zHome: The first zero-energy development in the nation.

Building Green is gaining much momentum these days in the industry, and is becoming common place in the Pacific Northwest. From LEED standards, to new marketplace products, to actual developments, we are becoming much more advanced and responsible in our practice. Often times though, you'll find just some basic tweaks to a project so that the builder can claim "building green". This is obviously not the case with LEED standards, as they review and investigate in order to reward a project with a certain level (gold, platinum, etc.) of certification. LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is a voluntary, consensus-based national rating system for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings. Developed by USGBC, LEED addresses all building types and emphasizes state-of-the-art strategies for sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials and resources selection, and indoor environmental quality. LEED is a practical rating tool for green building design and construction that provides immediate and measurable results for building owners and occupants.

One project that is not simply making small claims but really reaching to achieve a high set of standards, is zHome (zero energy homes) with their development in Issaquah. The force behind this project is Howland Homes, Port Blakely Communities, King County, the City of Issaquah, and various other partners. The below picture shows the design, depicting many advanced features that will seriously raise the building green bar.



A excerpt from the City of Issaquah website regarding this project follows:
"Construction starts today on the first multifamily, production housing project in the nation to use no more energy than it generates during the course of a year, resulting in a carbon neutral development. Located in the City of Issaquah, zHome will consist of 10 attached townhomes that use zero net energy, 60 percent less water, have clean indoor air and use only low-toxicity materials. zHome’s purpose is to demonstrate that homes that offer these types of cutting- edge environmental building principles are possible and scalable for mainstream housing production."

Take a look at the project website to learn what's possible these days...

Residential Style in Tower Form

Skipped a day of work recently during a perfect Seattle summer week and biked around the city. I had in mind my previous post, "Stuff I'm Digging (and not) ... Condo Tower Designs" regarding how a fair share of the new condo developments downtown are looking more like office buildings than residences. So as a quick follow up to the previous post I thought I'd add another project, one that I feel is very successful at creating the residential feel.

In the core of the city is rising the Escala condominium project. This tower is being developed by Lexas Companies of Seattle, and was designed by Thoryk Architecture of San Diego. Escala has been in the makings/construction for a long time. Perhaps due to the tight lot size being fully maximized, existing buildings in close proximity, and the extremely deep parking garage they had to dig and shore. They're now at the phase of the construction when the building shoots up quickly, that being the floors above the foundation and the retail - where each level repeats itself. The first thing you notice when you are at street level is the intimacy being created for the pedestrian. With the base is still covered in scaffolding, you can already start to feel the details and gathering spaces develop a sense of welcome. The picture shown here depicts a wide open space in front of the building, but in reality it's a fairly dense block and a relatively narrow street. Which I think makes the pedestrian consideration even more important to ground the building at street level and create a neighborhood feel (being that there are 30 plus stories looming above).

.

The other aspect of the design helping to create the residential feel is the footprint of the building. Lots of balconies, curving faces, angled corners, and other details not found on office buildings. The building speaks residential. Hopefully they will tuck some cafes in the nooks and provide areas for outside eating. I found an old 2003 article written about urban living in Vancouver, Canada, detailing how the successful approach in the developments there was soon going to be adopted in US cities. We're now 5 years later, and certainly Seattle is benefiting from the lessons taught by Vancouver. Take a look at the article here. And please be sure to let me know your opinion about this post and the related previous... perhaps leave me a comment! Agree or disagree?

Designing Plazas and Public Spaces in Big Box Architecture

This post continues on with the opinions expressed in an earlier submittal, that being Stuff I'm Digging. Though this time I'm writing about the middle ground... being that big-box developments have a difficult time not overwhelming a city block. And by big-box i'm referring to low-rise buildings covering an entire city block, where preferably a few different buildings would reside side by side. While big-box developers at least hopefully attempt to have a good street presence for pedestrians, albeit usually poorly, there's still always the issue of a large uniform mass looming above. Modular design and mini-insets for storefronts simply do not suffice.

My Stuff I'm Digging post praised the block intersected by Pike Street and 12th Avenue. This block has at least 8-10 different buildings making up it's presence. And what's amazing is that new buildings are taking the place of the old buildings, while keeping the amount of buildings the same. Lately, developers looking simply to profit would only proceed forward on a project like this if all or most of the buildings could be torn down making way for one cash producing behemoth. Sure, there's the bottom-line for the developer to take into considertion. After all, it is they with the initiative and means to implement this version of urban renewal. And most of the time it is indeed rundown buildings that are being replaced. But surely a responsibility to be of benefit to the neighborhood from whose ground you are profiting exists... an accountability of sorts. The picture in this paragraph should serve as inspiration for mid-block developments.

So, this is the case on a new development, The Chloe, that I'm posting about now. However, the architect, Runberg Architecture Group, is including a pretty cool feature to the design and footprint of the building to offset the nature of the project. In this case, we still have big-box architecture happening. But you'll notice how the footprint of the main building is "L" shaped, with the open space facing the street rather than the interior, thereby creating a nice pedestrian friendly presence. This approach creates the appearance of multiple buildings, yet still shares the same structure and facilities. And it brings a one story building into the fold, removing the looming large mass above and bringing the building down to human scale. Additionally, they've created a plaza-like space between the buildings, allowing for people to gather and socialize off-street.

