Fellow Profile
Theresa Hwang
“We need to recognize that shelter, or simply housing, is not enough to shift the system that creates low-income and poverty concentrated areas. By using the SRHT model of incorporating social services within the housing there is greater impact and a more holistic approach to meeting the needs, and changing the situation, of homeless people.”
— Theresa Hwang
Fellowship Host:
Skid Row Housing Trust
Los Angeles, Calif.
For Theresa Hwang, thoughtful design is not reserved for members of the loftier socio-economic echelons. Her philosophy embraces the everyday and every one. That ability to find beauty even in unlikely environments puts her in accord with her Rose Fellowship host Skid Row Housing Trust (SRHT).
“Because SRHT places an importance on high design,” explains Theresa, “it brings a sense of dignity and pride to the residents who previously had no safe place to lay their heads. Rather than create plain, cookie-cutter housing, SRHT partners with both emerging and well established architects to bring beauty and positive attention to a part of the city that desperately needs it.”
Theresa also balanced high ideals with hands-on practicality during her education. With a Master of Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where she received an Unsung Heroes award for founding and developing a semester-long architecture and urban design studio for urban youth. Theresa holds an undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering and Art History from Johns Hopkins University.
One of her first challenges with SRHT will be the Star Apartments. The mixed-use, commercial-residential, development is a first for SRHT. The project extends the impact of the Trust’s supportive housing by drawing neighbors to its new commercial services, while continuing to serve the homeless. “This,” Theresa points out, “provides an opportunity to create areas of contact and inclusion between the homeless and ‘typical’ residents of downtown LA. This fosters integration and socialization, and begins to remove the stigmas of homelessness and poverty.”
The opportunity she has to expand her own horizons is equally exciting for Theresa. “Along with being a part of creating and designing new categories of housing, I will learn the entire process of the delivery of affordable and supportive housing.” That enthusiasm will return dividends to Theresa, her host and the communities they serve.
“Because SRHT places an importance on high design,” explains Theresa, “it brings a sense of dignity and pride to the residents who previously had no safe place to lay their heads. Rather than create plain, cookie-cutter housing, SRHT partners with both emerging and well established architects to bring beauty and positive attention to a part of the city that desperately needs it.”
Theresa also balanced high ideals with hands-on practicality during her education. With a Master of Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where she received an Unsung Heroes award for founding and developing a semester-long architecture and urban design studio for urban youth. Theresa holds an undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering and Art History from Johns Hopkins University.
One of her first challenges with SRHT will be the Star Apartments. The mixed-use, commercial-residential, development is a first for SRHT. The project extends the impact of the Trust’s supportive housing by drawing neighbors to its new commercial services, while continuing to serve the homeless. “This,” Theresa points out, “provides an opportunity to create areas of contact and inclusion between the homeless and ‘typical’ residents of downtown LA. This fosters integration and socialization, and begins to remove the stigmas of homelessness and poverty.”
The opportunity she has to expand her own horizons is equally exciting for Theresa. “Along with being a part of creating and designing new categories of housing, I will learn the entire process of the delivery of affordable and supportive housing.” That enthusiasm will return dividends to Theresa, her host and the communities they serve.
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Theresa Hwang
