When Dockside, a Seattle-based chain of recreational cannabis shops, sought to expand into a rapidly changing neighborhood, the challenge was how to define the brand experience within a growing and shifting cannabis marketplace. The solution was to redefine the typical shopping experience through the creation of a tranquil and inviting environment a venue that offers a unique visual identity paired with an educationally focused customer experience.
Jabe Blumenthal knows numbers. After graduating from Yale with a degree in Applied Mathematics he joined a little-known software company in the early 80s, Microsoft, and co-designed a little program we now know today as Microsoft Excel.
Jabe also knows climate change. He has served on the board of Seattle-based Climate Solutions for over a decade, advocating for ‘practical and profitable solutions to global warming’ throughout the Pacific Northwest. He also knows a thing or two about the costs and benefits of climate-friendly construction. He served on the board of the Bullitt Foundation when that group planned and built its noted “living building,” the Bullitt Center.
Article source: Paul Michael Davis Architects PLLC
Located in Seattle’s lively West Seattle Junction neighborhood, Dalen Bakstad of Bakstad Construction approached Paul Michael Davis Architects to design a new, single-family contemporary house with a lower level ADU on a previously undeveloped corner lot. Using an existing set of plans the clients had put together, the design team reorganized the plans into a simple linear 3,800 sf home. Two volumes were carved away from the west-facing front of the house. One of these served as a covered entry, and the other as a large volume adding sculptural depth to the facade. These two carved away areas were treated as softer spaces in between inside and outside. As such, they have a more precious siding such as redwood, which will be sheltered from the weather, and provide a contrast with the “hard” gray shell. Inside the furnishings are a mix of modern and eclectic throughout the home’s three stories.
Understory at The Spheres is a multifunctional exhibit and visitor center designed to tell the story of The Spheres, Amazon’s iconic and unique insertion into the heart of Seattle. The exhibit unravels the complexity of the architecture and engineering and the very idea behind bringing people closer to nature on a daily basis in the heart of the city. The 3,883-square-foot exhibit is situated at the base of one of The Spheres, providing a fly-through of the orbicular buildings above and something the visitor won’t get in The Spheres themselves, extreme close-up, and intimate footage of the plants in an interpretive and immersive experience.
This 10,000-square-foot, two-story interior remodel of a 1910 retail building in downtown Seattle emphasized subtraction rather than addition to radically alter the spatial and light conditions of the space. Two existing load-bearing walls run the length of the area, establishing three linear yet distinct rooms. Symmetrical openings were cut into these walls at even intervals, increasing permeability by allowing for greater flow of traffic between the rooms, as well as creating an open layout with flexible space arrangement. Although the space is currently used as an office, a key goal was to establish a flexible, open design that could be utilized for a variety of public and private functions.
Building upon a series of conceptual schemes for compact living and working units that architect Robert Hutchison has designed over the last decade, this DADU (Detached Accessory Dwelling Unit, also known as a backyard cottage) is sited in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood. The site is directly adjacent to Hutchison’s own backyard architecture studio, which was built behind the architect’s own home several years prior. With Alley House, Hutchison presents a new option for urban housing, exploring the backyards of single-family zoned lots as sites for more density in living and working.
Like many older homes, this 4,800 square foot brick French Norman turned its back on a park-like half acre lot in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. Unlike its new owners, the existing house was formal, dark and introverted. With appreciation for the historic woodwork, craftsmanship and materials, our clients wanted to preserve history while transforming the home to connect indoor spaces directly to the expansive back yard.
Situated in the Seattle neighborhood of Magnolia, the goal of this 3,318-square-foot house was to create a modern spacious home with lots of light, a classic yet modern feel all while managing a limited budget. Economy of structure and materials was exercised. Stepping inside the home, the large grid of windows flood the interior with natural light and provide views out onto the street. The living room, located at the front of the house, is focused on a built-in fireplace, while behind the couch is the dining area. Further into the house is the kitchen.
When a young couple approached Heliotrope Architects and asked them to design a home with an art studio inside, all parties sat around the table contributing ideas – some atypical. The couple, an artist and an engineer, listed several additional criteria for their new home: a contemporary style, but not out of place with the rest of the Capitol Hill neighborhood; a visual connection to the street balanced with privacy; a strong relationship between the interior and exterior; lots of natural light; an interior with an art-gallery-feel to accommodate their growing art collection; and a separate guest wing.
The Canal Street project takes a narrow, commercially-zoned, urban-infill lot, formerly occupied by a small, rundown 1950s-era house and transforms it into a new, forward-thinking 5,233-square-foot, commercial office building for two creative agencies, Turnstyle (a graphic design firm) and Stoke (a branding firm). The 30-foot-wide x 100-foot-deep lot is situated along a shoreline greenbelt across the street from the ship canal in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle.
email
Facebook
Twitter
RSS Feed
