ON THE BOARDS - METHOW VALLEY’S RIVERSMeet WINTHROP proposed MIXED-USE BUILDING
RiversMeet, a proposed mixed-use project in the town of Winthrop in Washington’s Methow Valley, is positioned to become the upvalley entrance to “old downtown.” The site is a challenging set of narrow parcels overlooking the confluence of the Methow and Chewuch Rivers.
CAST’s client, Peter Goldman, as part of his development proposal, intends to request the town make zoning changes to allow for long-term rentals in the commercial district. RiversMeet is envisioned as a template for how buildings can work within Winthrop's westernization code while striving for high levels of sustainability and providing more inclusive housing options.
The program will provide two 2-bedroom residential units overlooking the river, with approximately 1,870 SF of pedestrian-level retail space. The second floor incorporates 1,870 SF of office space. The second floor incorporates 1,870 SF of office space, continuing the client’s tradition of renting below market rate to community non-profit businesses.
Team
Client: Peter Goldman and Martha Kongsgaard
Architect: CAST architecture
Builder: North Star Construction Company www.Northstarbuilds.Com
Civil & Structural: DCG www.dcgengr.com
Electrical: TFWB tf-wb.com
Environmental: Grette www.gretteassociates.com
Geotech: Geoengineers www.geoengineers.com/
Mechanical: Ecotope www.ecotope.com
Survey: Tackman www.tackmansurveying.com
New tribal Hatchery & Beach Shelter
At the beach at Point Julia on land occupied by the tribe since time immemorial, the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe’s Hatchery and Beach Shelter combines pragmatic uses with symbolic content. Salmon fishing is central to the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe’s traditional identity and its contemporary outlook. The new 1,800 SF two-story building accommodates both office and utility space for the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe’s salmon hatchery program, along with a separate open-air structure used by the Tribe’s commercial fishing operations. This project recognizes the cultural importance of both the place—a focal point of their history—and the program, while providing solutions to allow these activities to flourish in the 21st century.
The lower level of the Hatchery houses a garage, maintenance shop, and egg-incubation room with equipment that is both durable and moveable. The upper floor contains offices, water-quality testing, and filtration equipment. The conference room on the southwest corner can be entered separately, accessible to the wider community.
The new hatchery forms a gateway to the beach from the landward side, and the beach shelter is the Tribe’s front door on the sea. It will provide a work area for fishermen who pull their boats onto the beach and will also provide recreation space for the community. On the beach between the two structures, the native landscape is being restored, along with traditional edible and medicinal plants, and salt-tolerant erosion control plantings.
See more here.
TEAM
Owner: Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe
Architecture: CAST architecture
Photography: Lara Swimmer
Contractor: Pacific Civil & Infrastructure
Geo-tech: Robinson Noble
Structural: Swenson Say Faget
MEP: Glumac
Civil: Cannon
Landscape Architect: Pacific Landscape Architecture
Windows: Jeld-Wen
Archeologist: Willamette Cultural Resources
Survey: AES Consultants
Intake System Engineer: Kleinschmidt Group
Specifications: Applied Building Information
Art/light installation: S’Klallam artist Jimmy Price
Conference table / Entry bench: Craig Kohring
STATE MODEL CODE FOR MIDDLE HOUSING IS MISSING ENOUGH HOUSING
BY MATT HUTCHINS (GUEST CONTRIBUTOR)
See full article and graphics here: https://www.theurbanist.org/2023/07/10/state-model-code-for-middle-housing-is-missing-enough-housing/
Commerce recently had a consultant create a form-based code, but the draft fails to advance housing abundance.
Now that Washington State’s Middle Housing bill (HB1110) has been signed into law, the next question is what implementation will look like — what kind of housing and where. The Department of Commerce has published a request for consultants to draft a model code that 1) will help jurisdictions write their own compliant middle housing code or 2) will supersede local zoning if they fail to implement their own in advance of the deadline (six months after their comprehensive planning update).
While we don’t know what cities and towns are thinking, we do have a picture of how Commerce is approaching the middle housing code. Last fall, Commerce hired a consultant to “inform about and assist local governments with middle housing policies, regulations, and programs.”
