In Los Angeles, Senior Housing Is Keeping One Neighborhood Alive

History is repeating itself at the Little Tokyo Towers, a nonprofit affordable senior apartment building in Downtown Los Angeles. The project has its origins in the 1970s, when the Little Tokyo neighborhood endured significant redevelopment due to the expansion of the nearby Civic Center and local street widening projects. Meanwhile, many seniors, who were often first-generation immigrants, lived in decaying hotels slated for demolition. Because of the displacement underway and the poor quality of housing for seniors, a group of local charitable organizations—the Japanese American Citizens League, the Southern California Gardeners Federation, the Southern California Christian Federation, and the Los Angeles Buddhist Church Federation—banded together to create a place so their elders could remain in the neighborhood, and the development was born.

Now, another wave of displacement threatens the long-standing roots of Japanese Americans in the enclave. Downtown has become a more popular place to live for Angelenos, and development encroaches on Little Tokyo. Many businesses have shuttered, and evictions are underway yet again. In 2024, the National Trust for Historic Preservation included Little Tokyo on its list of the 11 most endangered historic places in the United States. Long-standing community groups believe that affordable housing is critical for maintaining the neighborhood’s identity.

The towers are responding with a $50 million rehabilitation, including seismic retrofits, new elevators, energy-efficiency upgrades, a cool roof, renovations to the 301 apartments on-site, and a complete overhaul of the 7,000-square-foot ground-floor communal spaces. These renovations extend the cultural preservation work at the heart of the development. "It is very important to the board to make sure that this building is around in perpetuity," says Lisa Arakaki, a member of the Little Tokyo Towers board.

Initially, the building’s communal spaces—which include the cafeteria for Little Tokyo Senior Nutrition Services, a nonprofit that serves low-cost meals to seniors, a ping-pong room, a craft area, a music room, a library, and a computer room—weren’t part of the rehabilitation project. However, the board thought that the building should represent its history and context more visibly, find a way to coax residents out of their rooms, and make them feel more at home throughout the space. So the 7,000-square-foot communal spaces on the ground floor became an important focus.

To design them, Lisa enlisted the firm OWIU, whose offices are not far from the towers. After firm founders Joel Wong and Amanda Gunawan came to the building, they felt a neighborly sense of duty to take on the renovation. "We felt very drawn to helping them and a community aspect played a part," Wong says.

Senior living facilities usually skew institutional, and Wong and Gunawan wanted to extend warmth instead, looking to the community within the building, many of whom are Japanese American, and the surrounding neighborhood for inspiration. Keeping with the theme of hospitality, OWIU referenced Japanese ryokan—small, traditional inns found in the countryside—in its design for the space. With oak carpentry, shoji screens, and dark quartz counters, the rooms are almost spa-like.