The new Pueblo del Sol, containing 377 rental apartments and 93 for-sale attached houses, replaces a 685-unit public housing project, Aliso Village, that was built in 1942 and condemned in 1998. It was not so much that the buildings were structurally unsound, as that uncontrollable drug gangs made them unsafe. Located in predominantly Latino East Los Angeles, Aliso Village was part of Pico Aliso—the largest public housing complex west of the Mississippi and home to 11 active street gangs.
After the Canadian Broadcast Corporation relocated its English-language broadcasting headquarters from this historic Toronto neighborhood in 1997, the land and buildings sat vacant for several years. Formerly home to a 152-meter (499-ft) radio tower, offices, and performance space, the one-hectare (2.4-ac) site—located in the dense rental market of Church/ Wellesley Village—now consists of 32,516 square meters (350,000 sf) of condominium space, 18 townhouses, and a 16,723-square-meter (180,000-sf) arts training institute.
