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CAST architecture arcade

The Saratoga residence is moving along-soon we’ll have the exterior wrapped up, and the arcade complete! The interior walnut cabinetry and floating stair treads/glass rail should be installed soon!

CAST architecture kitchen island

The kitchen, in the foreground, is going to feature a 14′ long double loaded island, packed with functionality.  Tucked under the stairs, we’ll have a nerve center for all the household computing and controls. There is a private, ornamental garden beyond the dining room’s window wall.

2012-year-end-wrap

CAST had a great 2012–a mixed use studio, our first prefab houses, a pioneering urban farm, some great residential projects and a fabulous cabin in Mazama are just some of the many projects that we worked on this past year.

Canal Street Studio, commercial building, Fremont, Seattle, CAST architecture

Canal Street Studio, a mixed use building, is almost dried in and the interior is starting to take shape. Looking good!

If you are interested in urban agriculture and would like to share your ideas to shape the Rainier Beach Urban Farm, please join us Saturday, July 28th from 11:00 am to 12:30 pm for an open event to discuss the project!  Stay for the community picnic or just get your hands dirty during the drop-in work party every Saturday from 10 am to 3 pm.

 

In collaboration with Seattle Tilth, the Friends of R.B.U.F.W., and the Berger Partnership, CAST will be designing an urban farm in Seattle.  The site is a former municipal nursery in Rainier Beach–10 acres of mostly wetland with some hoop houses at the north end.  We’ll be undertaking the challenge to not only make a model for urban agriculture, we’ll also be greatly increasing the ecological function of the wetlands.

This project is in one of the most diverse zip codes in the nation, and we’ll be involving the community to shape the design, as well as creating facilities for small scale commercial farmers, entrepreneurs, and other programs such as Seattle Youth Garden Works.  The hope is to make a community hub centered on growing and sharing food.

The first community design meeting is June 19th on site (time TBD).  Please come and share your vision with us!

We helped out a great organization, Orphans to Ambassadors with a pro bono design and donation for a chicken coop to help feed 423 orphans at the Institute for Women’s Excellence in Rwanda.  During the month of May, they build the coop, some rocket stoves, and some rainwater harvesting projects for this and other orphanages in the area.  Great work!

Hopefully, we’ll have the chance to help out with more their future projects!

Please support them with a donation!

Great News–We won the 2012 BEST SMALL HOUSE AWARD from Fine Homebuilding magazine. They did a very nice video (link) with interviews of our awesome clients.   The Widner’s DADU has been covering in our blog before (here and here).

seattle center green at dusk--entry for Urban Intervention competition

In collaboration with the Berger Partnership ,Via Architecture, and Rushing, we put together a competition proposal for the replacement of Memorial Stadium and a new vision for the Center as a whole.

The design is an organic and topographic intervention that flows through the Center and surrounding neighborhoods, creating new connections, opportunities for new programs, and experiences at the Center. It creates a dense, flexible fabric stitched together with multi-modal transit to bring in new audiences, local/daily users, and new amenities for regional visitors.

'Center Grown'--a proposal for Seattle Center's Urban Intervention Competition

Some of the important features:

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Join us tonight at Future Shack 2011 for another evening of great dialogue about houses.  Last year I participated in the ‘Speed-Date‘—seven minutes to lay out the project and have a design brainstorm, then on to the next architect.  It was a blast, and this year Tim will be sitting in for me.

After Speed Date Design, there will be a presentation of innovative ideas in housing.

Our entry, Urban Olympic, is a nine unit townhouse complex designed to use 90% less energy that typical code compliance housing.  See our entries over the last few years : 2011, 2009

It is at Fisher Pavillion in the Seattle Center, starting at 5 pm.

Arboretum Visitor Center-North Gateway

I have been collaborating with Susan Black and Associates to formulate a vision for the expansion of the Washington Park Arboretum facilities, as part of the SR 520 replacement and the demolition of the highway ramps that currently dominate the north end of the Park.

With this project, we are proposing a “ new gateway structure to orient visitors, provide space for general services and curation/collection exhibits, and fulfill many of the aims of the 2001 Master Plan.  As conceptualized, the development respects the history of the site and reclaims the altered landscape to natural, healthy conditions.  It will provide organization, orientation, and education for visitors as a means to explore the greater Arboretum.

view of entry plaza-Washington Park Arboretum Visitor Center North Gateway

view of entry plaza-Washington Park Arboretum Visitor Center North Gateway

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