Living in Los Angeles has always been equated with the suburban single-family home with a big backyard. But for decades, L.A. has also been the consummate laboratory for exceptional experiments in multifamily housing – dwellings centered on shared open space, from the central courtyard to the rooftop garden. In Common Ground: Multifamily Housing in Los Angeles, author Frances Anderton explores that fascinating history- from the bungalow courts and apartment-hotels of the 1910s, through the development of garden apartments, to contemporary mid-rise “urban villages” and co-living spaces.

Common Ground features the work of the Zwebells, R.M. Schindler, Richard Neutra, John Lautner, Ralph Vaughn, Koning Eizenberg, Sean Knibb, Michael Maltzan, Brooks + Scarpa, Lorcan O’Herlihy, Shin Shin, and many more. In a time of housing crisis, Frances Anderton makes the case that well-designed, equitable, connected living is tomorrow’s American dream.