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.

As a gateway, the design will put visitors in the frame of mind for the study and enjoyment of the Park.  Balancing educational needs and recreation activities as functions that informally overlap and inform each other, the facility welcomes both types of visitor and enfolds them in the living greenness of the Arboretum/Lake Washington edge environment.  The building concept blends with the naturalistic organization of the site with minimal visual impact and performs as a closed loop system with regard to energy and water, using only resources collected on site.  The concept also enhances the connectivity to the adjacent neighborhood and trail system and welcomes pedestrian and bike traffic.

The buildings are gently folded into a rolling wetland rise like leaves blown in on the wind.  The roofs are gently articulated to provide shelter and solar access.  Rammed earth walls announce the gateway yet continue uninterupted through the glass to become an integral part of the ambiance of the facility.  Glass walls provide an invisible barrier to the surrounding landscape during the day.  In the evening, light from the buildings spills out onto grounds muted by the vegetation foliage.

Retaining a small remnant of the “flyover” bridge allows for the development of an elevated promenade for the establishment of a “pier garden”.  The pier would be planted in a series of linear landscapes culminating in an overlook of the southern waterway of the Mountlake Cut.  The pier garden provides the visitor a new perspective of the northern limits of the Arboretum, Foster Island and the day-lighted Arboretum Creek." (from the Concept Plan)

Ideally, the building will be designed to the standards of the Living Building Challenge.  I've anticipated about 75kW of photovoltaics on the roof, plus a ground source heat pump for building climate control, harvesting all rain water for the building's use and to irrigate the demonstration gardens.

We've only just put this out into the public sphere for comments, and I can imagine that we'll have some lively discussions about how a modern structure fits within the Olmsteadian structure of the park.  I ultimately think that the contemporary architecture will best serve the Foundation, rather than grafting high performance energy and sustainable systems onto something that is overtly historicist.   The Washington Park Arboretum can look both both into its own history and the future to chart a path for success in it's second century.

Renderings courtesy of Lambert Design Studio

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?  There was a lot of energy in the room and the enthusiasm was palpable.  I wanted to highlight a couple of trends that we saw in multiple projects.

1.  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.  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).  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.  Waste stream minimization:

Two projects highlighted efforts to reduce construction waste: Bastyr University housing, and Walsh Construction's Salishan redevelopment.  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.

The AIA's new awards program for housing, Futureshack, was this past week on Wednesday.  The best thing about the program is the attempt to engage the public in a discourse about housing, density, green building.  The awards even had a People's Choice award, based on online voting.

This year the AIA also premiered a new feature, Speed-Date-Design--7 minutes to bounce your ideas of an architect (then onto the next person).  As one of the Speed Daters, I talked with a couple interested in a multi-family development--almost a co-housing concept, plus a couple of homeowners about northwest contempory design and sustainable construction.  They picked my brain about dormers, backyard cottages, and recycled building materials. After the Speed Date session, one of the bartenders working the event asked me about getting a permit for his garage.  The informal format really helped make people who might not think that they could engage an architect feel comfortable about soliciting a little advice about building. I hope that the AIA does more of this kind of activity.

Both photos are courtesy of Andrew Buchanan--www.SubtleLightPhoto.com

It was great to see a solid turnout for the opening. It was so packed I couldn't really spend time looking at the work, amongst all the starving architects jockeying for free wine, beer and food!

Come see the freshest work by a group of young architects, tonight at the AIA office downtown. We're honored to be a part of this group!

Kate and Ric have begun construction on their backyard cottage... They have been working hard the last few weeks and have enlisted the help of a few friends and colleagues along the way. A few key players have been helping guide us through the process:

• Rusty Borromeo of Borromeo Construction LLC is providing his general contractor and construction expertise
• James Jenkins of O'Brien & Company is contributing his green building knowledge and will be our Built Green Verifier  - we are aiming for 5 star Built Green certification
• Cory Fraser of LFD Structural Engineering LLC provided the calculations and engineering for our plan set

Ric has been doing a wonderful job of photographing the process and has put together a few galleries of the construction process thus far (all images in this post are © 2010 Ric Cochrane). He has also agreed to write up a blog post on the experience thus far - so stay tuned for that!

DECONSTRUCTION GALLERY An existing shed (that was a bit worse for wear) was painstakingly deconstructed and all reusable and recyclable materials were sorted and stacked

LABOR OF LOVE - THE FOUNDATION Digging in the dirt and other fun activities - the true definition of 'sweat equity!'

LUMBER FROM THE BONE-YARD Salvaged beams, columns and decking are being purchased from Bruce Borjesson of Pacific Resources

The final Feasibility Study and Community Design Report is available here

We just heard that one of our past projects is going to be featured in Seattle Homes and Lifestyles next year!  The project was a remodel of a classic victorian on Capitol Hill. The original house was well kept, but overgrown, dark with a tiny kitchen:

The walls in the dining room were forest green, but you couldn't even really tell, because of the heavy drapes, and the 15' hedge that was gradually consuming the site.

We took down the hedge, pulled the drapes, then started cutting into the house to open up the spaces, and connect the house to the outside world.  We added an elegant back porch, perfect for grilling, using all the period details down to the last dentil.  Even though we maintained the perimeter of the existing house, by using the space better, we were able to triple the kitchen's size, and put in built-ins to maximize every corner without altering the character of the house.

We've been selected as one of the up and coming Seattle architecture firms shaping the future of our fair city.  The exhibit will be up at AIA Seattle in July with a reception on the July 1st from 5-7 pm. The exhibit will highlight ten or so local firms, and will be a great chance to see some fresh design thinking from around town.  The AIA hasn't published the full list of firms included yet, but when they do, I'll link up to their websites.

In collaboration with Parkour Visions, we put together a proposal to turn a site at 19th and Madison (currently an empty lot, that ironically Kevin in our office designed a 4 unit complex for at a prior firm before the economy tanked) into a Parkour Park.  Parkour Visions, in addition to being a gym (and one of our building's tenants), does training, classes, and preaches the Parkour gospel to the masses.  If you aren't familiar with Parkour, check this out: video clip 1:

video clip 2:

The proposal (found here), is for a Seattle Design Commission competiton called "Holding Pattern" to create temporary uses for vacant land spread throughout  the city, with the goal to activate these urban spaces.  We'll find out next week if the ParkOurPark is going to get the green light!