drive provides much needed housing for 59 families in a combination of 1 bedroom, 2 bedroom, and 3 bedroom units. 20 of the units are set aside for homeless veterans and their families solely. In addition, there is a unit strictly dedicated for an on-site property manager. Combination of indoor and outdoor community areas are provided for the residents, including play areas for children of various ages. The large outdoor courtyard is designed adjacent to the indoor community room and laundry room to provide supervision of the children. On site offices are located on the ground floor for operating staff, dedicating their time to help the veterans and their families. The site is surrounded by single family homes to the west and south of the project. The taller portion of the building is strategically located to respect the privacy of these neighboring single family homes. The project complies with all applicable accessible standards.

Evermont

tcaeditor - May 16, 2024

Evermont is a TOD mixed use development, with 118 family affordable units, and 62 homeless supportive senior units, above 50,000 sf of ground level retail and restaurants, along with a metro on-site job training office, and residential health services. The project is located near transit for ease of commute, and in a neighborhood with a strong need for housing in South Los Angeles. The multi-generation living, along with community service retail and restaurants, help to create a vibrant and safe community within the neighborhood. At the ground level, the retail and restaurants fronts onto a public pedestrian plaza, which becomes an active community gathering space for the neighborhood. The plaza has a much wider presence along Vermont Ave assisting with articulating the long urban edge while maintaining connection to the boarding school, the 6,000 SF restaurant fronting the garage and the retail anchor. Evermont’s façade is planar with strategic ‘carve-outs’ to allow for light into interior courtyards and provide an opportunity for a material and massing break. The adjacent parking structure will be 5 stories in height to allow for retail/grocer parking, school parking as well as Metro facility parking.

LA PLACITA CINCO

tcaeditor - Sep 15, 2023

La Placita Cinco repurposes the prototypical auto-oriented strip mall into a neighborhood-serving, inclusive community consisting of family-oriented affordable homes, outdoor amenities, and reinvigorated commercial center. The site, formerly called Tiny Time Plaza is a 2.25-acre commercial property situated between a residential neighborhood to the north and east, and industrial and commercial uses to the south and west. The 50 year old retail center consists of 2 single-story commercial buildings and a former gas station. The asphalt surface area encompassed over two thirds of the property with ill defined edges that blended into the pedestrian walkways in front of the building storefronts and adjacent public sidewalks. “La Placita Cinco” replaces the former gas station and portion of the parking lot, encompassing a third of the overall property with a 3-4 story mixed-use building consisting of 50 two-, three-, and four-bedroom apartment homes with ground floor community space.

The massing of the building provides a strong urban edge along the Fifth Street commercial corridor, while responding to the Hawley Street residential connector by opening its courtyard and stepping down the building height. The two commercial buildings and all their tenants remained, and were integrated into a reimagined site plan that is anchored by the three buildings. The commercial buildings were reinvigorated by the complete transformation of the building facades with new architecture, signage, and enhanced pedestrian [ADA] access. The remaining surface parking was redesigned to support active use. Wide, landscaped plazas were added along the retail facades, allowing the businesses to extend their operations outdoors, including outdoor dining, and to support pop-up programming such as farmer’s markets and special events. Between the two retail buildings, a mini park was added to accommodate a variety of uses, from fitness programs and concerts, to a welcoming place to meet a friend or let children play while running errands.

Mercy House is providing supportive services for residents and neighbors. The ground floor space of the housing was designed to be available as a resource for community nonprofit organizations to host events. There are spaces that could be used for small meetings (job interviews, counseling, etc.) and larger ones such as neighborhood association meetings, art classes, training sessions, etc.

The project leveraged traditional and innovative funding sources that are unique to rehabilitating a blighted commercial property with affordable housing. In its final form La Placita Cinco is supported through a 9% tax credit award, and cooperative lender and investor partners who worked diligently to find solutions that supported both the new construction of affordable residential units with the plaza renovations. Making everything possible was the support from the City of Santa Ana, who approved not only all the necessary entitlements, but also $6 million in subordinated funding to ensure the financial feasibility of the project.

Design Architect: City Fabrick

Placentia Veterans Village

tcaeditor - Aug 25, 2023

The Placentia Veterans Village, offers 50 furnished apartment homes to low-income and disabled veterans residing in Orange County, including a designated manager’s unit. These veterans have access to a range of on-site services, including comprehensive, individualized case management and service coordination to connect with education, employment, healthcare, benefits assistance, legal assistance, and family reunification services.

Located on 3.66 acres of unimproved land in an industrial/commercial corridor of Placentia, the development enhances the quality of life in the area while helping to meet the need for affordable housing for veterans.

The Placentia Veterans Village apartment project is designed in a traditional Craftsman style using simple expressive forms and articulated massing to create an environment that is both comfortable and familiar. The one and two bedroom residences offer amenities such as indoor and outdoor community spaces, elevators, private terraces and laundry rooms. The project also provides a private community garden along with ample green space for the residences. The development is designed to achieve LEED Gold certification, utilizing energy efficient design principles and building materials.

Funding for the project comes from a variety of sources, including a federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit, California Proposition 41, a conventional mortgage (relying on a HUD VASH subsidy), Project Based HUD VASH and/or Project Based Section 8 – Orange County Housing Authority, and a pending City of Placentia Development Impact Fee Deferral.

5001 73rd Street

tcaeditor - Aug 07, 2023

5001 73rd Street is an affordable project for low-income families and individuals with annual incomes up to 60% of the San Diego County median income, with one-fourth of the apartments set aside as permanent supportive housing for homeless families and individuals. The site provides an opportunity to serve as an anchor for the neighborhood, providing a buffer between a busy street, car dealership, and single-family neighborhood. The design draws inspiration from the California Coastal Modern architectural style, maintaining simple lines and refined details while blending with the existing single-family neighborhood. The building articulation and material choice follows the Central Urbanized Planned District’s design guidelines for Contemporary Style for multifamily developments. Planned amenities include a ground floor community room, office space for case management, 2 elevated courtyards, a playground, a computer lab, electric vehicle chargers, an area for bicycle storage and repairs, a laundry room, and an outdoor tot lot. Designed to be sustainable, the building would be all-electric with on-site solar panels, heat-pump water heaters and drought- tolerant landscaping.