new kitchen opened to dining room

A new day lit stair well creates a logical circulation path between the bedroom wing of the split-level, and the public spaces of the house, creating a more fluid transition to the second floor living.  The new family room addition builds off the home’s original elemental language of brick, wood and glass, providing a deck to take in the expansive views of Lake Washington – Leveraging the house’s connection to a quintessential Seattle site.

A special thanks to the project manager Rich Denny of High Country Contractors for being a great partner on this project!

entry and new stairs

kitchen with dining room beyond

steel railing detail

main floor plan

ground floor plan

Matt Hutchins from our office will be leading the AIA how to work with an architect discussion at the seattle AIA office this Saturday.  If you are considering a remodel, addition or new construction, and are interested about the process and value proposition of working with an architect please consider attending this talk from 9:30 to noon on Saturday the twelfth.  See below for more info:

Making your Project Happen:

How to Select and Work with an Architect

Trying to figure our how to make the most of your budget? Dreaming about a project and not sure where to start? Curious about green design or how to plan for your family’s changing needs?

Whether your project is a small remodel or new construction—or if you are just curious about the design process—AIA architects can help. Join Matt Hutchins AIA and Don Larkin AIA for an information-packed seminar on the basics of the design and construction project including budget advice, tips for hiring the right contractor, what to expect, and how you and your architect can work together to make the most of any project.

Saturday March 12, 2011
9:30am – noon
AIA Seattle, 1911 First Avenue
Cost:  $15
To register, click here: www.aiaseattle.org/node/5311

PRESENTERS

Matt Hutchins

Matt Hutchins is a licensed architect who graduated with Honors from the University of Colorado and Arizona State University. Prior to CAST, Matt practiced in Boulder, Aspen and Phoenix, designing custom residential, mixed-use and commercial buildings. He has taught design drawing at the University of Washington School of Architecture, undergraduate design studios at Arizona State University, and has written articles for Building Edge Magazine. He is an artist with a primary focus in wood block printmaking. http://www.castarchitecture.com

Don Larkin AIA

Don Larkin is a licensed architect specializing in custom residential architecture.  He is the owner of an architectural design firm in Newcastle, Washington, and designs custom homes and remodels throughout the state of Washington.  With over 20 years of residential experience, he designs projects of all styles, sizes and budgets to meet the unique needs of the client.  He encourages client participation throughout the design process and considers the client the most valuable member of the design team.  To view photos of his work, please visit his website at www.DonLarkinArchitect.com.

Fremont Town Homes - Green House Tour

The Fremont Town Homes completed last year are going to be on a green design tour hosted by Mark Mays of ecohome seattle. This is a great opportunity to get inside and kick the tires of some really interesting sustainably minded projects.

For more information see Mark’s annoucnment below or contact him directly at Mark Mays 425.280.4223. Follow this link for a list of all the addresses and an option to view them on a map, or cick through to view the invite in its entirety.

Greetings Green Home Tourists!

Here are the final four selections for the Green Home Tour this Sunday starting at 1pm at Martha Rose’ Fish Singer Place development in Shoreline. The address is 433 Fish Singer Place with access from Dayton Ave N., just a couple houses south of N. 160^th just up the hill from Sears and Central Market on Hwy 99. We will spend 45-60 minutes at Fish Singer as there is so much to see and Martha will be there to help explain the green features and systems. The site development is amazing with many eco-friendly functions along with the great aesthetics.

We can carpool or caravan to the next homes on the tour. For those that asked, there is no charge for the tour. We are fairly passionate about green homes and are happy to share the passion with others. Of course we are happy to provide real estate services for those that would like us to provide them, but this is all about seeing, learning and appreciating the fantastic work these architects and builders have done in their green home implementations without a bunch of sales hype.

The second home is a green remodel just a few blocks from the Phinney Center. This is one of the best Built Green remodels I’ve seen in terms of staying within the character of the original design as well as the neighborhood, and the quality of craftsmanship, materials and green systems is fairly rare compared to many of the green remodels I’ve seen.The architect was Amy Williams with Blue Canyon Construction as the contractor. I’m supposed to be getting a copy of the checklist so we can know more about what is behind the walls and under the floors that would demonstrate a good green home design.

