Skid Row's Newest Apartment Complex

Yesterday saw the grand opening of the James M. Wood apartments on 400 E. Fifth Street, reports the Downtown News. The $14.5 million, 53-unit complex is a project of the SRO Housing Corporation, a group that builds and finds affordable housing for the chronically homeless. The residents—which will include 31 people with severe mental illness—will have access to on site case management and a community room. DN notes that architect Jim Bunnell was at yesterday's ribbon-cutting, and that he "helped transform the building from a run down graffiti marked eyesore into a modern eye-catching home for needy residents." To us, it still looks mighty grim, but God knows the budget had to have been tight. Bunnell's company, dbbarchitects, has worked on quite a few projects in the Valley and Downtown. [Downtown News]