In May, a focus group of planners, developers, and architects previewed a draft ‘Toolkit’ that illustrates four strategies that local governments could overlay on their residential zoning to allow new denser housing types within existing detached single family neighborhoods. The foundation of this toolkit is a form-based code meant to create ‘objective’ standards for middle housing that can be applied widely.
The issue is that the toolkit, rather than solving for affordability, feasibility, and the lowest carbon footprint, is primarily focused on crafting development guidelines that will keep new infill development the size of average houses and thus minimize the outcry from vocal neighbors. While this might be an easier to swallow approach for Washington cities and towns, it doesn’t scale up to address the deeper issues that HB 1110 was passed to address: the massive shortfall of new places for people to live.
While Commerce’s original intent was to come up with instructive materials broadly applicable to most local governments, the effort lags behind what more progressive jurisdictions are already doing. But when we dig into the details, the toolkit suggests real reductions in development capacity: smaller footprints, bigger setbacks, and lower roof heights than are currently allowed in many Puget Sound cities. At its very worst, it will give slow-growth municipalities the option to select a new zoning overlay that is more prescriptive and restrictive, thus spoiling any chance that any new middle housing will be built.
Let’s go through the proposed new toolkit and look at some of the underlying flaws.
They state, “This toolkit does not provide standards for buildings taller than three stories.” For three of the four overlays in the Toolkit, buildings are conceived as two and a half stories with a height bonus for hip and gable roofs – less that most of Washington cities’ least dense residential zones today. Rather than proposing an actual incremental increase, it ignores the status quo as a starting point. If you want a single pitch ‘shed’ roof, the 22-foot height limit is actually less than what we allow for a backyard cottage in Seattle today.
Parking is mandated throughout the toolkit, a reversal for many jurisdictions that are moving away from required off street parking. Indeed one of the strengths of HB 1110 is releasing parking restrictions for new housing.
Most overlay zones top out at four units per parcel, equivalent to Seattle’s second least dense zone, Residential Small Lot. Much of the ‘middle’ housing that is missing is between a house-sized triplex and the ‘5 over 1’ medium-sized apartment building. While this toolkit focuses on redundant standards for housing types we already allow, like townhouses and triplexes, it is silent on helping planners visualize appropriately-scaled urban buildings that might have between six to twenty units.
Townhomes today, for better or worse, are the least expensive middle housing alternative available in the market, and the toolkit hamstrings their development with provisions that limit the number per building and the building length. The most successful rowhouse style homes on corner lots wouldn’t comply.
The toolkit increases barriers for sites with multiple buildings on a single site, which would render many currently popular types of middle housing, such as detached townhouses, cottage clusters in Residential Small Lot zoning, and arguably even detached accessory dwelling units nearly impossible to build on compact urban lots.
The toolkit does not provide flexibility for sites that might want to preserve existing housing and build more. It assumes parcels are cleared rather than provide provisions for new buildings in the backyard, lot splitting, or additions that add units.
While much of today’s urban design discourse is centered around neighborhoods where goods and services are accessible within a 15-minute walk or roll, the toolkit doesn’t have any provisions for mixed uses like daycares, commercial suites or corner stores.
Finally, as one gets into the details of each overlay, it is chock full of reductions: larger setbacks, less lot coverage, less height, larger minimum lot areas, prescriptive design standards – each taking a bite out of the viability of future housing. When we compared a fourplex we’re currently designing in Spokane against the toolkit, we’d need to reduce the footprint by 32%, lose the front and back porches, and downgrade the 2-bedroom units to 1-bedrooms.
Unlocking the residential potential of urban land is critical if we’re going to provide the more than 1.1 million homes Washington State projects we’ll need over the next 20 years, and that means reintroducing multi-family housing types that exclusionary zoning has regulated out of existence.
With this upcoming model code, we can take a good hard look at how new infill development is built, but we first have to move past the idea that middle housing is house-sized buildings carved into more apartments, or cottage clusters. Overall, the toolkit’s conceptual limitations and prescriptive ‘objective standards’ don’t reflect the real conditions of Washington neighborhoods.A more serious effort would worry less about what neighbors might think and center our goals of housing abundance and climate action leading with middle housing types that work all the way up to four- and five-story mid-sized buildings in keeping with the best practices of urban planning around the world. Washington needs a flexible model code that supports the big picture goals of abundant housing.
