There’s one mind-blowingly genius move Michael Maltzan made with his Rainbow Apartments on Skid Row, and that’s the little painted section at the bottom:
That paint is working HARD. It balances the façade’s composition, centering it and weighing it at the base. It creates a visual form from two doorways. The upward slant suggests that the right door is a main entrance, may be a stairway. It gives dimension and direction to an otherwise flat and dead front.
It’s the only thing keeping it from looking like an unusually small, bleak prison. (Seriously, “Rainbow” Apartments? May be the technocolor’s on the inside.)
Maybe you’re colorblind.