Mixed-Use

What we do

The classic LA mixed-use building is retail or amenity at the ground plane with residential or office stacked above. Structurally that means two grids meeting at one floor: open, column-free retail frontage below and a tight, demising-wall-aligned structure above. We resolve that meeting with a concrete or steel podium that works as both transfer floor and lateral diaphragm.

Above the podium we typically detail Type V wood frame — the most cost-effective structure the code still allows for this building type — or, where the program asks for it, Type III construction. We coordinate the demising-wall layout with the architect so that shearwall locations align with something that already needs to be there. That alignment is the difference between a tight plan and a plan fighting itself.

Podium design in Los Angeles has to account for the podium-over-transfer-slab dynamic that the 2019 and 2022 CBC cycles have clarified. We run those checks early and we detail the transfer carefully — particularly at discontinuous shearwalls above ground-floor openings. Getting that right in design development avoids a difficult plan check round and an even more difficult construction one.

Typical scope

• Concrete podium design with post-tensioned or conventionally reinforced transfer slabs
• Wood-frame or light-gauge residential structure over the podium
• Below-grade parking structure design and lateral earth pressure
• Ground-floor retail structural coordination — long spans, storefront support, canopy work
• Combined-use lateral analysis — podium plus upper structure
• Exterior cladding, balcony, and juliet balcony structural support
• Seismic separation at adjacent properties
• Plan-check, construction documentation, and CA services

When to engage us

As soon as the massing is tested against zoning. The podium footprint and the column grid at the retail floor are structural decisions that drive the pro forma. We price those tradeoffs in schematic.