[img]1530|right|David Voncannon||no_popup[/img]Handsome Tilden Terrace not only boasts a satisfying lilt to its name, the three-story affordable housing complex (with small retail on the ground floor) just west of the King Fahad Mosque is the year’s most glittering enrichment of the Culver City landscape.
The activist David Voncannon, 14-year resident of the adjacent Tellefson Park neighborhood, has been a huge supporter of the project since it was a twinkle in the builder’s eye 2½ years ago.
Twenty-three of the 32 units are occupied, and the remaining units are expected to be assigned before the end of September.
“I supported the Tilden Terrace project for several reasons,” said Mr. Voncannon. “First, Pleasantview (a supposed shelter for three decades that previously occupied the property at Tilden and Washington Boulevard) was anything but pleasant. It was nothing more than a human dumping ground. The residents there were ill-treated, underserved, clearly in desperate straits. They needed far more attention than they were getting.
“In addition to the residents, the physical plant had deteriorated to the point it was falling apart, unfit for habitation.
“To have the city buy the three properties, merge them into one and facilitate construction of a modern, new affordable housing facility is a tremendous benefit to the neighborhood and to the city,” Mr. Voncannon said.
“It is the first affordable housing project to be completed in Culver City in over a decade.”
How has completion of Tilden Terrace last spring altered perception of your neighborhood?
“There are several aspects to that,” said Mr. Voncannon.
“The neighborhood itself was scared of this project. When it was first broached to the neighborhood 2 ½ years ago, the initial design presented to us was a block. It looked like a cinderblock building that had no features. It was presented as a white building, steel and glass, ultra-modern. Contemporary ugly with no distinguishing features.
“The community said ‘absolutely not. We will not accept it. It fits with nothing.
“That began a true collaboration among residents of the neighborhood, Culver City, the owner of the building, the architects and the builder.
“The building morphed dramatically from this ugly block to what today is very attractive, still contemporary in nature, subterranean parking, 32 apartments and 10,700 square feet of retail space.”