WA State legislature passes SB 5491 single-stair bill
As we struggle with the construction cost of housing across the state and look to make building middle housing more affordable and abundant, the building code can sometimes add unnecessary complexity without adding any benefit to life safety.
In Seattle for the last fifty years or so, we’ve had a provision for small multifamily buildings that can eliminate one of the two typical stairs under very strict, prescriptive conditions: four units per floor, sprinklered buildings, fire-resistance-rated construction, quick access to a protected exit or to the street. These aren’t high rises or big apartment blocks.
Small apartment buildings should be the building block for middle housing and the single-stair provision makes many more sites feasible and gives architects more flexibility to design great buildings.
We have designed four of these small apartment buildings, varying from four to ten units. The sites are small urban infill, and a second stair would have probably killed the projects. On many infill sites, having a second stairwell means fewer windows for residents, fewer units, less ventilation, more blank exterior walls, and ultimately higher rent for residents because the buildings are much less efficient.
Senate Bill 5491 legalizes single-stair apartment buildings up to six stories. It will require the State Building Code Council (SBCC) to develop recommendations for these buildings and adopt the changes by July 2026.
The SBCC must convene a technical advisory group to recommend modifications and limitations to the International Building Code (IBC) that would allow for a single exit stairway to serve multifamily residential structures up to six stories.
The recommendations must include:
• considerations for adequate and available water supply
• the presence and response time of the fire department
• any other provisions necessary to ensure public health, safety, and general welfare
Six-to-twelve-plexes offer a superior urban experience, more housing units, more housing variety, and at least some fully accessible housing units. They also may preserve more tree canopy, increase open space, and optimize daylight compared to townhomes. These homes will push the bounds of the single-family envelope but maintain an urbanism-friendly street frontage.
As one of the region's leading voices for abundant and affordable housing choices, we advocate for smart density and missing middle housing. More efficient land use is critical to address our housing crisis, climate change, and persistent inequities in access to housing opportunities.
A “People Place” by Design
The Mazama Public House was conceived with community in mind.
“The long communal tables were always indicative of the way we were thinking about the place. You come in and you’re part of the community. You share a table and suddenly you’re in conversation with a person you’ve never met before. It’s a fun opportunity.”
-- Stefan Hampden, CAST architecture
See the full article here on Issue.
This pub is the new gathering spot for the community of Mazama, at the north end of Washington’s Methow Valley. The 1,868 square foot public house is designed to seat 56 and another 50 outside with built-in benches on the four-season covered patio. In warm weather, a garage door system opens for a seamless connection to the outdoor decks. The height of the shed roof and the expansive windows on two sides are sited to take advantage of natural light and views toward Goat Peak. The interior features wood beams punctuated by blackened steel and concrete floors. Custom tables and bar slabs were crafted from locally sourced Douglas-fir. Outside, blackened steel will accent the wood structure. The siding is a dark-stained, rough-sawn vertical channel shiplap.
Green design features the use of highly durable siding materials including a mix of locally harvested wood from the Methow Valley and Boise Cascade products. The generous overhangs were designed to protect the siding from wear and tear. Full LED lighting was installed.
@mazamapub
Architect: CAST architecture
Owner: Grumpy Goats, LLC
Operator: Old Schoolhouse Brewery @oldschoolhousebrewery
Contractor: Bjornsen Construction, Tom Bjornsen
Structural: Harriott Valentine Engineers @harriottvalentine
Lighting: LightWire @ltwire
Windows & doors: @sierrapacificwindows
The Methow Valley’s Riverside Winthrop Mixed-use project – On the Boards
“This is an amazing gift to the community. I hope everyone will look for ways to make sure it happens.”
-- public meeting attendee
This mixed-use project, at the east side of Winthrop in Washington’s Methow Valley, is positioned to become the upvalley entrance to “old downtown.” The site is a challenging set of narrow parcels overlooking the confluence of the Methow and Chewuch Rivers. The private development is driven by long-time Winthrop residents Peter Goldman and Martha Konsgaard and prioritizes doing right by the community on several fronts.
