John Peterson, of Public Architecture, is coming to town on October 20th to give a talk on how pro bono design is making a difference.  His firm has been behind a national effort, call the One Percent, to mobilize architects to donate 1% of their time per year toward pro bono causes.

Recently they've published a book called the Power of Pro Bono detailing 40 project nation wide where architects have donated their time toward great causes. CAST architecture's first pro bono project, the Interbay P-Patch is featured in the book.

We joined up with the One Percent several years ago after finishing the first project for the P-Patch, and have since completed several, with more on the way. I heartily recommend public service as an excellent way for architects to use their unique skill set to improve the community.  Plus, personally, it feels great to know that you've made a difference in the lives of some of your neighbors.

Here are the details for the talk:

Wednesday, 10/20

Pan Pacific Hotel

2125 Terry Avenue, Lakefront Room

Cocktails start at 5:30, the talk starts at 6:15, with dessert and coffee afterwards.

One of my daily destinations for green design, Inhabitat, just featured our Sunset Substation Park! Just a blurb, but there is more information on the Sunset Substation blog

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!

In the Daily Journal of Commerce: Green Building Blog

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.

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!

The Artalejo-Lacas Residence has been featured in the Fine Homebuilding "Houses 2010" issue! It is on the newsstands now, check out the article which starts on page 45...

Artalejo-Lacas residence

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.