Steel boxes may not seem your typical conduits for creativity. But a new housing development in Logan Heights made of up-cycled shipping containers is helping to change that narrative for some local artists.
In a part of the neighborhood that used to be filled primarily with junkyards, these corrugated metal buildings are more than recycled steel — they represent a reimagined community vision.
Stacked like colorful LEGOs, the shipping containers form Monarch Studios, a three-story, 21-unit apartment building that also offers affordable housing for local artists as part of its artists in residence project.
Two units so far have been transformed into full-time artist housing, and a third is gearing up to become a temporary home to rotating artists on a short-term basis. Project officials plan to keep expanding artist units in the complex as funding opportunities allow.
Managed by the real estate investment firm CoPlace, the housing complex and adjacent property aim to become a community hub for artists in Logan Heights, aimed at bringing the community together in celebration of their culture and craft, according to officials.
Since the 2021 opening of the Soap Factory, a mixed-use event center and actual soap factory, the property has continued to evolve and expand.
The recently completed Monarch Studios apartments overlook what is now a large courtyard dotted with diverse art installations and herb gardens. Beyond it sit a warehouse and semi-covered patio filled with vintage couches and decor.
Artist Daniel “Dentlock” Angeles spray-paints a mural at Monarch Studios in Logan Heights on Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2023.
(Kristian Carreon/For The San Diego Union-Tribune)
The interconnected areas serve as community gathering spaces, performance spaces and work spaces where educational workshops and programming give neighbors the opportunity to learn while artists showcase their skills.
CoPlace co-founders Sasha Favelukis and Marc Berkowitz say the goal was to create a space that can adapt to the community’s needs and equip them with the tools necessary to thrive.
“We want this to be the catalyst for community resilience in a changing neighborhood,” Berkowitz said. “It’s a platform to spark somebody’s feelings or thoughts to try something different, something they didn’t think was possible.”
The reimagined space at the corner of Commercial and 30th streets comes amid both gentrification and efforts to uplift the communities in Logan Heights and neighboring Barrio Logan just south of downtown San Diego.
The area is known not only for its rich mix of cultures and art but also for its community’s decades-long battle with heavy industry and freeway development.
Now local artists and community groups are working to harness the power of public art to rectify the damage and reconnect communities. Once-dilapidated buildings and overgrown alleyways are splashed with vibrant murals and art installations.
The artists in residence program aims to build on that, sponsoring resident artists to create community-based programming and outreach as well as public art installations.
Muralists Monty Montgomery and German Corrales both moved into Monarch Studios late last year.
Montgomery, who travels the U.S. painting murals, had visited San Diego in June to paint a three-story piece on the side of his soon-to-be home, Monarch Studios. And last month, he curated an art exhibition with over 50 paintings from two dozen artists at the Soap Factory.
Corrales has been part of various Chicano Park murals, including the historic landmark’s largest — a mural that pays tribute to Anastasio Hernández Rojas, who died in Border Patrol custody in 2010.
Artist German Corrales, 38, poses inside his unit at Monarch Studios in Logan Heights as part of the artists in residence program on Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2023.
(Kristian Carreon/For The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Being part of the artists in residence program has helped him travel back and forth to Tijuana to share his talents by teaching art classes to at-risk youth and organize mural projects at elementary schools in Barrio Logan and Sherman Heights.
Corrales says art and dance allows youth to find their voice. “Kids just need somebody to listen,” he said. “They want to belong, they want to figure themselves out, and that’s what we can do here, is show the kids that there’s a way and bring out the greatness that’s inside of them.”
The Gray Area Foundation for the Arts, CoPlace’s nonprofit partner, was one of 186 nonprofits and neighborhood projects awarded funding by the city’s Commission for Arts and Culture this fiscal year.
The artists in residence project got $193,286 to pay for the resident artist programming — the second-highest award after San Diego Pride — through the Creative Communities San Diego grant.
“It’s creative projects like these that will help us out of our housing crisis,” Mayor Todd Gloria said in his weekly newsletter after visiting the Logan Heights development in October.
Artist programming is also supported by grants from the Conrad Prebys Foundation, the California Endowment and California Conservation Corps.
More creative partners, more programming
Early Girl Creations owners Karen and Chris Sanchez began creating soaps and other health and wellness products to help their son’s severe eczema. Then, as they began selling their products, they put wheels on Karen’s great-great-grandmother’s trunks so they could easily haul them to farmer’s markets.
When the opportunity arose to partner with CoPlace to open the Soap Factory, the Sanchezes jumped in to help create “a space where creators come to create,” Chris said.
Karen and Chris Sanchez, owners of Early Girl Creations, pose with the trunk that they sell their handmade soaps and other health and wellness products out of at the Soap Factory in Logan Heights on Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2023.
(Kristian Carreon/For The San Diego Union-Tribune)
They still sell their soaps out of the same trunks, just at the warehouse. They call some of their products “farm-to-shower” — made with herbs grown on site, and with gourds grown in their garden and dried for loofahs.
The Sanchezes also host several kids’ workshops on soap-making and gardening.
They are currently working to finalize a five-year, urban agriculture program in partnership with Urban Corps of San Diego; youth who complete it will be able to earn two college credits to any University of California or California State University school.
CoPlace hopes to keep expanding its educational programming to other creative outlets, such as cooking classes, and building partnerships with local artists and art organizations.
It has also begun hosting community events it hopes to make annual, like the inaugural Chicano Music Festival in March and ENVZN street art festival in September.
For its second edition later this year — under the umbrella of the World Design Capital 2024, of which the Artists in Residency program is an impact partner — the ENVZN festival will highlight the region’s arts and culture for an international audience.
A view of Monarch Studios, a 21-unit apartment complex made of shipping containers with affordable housing for local artists, in Logan Heights on Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2023.
(Kristian Carreon/For The San Diego Union-Tribune)