CAST architecture has three projects featured in Taunton’s new book on kitchen design.  Thanks to Elizabeth and Clay, Bill and Natasha, and Ken and Marilyn for being great clients!  Bon appetit!

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!

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.

We had a fantastic turn out for the Sand Point Elementary Earth-day work party this past weekend. A special thanks to Loren Yaguchi and all the folks from Abbott Construction’s special projects group for donating materials, shop time, and a whole lot of can do to make the benches we designed become a fantastic kit of parts for the community to assemble!

30 new stacking benches for the outdoor classroom fully assembled – a testament to the prep of the folks a Abbott Construction and all the volunteers who turned out to work on our local public school!

Thank you to Carter Capps, pitcher for the Seattle Mariners and Taylor Graham, defender for the Sounders FC for signing autographs and helping with our projects!

Richard Swann author of “Our School Garden” putting the newly assembled benches for the outdoor classroom to good use!

Mark your calendars! The Andersons Residence, a 4 star Built Green home, will be open to the public for touring as part of Northwest Eco Building Guild Green Home Tour on April 27th.

The Anderson residence is a Built Green renovation, addition and transformation of an existing single family home. The plan opened, simplified and streamlined the existing first floor in addition to adding a new second story to provide much needed space for a growing family.

Reconfiguring the entry with the new stairs and an eddy space for the kids cubby space helps bring light to the active space below, while a window wall separates the noisier activities of the cubbies and active spaces below from the classrooms. The new entry exposes the admin office to the entry, making it both more public, as well as increasing oversight at the entry.

The open stairs on the south side of the building will help bring light to the back side of the basement, while a translucent wall on the west side brings in light from the on grade entrance, with a new accessible ramp and stair entry from the south west corner.

The Music room is located in the below grade section to the East, taking advantage of the inherent acoustic dampening of the concrete foundation and lid, while allowing for a light well between the cubbies and south window wall.

A view from the new entry, with the cubby alcove, stairs down, and a pattern of translucent colored circular insets in the concrete slab create a playful musical pattern, alluding to the music studio below, while allowing light to be transferred downstairs.

A new stage with sliding white board, allows for visual separation between the upper and lower classrooms, while fostering performance as an integral component of the curriculum. A low bank of cabinets gives privacy between the bathrooms, and classroom, maintaining the openness of the space for public gatherings, and providing additional storage.

The active space, with new beams, eliminates the intermediate columns, increasing the flexibility of the space for larger scale activities.  New rubberized flooring and gymnasium wall pads create a safe environment for physical activities.

The music room with dedicated storage for instruments, and acoustic isolation from the classrooms, allows for music to continue to play a central roll in the school, while minimizing the disruption to the classrooms.

This is a photo taken from the street, the panels are installed with horizontal anodized aluminum panel breaks at 2′ on center:

A master suite is clad in a clear cedar rainscreen, it cantilever’s over an outdoor room below:

Closeup of the cedar rainscreen:

All photos are courtesy of Phil Dietz / Lost River Construction.

This photo is looking down the entry veranda toward the front door:

Looking from the front door toward the sauna wing and entry veranda:

Completed plywood underlay in the great room:

First panels go up in the Master bedroom:

Master bedroom ceiling complete:

Detail of fasteners:

Recent rendering put together for an advertisement:

Hereis a view of the loft looking toward a study nook:

The bathroom will feature a Japanese garden adjacent to the soaking tub:

A compact and efficient kitchen tucks in under the ladder to the loft:

The depth of the boxes are modulated to create niches for models, samples and audiovisual equipment.

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.