In 1995, a local San Diego development agency requested proposals to develop an entire block in the Little Italy district of the city. It wanted to avoid the big apartment projects typical to most inner city projects built by large developers and, instead, sought to promote a series of smaller, independent projects as a way of working with the spirit and scale of the original land use. A group of local architects formed the Little Italy Neighbourhood Developers (LIND) and made a proposal to develop the block in a way that allowed each architect to design a smaller, individual part. The block was to be divided into several different-sized sites with shared gardens and off-street parking on the interior of the block. Notable are the absence of underground parking, the combination of live/work studio spaces with more-or-less typical apartments, the spatial complexity of the interiors, and the affordability of the final product.

This project began with a proposal by the local authority, which then a combined architect/developer/builder group took forward, gave it shape, and delivered it. It shows how initiatives can emerge not just from the real estate market, but still rely on and use the market in order to be realised. A ‘community of interest’ formed around this development, based around novel ideas about specification, arrangement, and type, which the market on its own would not have found. The relationships developed through this process help to mediate the inevitable compromises needed over the management and use of the shared spaces throughout the block.