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The Seattle channel recently interviewed myself and CAST clients Kate Lichtanstein and Ric Cochrane regarding the backyard cottage we are currently working on together. They included our project in a broader story that profiles an owner of a recently completed backyard cottage and gives a basic outline of the new Seattle backyard cottage ordinance.
We are very excited to begin a new project for the Sunset Hill neighborhood to transform an abandoned City Light substation parcel into a pocket park. Based on the input from the community thus far, the program is very intriguing: a community space with an artist-in-residence caretaker, powered by a serious photovoltaic array.
There may be more or different elements as the project evolves in the community design process, and as we navigate through various City agencies and funding sources, but fundamentally this has all the values we expound as a firm: sustainable building, energized public space, housing options/density, and an interactive process that invests people in the civic life of their neighborhood.
In 2008, I designed a structure with a similar program for a Dwell Magazine conceptual competition:
Crissy Field House
Tags: Architecture, community garden, seattle, sunset substation, Sustainability
We are very excited to see this survey of Seattle’s urban community gardens, especially since the Interbay P-Patch is included as one of the case studies. The P-Patch is one of my personal favorites because of the impact it has had in strengthening this vital community, and has been instrumental in showing other neighborhoods how to implement their own community garden.
Further, the P-Patch really showed us just how satisfying working on these small pro bono projects can be. Since the P-Patch, we’ll donated about 5% of our yearly output to pro bono causes, including daycares, parks, and community centers and hope that we’ll have more opportunities to help concerned citizen groups visualize and build a better city.
Tags: communities, community garden, p-patch, pro bono design, Sustainability
Our installation just got linked on the Stranger’s SLOG.
Tags: Sustainability
The big opening is tonight from 5 to 9, between 1st and 2nd just south of Pioneer Square–
Yesterday we hoisted the installation in place. While we still have to do lighting, the impact is great! From the end of the alley, the installation looks like a lonely cloud hovering there, and only once you get beneath it can you see the message “WASTE NOT.”
Tags: Architecture, Sustainability
We just heard that another one of our projects is going to be featured in Fine Homebuilding Magazine!
The Artalejo-Lacas Residence is a ‘zen craftsman’–traditional bungalow massing with some really wonderful spaces inside and details inspired by Japanese vernacular houses.
The project will be in the annual Houses issue–which is, well, especially cool because only a handful of houses nation wide make the cut.
The ordinance to allow backyard cottages in the other three quarters of Seattle just passed 9-0! The council’s comments focused on the exhaustive community outreach, successful pilot program and benefit of having this housing choice for Seattle.
Excellent work by the planning commission, DPD and council.
Usually, the city’s process oriented decision making can be cumbersome, and having spent hours in meetings, testifying, and communicating with council, I feel vindicated that our involvement has helped in some small way to bring some innovation to the Single Family zoning.
We’re excited to design some of these–in part because of the opportunity to foster multi-generational housing, and the option of building a smaller free standing structure rather than building an addition. Plus, it is a really fun scale–I think more people will be thinking about bonus studios rather than housing units.
I would like to take a moment to welcome Parkour Visions, our new building mates, to our corner of Freelard. We’ve always tried to keep a fun group of creative folks in our building and I think we are set to continue the trend. This weekend Parkour Visions had their grand opening, and all of us at CAST are looking forward to getting to know Rafe and Tyson better as we take them up on some lunch time workouts! There has to be some form of symbiosis (or karmic irony) that an architecture firm and a Parkour gym are sharing the same building, but we are all excited to find out what it is like to play more directly in our built environment!
CAST has been involved in a number of pro bono projects over the years, such as parks, community gardens, community centers, art installations, and smart development, and one of those, the Interbay P-Patch, is being published in an upcoming book on pro bono design by Public Architecture.
This project was originally headed up by Nathan Walker, and after he left town, we’ve continued our involvement, adding a kiosk, arbor and most recently cool signage at the street.
We’re really excited about the P-Patch, one, because it is a project that is near and dear to our hearts, and two, it can inspire more firms to offer their expertise to help civic and community causes, and more citizen groups to see that if they can dream it, they can build it.
Tags: Architecture, community garden, p-patch, pro bono design
Thanks to Stefan for hosting our seasonal CAST dinner. Great food and a big turnout, and it felt like some of the events we hosted pre-construction industry implosion. We had a lot to celebrate: our 11th year in business, and some great new projects on the boards, such as Vagabond Ranch, the Causey’s Learning Center expansion, and Zander and Megan’s new house, plus welcoming aboard Forrest Murphy, our latest collaborator.