Home #2 on the map is a Four Star Built Green home that has many green features and systems which you will already have seen at Fish Singer, but this is definitely one of the better infill townhomes I’ve seen with tight energy envelope, plumbed for solar hot water, great daylighting, nice choice of materials and great feng shui. This home was designed by Stefan Hampden at Cast Architecture and was presented at last year’s NW EcoBuilders Guild 10x10x10 event.

The last home on the tour is in a high density luxury home development, but really it is not so ostentatious like the Street of Dreams green homes with massive square footage. I’m sure the pricing has more to do with the location and views, but the unique geothermal system along with the overall energy efficiency design, choice of green materials,and high quality craftsmanship definitely makes this home worth seeing. The listing broker will be available to answer detailed questions about the home.

Here is the NWMLS link if you’d like to get more details about the homes and preview some pictures.

Click the following URL to see the Listings:
http://www.matrix.nwmls.com/DE.asp?ID=1059716656

<<…>> Look forward to seeing everyone Sunday and feel free to pass this email on to anyone else you think might be interested.

Mark Mays
Real Estate Broker
LEED Green Associate
CHAMPIONS REAL ESTATE SERVICES
525 5th Ave S. Suite 100
Edmonds, WA 98020
Cell: 425-280-4223
Fax: 206-905-0810
mark@mays108.org
www.ecohomeseattle.com

The 10x10x10 is an event put on by the Northwest EcoBuilding Guild annually to highlight regional sustainably oriented projects each year.  The name derives from the fact that they showcase 10 projects, and give each presenter 10 minutes to talk about 10 slides.  This year CAST was selected to be one of the presenters for our work on in-fremont, a series of 5 town homes designed for 5 star BuiltGreen certification. The event was held at the Gates auditorium, at the Seattle Public Library last Friday. There were some great projects discussed – I especially enjoyed Christina Bollo’s talk from SMR on Kenyon House a LEED platinum affordable housing project.  Since I have all the material handy I thought I would post the slides from my talk, as well as a quick transcript, which steps through some of the concepts, and techniques we were working on with the in-fremont project.

SLIDE 1 – Intro:

• In-fremont is a set of 5 town homes finished in the spring this year – which was not exactly great timing!
• But we had a client who was excited to explore what we could do in terms of a high quality sustainably minded project
• In 2007 we received a Built Green grant in their multifamily category, which was a great help in trying to push a project like this forward.

SLIDE 2 – Quick orientation:

• Location: just north of 36th in Fremont on phinney – extremely pedestrian oriented location.
• 5 units counterclockwise. Goal was to Break out of the typical 4 pack plan you see all over.
• This is a bit of an atypical site having a 10’ wide x 40’ deep slice of commercial zoned C1-40 in an otherwise typical L-2 lot.
• Since we could not span across the zoning line with this unit, it provided a unique constraint as well as a great tie in to the 10x10x10 …
• So in addition to the 10 presenters and 10 slides and 10 minutes, i‘m going to add 10 feet.  That is the outside to outside dimension of unit 5 and good segway for talking about sustainability and scale.

SLIDE 3 – unit 5:

• Unit 5 ended up being a 950 sqft 2br 2 bath
• Quantity is intrinsically linked to sustainability – you can do as much advanced framing, and responsible specifications as possible, in the end the way to leverage all that is to reduce size – that cuts across all the materials and finishes.
• Key to selling people on smaller is making sure they are extremely desirable, and functional spaces
• Staggered section helps break down the length of the building.
• Central light well 3’ setback brings natural light to the core of the building.
• This was envisioned as a live work scenario – having an office with sidewalk access for clients.

SLIDE 6 – details:

• On the exterior we used a rain screen throughout – simply holding the siding off the building with a vented air space, allows for the walls to dry out, reducing the chances of rot and mold, and allows the finishes to last substantially longer.
• Bamboo & concrete radiant floors aid in air quality – no carpet or ducting for mold or dust to gather.
• Site built casework such as screen frames and treads made of bamboo plywood.
• Trim all finger joined poplar – no mdf.
• Low voc paint – waterborne clear coats – compact florescent energy star lights throughout.