starting the interior finishes...
The cottage in Phinney Ridge is taking shape–it is all dried in and the drywall is up. Â One of the owners is pictured above savoring being on the cutting edge of increased density in Seattle’s single family zoning!
Sunset Substation Park will be included in an article on pocket parks in Sunset Magazine in February, and in a themed issues of AIA Seattle’s magazine, Forum, on the ‘Renewable City.’
Hopefully this extra publicity will bolster the idea that creating public parks out of surplus, city-owned, urban land is an obvious solution to increasing the sustainability and long-term livability of our neighborhoods.
Illustration by James Yamasaki for The Stranger
“On December 13, the Seattle City Council passed new rules for buildings in high-density residential neighborhoods. The decree has drawn predictable criticism from some activists, who complain the new rules will change the city’s character, but in fact the gripes of these activists hit on exactly what’s great about the new rules: They allow more housing.”
-Dominic Holden for The Stranger
Read more at the Stranger:
Ditching Town Houses
A triumph for the ‘Seattle Way’–years of contentious hearings, studies, tweaks resolve into ultimately a unanimous decision. Â There is a certain super-tanker inertia about the city process that eventually prevails but it does it take a quite a while to steer the ship of state toward higher goals.
Big thanks to Councilmember Sally Clark, the DPD staff, and CORA supermen: Â Brandon Nicholson, Bradley Khouri, and David Neiman.
The new Multifamily Code is scheduled to come up for a vote before Council on Monday. Â After years of process, hearings, and work shaping the outcomes, the new code will have some new attributes geared toward more flexibility in heights, parking, setbacks, and density. Â It disincentivizes the ’6 pack’ townhomes everyone dislikes and gives out bonuses for green building, designs that hid parking and give a better streetscape.
For those of us who participated in the sausage-making legislative process over the years, it is great to see that it will finally come up for a vote. Â If you want to see the vote, and who wouldn’t, it will be at City Hall at 2pm Monday.
I will be participating in a panel discussion put on by the AIA to discuss different aspects of pro bono work, such as benefits, management, and liability. Â Geoff Piper of The Global Studio, and Rachel Minnery of Environmental Works will also be speaking. Â It will be informal, informative, and hopefully, inspirational.
Geoff used to work at CAST a few years ago, and has clearly moved on to bigger and better things: His Global Studio is working with communities around the world to build schools and community centers.
The discussion is sponsored by the AIA Small Office Roundtable and the Congress of Residential Architects (CORA)
We are going to be having a party to christen the new office on January 28th, from 5 pm until…
The party is a joint venture with the building’s other inhabitants–D.Boone Construction and Cascade Bicycle Studio, so it should be a diverse crowd.
We’ll provide snacks and beverages–come on over, see our awesome new space, and catch up with CAST!
The new space is coming along: walls are up and the electricians are there now. The storage loft to the right over the copy room is decked.
Sweat Equity
I wanted to highlight more of the work of The One Percent program. Founded in 2005, it is a unique effort to encourage architects to donate a mere 1% of their annual hours for projects for the public good. Â That may not seem like a enough to make a difference, but if every architecture professional committed that much time, it would total 5 million hours a year–or to put it another way–a 2500 person firm working full time all year, every year for the public good.
It is such a good idea, and it is amazing to me that it isn’t a part of my profession’s DNA. Â If lawyers can do it, why wouldn’t we?
Right now, the One Percent’s website has, at last count, 865 firms nationwide that have made the leap, and pledged more than 280,000 hours of service, and you can find inspiration, rationalization (for the doubters),  as well as a matching service where pro bono clients and  architects can find each other.
If you are an architect, sign up!
If you are a non-profit, or community group, post your project and connect with a expert that can help your organization. Â Whether it is an expansion, tenant improvement, fixing an accessibility problem, or to masterplan/visualize the org’s ambitions, architects have expertise and ideas that you can harness.
As one of the early adopters of the 1% idea, CAST has been selected as one of fifty  1% Design Advocates nationwide, so in the next couple of months, I’ll be putting together some open events to discuss pro bono service.  In the meantime, if you have any questions about pro bono service, please feel free (no pun intended) to contact me:
matt@CASTarchitecture.com.
256.9886
CAST's new home
After ten (ten!) years in our current location we are moving to a new space in Fremont into Dave Boone’s great building @Â 115c N.36th overlooking the Ship Canal.
As you can see, it is perfectly raw and we’ll be burning the midnight oil to get it into shape for the new year.
After the holidays, we’ll be having a building wide celebration in concert with D.Boone Construction, and Cascade Bicycles.