Given the housing crisis affecting the area, CAST is working with the town on zoning changes to allow for long-term residential rentals, and to integrate workforce housing into the project's program. At both a pedestrian as well as a vehicular gateway to the city, we are linking the town’s boardwalk to the Susie Stephens trail and the town's civic center on the south side of the river. We are working with the community to create an entry point to a public riverwalk trail system. Additionally, the project is envisioned as a template for how buildings can work within Winthrop's westernization code while striving for very high levels of sustainability and designing to passive house standards for the residential and office suites.
Riverside’s program will provide one 1-bedroom and two 2-bedroom residential units overlooking the river, with approximately 2,600 SF of pedestrian-level retail space which spills out into a public courtyard strengthening views and access to the river from town. The second floor incorporates 2,650 SF of office space, continuing the client’s tradition of renting below market rate to community non-profit businesses.
Team
Client: Peter Goldman and Martha Kongsgaard
Architect: CAST architecture
Builder: North Star Construction Company www.Northstarbuilds.Com
Civil & Structural: DCG www.dcgengr.com
Electrical: TFWB tf-wb.com
Environmental: Grette www.gretteassociates.com
Geotech: Geoengineers www.geoengineers.com/
Mechanical: Ecotope www.ecotope.com
Survey: Tackman www.tackmansurveying.com
Seattle Architect CAST partners with The BLOCK Project
CAST has partnered with The BLOCK Project which builds fully equipped, healthy homes for people experiencing homelessness.
We are excited to have just permitted our second BLOCK Project home!
BLOCK Homes are permitted and placed in homeowners' backyards throughout Seattle. This model gives residents a place to call home and our communities an opportunity to make a real difference in supporting our unhoused neighbors and addressing the issue of homelessness together.
Their mission: To inspire deliberate relationship building and community engagement as a pathway to ending homelessness.
www.the-block-project.org
@facinghomelessness
Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe’s Hatchery & Beach Shelter Construction Progress
Kingston, Washington
The new building will house office and utility space for the @portgamblesklallams salmon hatchery program and a separate open-air structure used by the Tribe’s commercial fishing operations.
Salmon hatchery operations require a constant flow of clean streamwater. The project includes a new earthen dam and water intake structure in the adjacent ravine that provides reliable flow at a constant pressure. Downstream, equipment housed within the building filters the water and regulates its oxygen content before supplying it to the indoor incubation tanks and outdoor fish runs.
Salmon fishing is central to the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe’s traditional identity and its contemporary outlook. This project seeks to recognize the cultural importance of both the place—a focal point of their history—and the program, while providing solutions to allow these activities to flourish in the 21st century.
Learn more about the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe.
TEAM
Architect: CAST architecture
Contractor: www.paccivil.com
Geo-tech: Robinson Noble
Structural: SSF
MEP: Glumac
Civil: Cannon
Landscape Architect: Pacific Landscape Architecture
Archeologist: Willamette Cultural Resources
Survey: AES Consultants
Intake System Engineer: Kleinschmidt Group
Specifications: Applied Building Information
Windows: @jeldwenusa www.dahlglass.com
See more about the Hatchery project here.
Seattle Architect CAST designs affordable housing in the Methow Valley
Winthrop, Washington
ON THE BOARDS — The Housing Authority of Okanogan County’s new Wildrose Apartments will provide 22 new affordable housing units targeted at families earning 30% of Area Median Income. Homes will be a mix of one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments, accommodating families, seniors, and young adults. A major design goal of the project is to achieve a high-level of integration between the apartments and the surrounding neighborhood of affordable single-family homes being simultaneously developed by the Methow Housing Trust.
The apartments are distributed into three 2-story structures surrounding two sides of a large commons that serves both communities. Both upper and lower units provide outdoor space facing the park, energizing the open space with many sources of activity around its perimeter. The footprint and envelope of each building is kept simple to reduce cost; secondary porches and balconies add visual interest while providing solar shading and weather protection.
Housing Authority of Okanogan County’s mission:
Assisting residents of Okanogan County to acquire and retain affordable housing while strengthening our communities by removing barriers, empowering dignity, and building trust.
www.okanoganhousing.org