The Simone was a seed for our interest in alternatives for affordable housing. There were 10,000 homeless on the streets of LA in 1989, and the CEO of the ARCO oil company, a billionaire developer, and many other LA business leaders decided that they would come up with a 10 year plan, 1000 new beds per year, and get close to solving the homeless problem in downtown LA. The Simone Hotel was the pilot project.

FOUR years later the Simone was completed, and that was the last of it, only 110 beds completed, leaving 9,890 homeless individuals sleeping on the streets.

Even with an oil company and billionaires, a plan to house a large number of homeless was stymied. Granted, it was not all because of construction type, but it begs for another solution.

The Simone Hotel won a national AIA design award in 1993, Koning Eizenberg was the architect and Stuart Emmons designed it when he was employed at Koning Eizenberg. It has 110 rooms, 2 common rooms, laundry and other support rooms. It is located on San Julian Street in Los Angeles.