In “Common Ground,” Ms. Anderton, 60, makes the point that while Los Angeles may seem like a sprawling breeding ground of American dream houses set in gardens, it has an equally compelling history of shared real estate that continues to this day. Perpetual sunshine has allowed the city’s multifamily housing to be opened to courtyards and parks and festooned with exterior staircases and balconies, breaking the stolid blocks of traditional apartment houses and fostering social connections. As contemporary architects and developers work to relieve Los Angeles of its vicious housing scarcity — almost 42,000 people in the city are currently unhoused — “Common Ground” shows examples of affordable multifamily buildings that look like anything but. Real estate development is never a walk in the park, but because some relief from the city’s draconian restrictions is granted to creators of affordable housing, this area has attracted design innovators working with progressive developers who are committed to righting decades of inequities created by exclusionary housing policies. For this reason, many of the projects that “Common Ground” highlights make the most out of the least: those with oddly shaped lots, peripheral locations and components produced in factories.

---