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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.
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:
Seattle Center Urban Intervention
Soon we’ll be able to post our design concept for the revitalization of the Seattle Center, as part of the Urban Intervention competition, but here is a little sneak peak:
Urban Intervention design sketch--early design collage
Once they announce the finalists, we’ll be able to release the full content of our proposal, as well and give full credit to all the great collaborators we worked with.
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
Friday’s nights Green Building Slam was a big success. The Guild packed the auditorium in the Central Library and was, dare I say, raucous? Â There was a lot of energy in the room and the enthusiasm was palpable. Â I wanted to highlight a couple of trends that we saw in multiple projects.
1. Â Passive houses–super insulated, airtight buildings that consequently use very little energy to heat (a hair dryer or toaster would do the trick).
Projects ranged from Joe Giampietro’s Mini B house , Jim Burton’s Backyard Box, and Dan Whitmore’s house. Â There are a lot of people working on the details, and trying out innovative strategies for meeting the rigorous standards, like the .6 air changes per hour (Joe’s was .58ACH and Dan’s measured .41 ACH). Â Here is a blog about passive houses–Existing Resources.
2.  Beyond Passive Houses specifically, there was a drive for measuring building performance using blower door tests, thermal imaging, etc.  The point was made  that the real time feedback is a great learning and teaching tool for both the designers and the craftspeople, linking the attention to detail required at all phases of construction to execute a high performance building with regards to energy usage.
3. Â Waste stream minimization:
Two projects highlighted efforts to reduce construction waste: Bastyr University housing, and Walsh Construction’s Salishan redevelopment. Â The Salishan project was especially notable, not only for the context, an affordable housing project with upwards of 100 units, but because they put in place a system of labled dumpsters to sort all the construction waste–down to just one unrecyclable dumpster load over the project’s construction.
I had a great time, first presenting the Sunset Substation Park, and second, learning about what other like minded companies are working on in our region.
I’ll be presenting the Sunset Substation Park to the NW Ecobuilding Guild at their annual “green building slam,” 10x10x10.
It’s “a high-energy introduction to ten cutting-edge sustainable building projects in and around Seattle…featuring fast-paced presentations by the region’s leading green builders and delicious food and drink.”
This marks our second year in a row presenting (last year, we showed off the Fremont Townhomes)!
The final Feasibility Study and Community Design Report is available here
