CORE’s design for seafood restaurant The Point merges fire, water, and commercial fishing culture into one concept bringing together a space that feels open, strong, and substantial. A full service, single concept restaurant, The Point offers high-quality and fresh seafood cooked over a rustic wood-fire hearth. Located at Buzzard Point in the Southwest waterfront neighborhood of Washington DC, at the junction of the Potomac and Anacostia rivers, the restaurant is situated in the most prominent storefront space of an adaptive reuse development project. Inspired by the unique site and junction of the two rivers, the design concept embraces the idea of “confluence”. This is translated into the design by focusing on the transformation of elements as they come together and interact. Water and fire, represented by the view-shed and wood-fire cooking are expressed through dynamic architecture gestures and finishes that frame and highlight each element. The finish palette merges warm tones with cool hues to cerate a rich and layered atmosphere. A major source of inspiration comes from the client’s background and connection with commercial fishing, and influences the sturdy and honest details that prevail throughout the space.
The Bainbridge Island Museum of Art (BIMA) is the beacon that greets visitors and locals upon disembarking the Bainbridge Island ferry boat from Seattle. The building’s curve beckons visitors toward the entrance and the generous use of glazing allows people to peer into the museum displays. It provides an inspiring entry experience for everyone and represents the community’s commitment to the visual arts.
Located in Seattle’s Central Area neighborhood, this home is an L shaped plan that creates a courtyard accessible from both the living area and the bedroom. Large sliding glass doors allow the living area to ‘steal’ the outside and appear much larger than it actually is. The home is designed to be on one level, both for aging in place needs as well as to allow for higher ceilings which create a more spacious feel. As the entry is from the alley, Fivedot created an entry courtyard to extend and soften the entry sequence. The garage serves as an object implying the edge of the courtyard and creating an outdoor room as well as providing space for outdoor gear and the other parts of life that don’t fit into 800-square-feet.
Situated in a 1950s-era single-story building on Main Street in downtown Edmonds, Leftcraft is casual and approachable, yet distinct from local restaurant and bar establishments. Rich materiality and an embrace of time-worn patina set the venue apart from other establishments in town. The latest in a series of restaurants developed by the same owner, Leftcraft evolves the exploration of themes established in the most recent iteration. Here, the design explores and plays with themes of materiality, color, and texture and the contrast between new and old.
The infill building, modified at various times during its existence, features concrete walls and floors and a tongue-and-groove Douglas fir ceiling, all of which were cleaned and left exposed to express the building’s character. Eighty feet deep and just twenty-nine feet wide, the south façade features a fifteen-foot roof overhang which shelters an eight-foot-deep outdoor patio. The existing fixed front facade was replaced with bi-fold wood-and-glass doors to enhance the connection between the patio with the interior space. A clerestory band of windows runs across the top of the north, alley side of the building.
Perched like a lookout on a sagebrush plateau with sweeping views of the high desert and big river cutting through it below, this contemporary three-bedroom getaway home is a serene retreat allowing the focus to be entirely on this breathtaking landscape. CTA Design Builders’ goal was to design a comfortable family-sized retreat that didn’t call too much attention to itself, but rather could sit low and quiet, and let the focus be on the views and weather all around. Because of constant winds, the house and out-buildings have been arranged in a U-shape to create a south facing sheltered patio, complete with pool, oriented to frame the best of all the views. This is a modest-sized vacation home designed for a multigenerational family. Its main space with lofty ceilings brings everyone together in the heart of the home cooking, eating, hanging out. The big-view wall of glass opens completely to the outside patio and pool below, creating a seamless inside/outside connection that is breath-taking in every season, every day and star-filled night. Other smaller windows throughout the house are placed with restraint, carefully positioned to afford a special private view as if looking at a landscape painting.
A renovation of a 1950’s era home into a gathering space for a custom furniture maker, an architect, their family, and friends. The existing home was an 825-square-foot bungalow on a large corner lot. While the original house was small, the property had a lot of potential for an addition as well as a large garden. Over the years, the garden flourished and the owners decided to build an addition to provide more space for their growing family and create a courtyard that backed up to the garden.
This backyard detached accessory dwelling unit (DADU) is the new home for a couple who are downsizing in order to be closer to their children and grandchildren in Seattle, WA. Located in the backyard of their children’s home, this Seward Park cottage opens up to the backyard on the main floor and to the expansive view on the upper floor. Carefully placed openings and an exposed ceiling allow the smaller space to feel bigger than it is. Custom floating stairs allow for a writing desk to nestle in below the treads.
An accomplished musician and music teacher, this client asked Coates Design to provide a special place for her baby grand piano to resonate throughout the home. The couple was intrigued with the idea of building a container house from real containers. Coates Design researched the idea through an architectural lens – searching for a “sweet spot” that could utilize containers in a manner that required as little alteration as possible, taking advantage of their natural structural integrity. The alternative was to force them into a different role that required significant alterations. Considerable research was spent on the topic… only to arrive at the more cost-effective solution of traditional wood framing.
The stacks were widened since real container interiors are cramped, but the plan still reflects the original idea and is accentuated with industrial corrugated metal that will naturally rust. The baby grand piano will soon be moved into its custom designed spot where it will fill the house with music.
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.
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