GlobeSt.com: Where and how did the idea for a zoo-inspired community originate?

Mindlin: The actual inspiration for the idea revolved around creating a park district. The zoo is in Prentice Park, and we share a frontal street with Prentice Park. The original idea was to try and enlarge this beyond just another residential development in hopes of a great revitalization. It's in a part of the city that needs a little help. We want whatever we and our investment clients do to make a sustainable impact in a positive way, so that down the road, additional improvements and investments could take place.

We were thinking about this as a park district—a park and zoo, plus residential. We wanted to try to create a profound and inclusive idea that would hopefully spark revitalization. Using the zoo as inspiration was a matter of contexturalism—trying to align yourself with the culture of the place you're creating. Santa Ana is a very unique and wonderful place. We looked at it and said this is an absolutely unique opportunity to create a sense of arrival to Santa Ana on its eastern border that will herald your arrival at a place that's absolutely unique—not just another sort of intersection, but a real arrival. We wanted to reach across the street and bring the fauna of the park and zoo onto our site and create on Elk Lane a unique vehicular and residential experience. For us, what really was interesting and somewhat new was the desire to create a more immersive experience for residents and to integrate future residents into natural environments. The units are separated from the sidewalk by wide planting barriers, so we're bringing the highly specialized fauna of the zoo and park into the community. We're creating window seats to offer emotional experiences that are different, unique and varied.

GlobeSt.com: Is this the beginning of a new trend in development that borrows concepts from the surrounding area?

Mindlin: Borrowing is not new; sometimes it can be a good thing, sometimes not a good thing. What we're always trying to do is integrate ourselves into the culture or environment of a place in order to create something authentic. The more real and relevant something is, the more it is embraced by the community. Here, we wanted to expand the area of the park and zoo and embrace it. There's a civic community space between the two buildings that connects to the podium amenity spaces. There's a sense of authenticity and belonging that drives everything we do. We try not to do anything arbitrary.

GlobeSt.com: Where do you see this trend heading?

Mindlin: Our practice is focused around the big idea, a more strategic approach to planning and design. Design is not arbitrary or about us. It's often not about our clients. We're trying to understand the culture of the community we're designing for: what are their needs, what's the culture of the place in which they live? There's a large Latino community in Santa Ana, but people say to me, “My teenage kids are exactly like your teenage kids—they want the same things.” It's hard to jump to conclusions about any one community, so we try to understand for whom we are designing. We don't do cookie-cutter stuff. We allow our practice to grow and change with the times. There's lots of variety in what we design. I don't see this as opportunity to brand us; that's what different about what we do.

GlobeSt.com: What else should our readers know about Santa Ana First Street Apartments?

Mindlin: It's two buildings, five and seven stories each. The City wanted it to be as big as possible, but we wanted to lower the scale of these buildings as they got closer to the community, so we decided to break it into two different-sized buildings that are coordinated but different. We tried to manipulate the forms so they weren't a wall along the street. There will be five or six different plazas and gardens and community areas, spaces for giving back to the community. And we tried to introduce an iconic element: the lantern on First. This will mark your arrival into Santa Ana and the Prentice Park district and say something to the larger community, that this is new and exciting and you should be here. Small elements filter through the whole architecture so there's a unique but appropriate level of design to the projects. We wanted to make sure this works in collaborative district idea.