Of course, there are codes and lot restrictions for how much a building can occupy of the footprint. And developers are indeed required to provide open space. Usually, however, this is achieved with interior courtyards that are both unappealing to the pedestrian, and to the dweller. Have you ever stood on someones balcony that faces an interior courtyard in one of these big-box buildings? It's somehow a little creepy, and in my opinion detracts from the very experience the developer is hoping to create. Community does not enjoy voyeurs, intentional or not! Not to mention, it's these balconies where tenants go to smoke... so usually blinds are kept drawn and sliding doors shut.


Selfishly, I'm looking forward to the potential opening of a bakery being that this development is only two blocks from our office... and is in fact only two blocks from the Stuff I'm Digging block as well! Also, if you take a look at the plan above, you'll notice a handful of retail spaces rather than just a couple big ones. That means cool boutiques and local shops... Critical mass has already been realized in this neighborhood, and with the addition of new projects like The Chloe, that mass will only grow.

European Style - Art Nouveau with Guimard & Expressionism with Gaudi

Ooh la la! Obvious perhaps, but that's what rolls from my mouth when I think back about a couple of design highlights from a recent three week adventure in Europe. There is a lot of amazing eye candy everywhere when traveling somewhere new. For me, eye candy can be tasty simply because my eyes have never experienced some of those fresh flavors before. With novelty aside, however, I did find two views in particular that will surely be long lasting with appeal. The first comes from the Art Nouveau movement, the second from the Expressionist movement.

Paris has no shortage of delicious architecture. It's history and cultural significance command it. Though when thinking back, a lot of what I saw is starting to blend together. A standout pierces through the sameness though... that being the Art Nouveua entrances to the metro system designed by Hector Guimard. I couldn't help but want to light a fire and start cooking a pig while sitting on bales of hay and listening to elves play their flutes. Lord of the Rings indeed! When passing through one of these entrances, we were starting an adventure into the underworld and labyrinths of tunnelorium. Sometimes in stark contrast to the seriousness of the the buildings around them, the metro iron work created by Guimard added a welcome touch of whimsy to the view.

My goal with this post is to show you a couple architectural design highlights from my recent trip, not to educate readers about the two movements mentioned. Instead I have provided some links so that you can learn as much as you'd like about Art Nouveau and Expressionist design from other resources. With that said... we move onto the next highlight!

Antoni Gaudi is the architect behind the second design morsel with his expressionist La Sagrada Familia. I'm still not sure what to say about this insane building, other than you will be drawn to it if you ever travel to Barcelona. The story itself is amazing, and still has decades upon decades of writing to be completed before the book is ready. The exterior is bizarrely stupendous and unlike anything else I have ever seen, and the mammoth volume of the interior left my mouth agape. I've seen my share of old buildings, and don't need to tour another church just because of its age and significance. Blah blah blah BUT, Sagrada Familia is most definitely not just another church. Well, maybe it is, but take a look at this unique piece of architecture...

Showing the height of the ceiling in La Sagrada Familia is tough. I zoomed in for the above picture, with as much below the field of view as above. The sheer mass of space perhaps did not dwarf that of say the Notre Dame in Paris, but something about the design lent itself to a much greater feel than any structure I had ever been in. Well... that's for another post!

Trenches, Conduit, Groundwork

We've reached the second phase of the town home landscaping project. If this is your first read and you'd like to see a drawing of the landscape design plan as well as read about work done to date, then check out Post 1: Landscape Design ~ The Town House Plan or for the image friendly version just check out the pic at left taken at the completion of Phase I. Phase II will consist of digging a trench for the electrical conduit to power a water feature, lights, and laptops; the installation of said power train, and then the covering of trench and the groundwork for the patio.

With the plan in place, a quick (long and involved) trip to the local warehouse lumber store yielded a puzzle bag of PVC conduit bits, exterior grade electrical wire, various waterproof (g.f.c.i.) outlets and switches, and a bottle of Grape Fierce Gatorade (delicious btw). To start I put my dad to digging the 24"ish deep trench in which to bury the conduit. While the electrical wire is exterior grade and can be simply buried as is in the dirt, for safety reasons I took a couple extra precautions. Wouldn't want someone getting fried from burying some bulbs. So a 24" depth trench and PVC conduit should prevent a shocking time. For this project, I'm running three feeds. One for the water element switch, one for the lighting switch, and one for a free duplex to use for whatevs when sitting at the table.

After cramming the three feeds into the first lengths of conduit, we began the dance of trying to feed the remaining lengths (around 30') through the network of loops bends and falls. Which was completed with various grunts twists and yanks. The picture seen here shows the conduit snaking its way through the trench, and then up and over the retaining wall. There will be two exterior waterproof switches by the door to our home office. One will operate the water feature, and the other will operate accent lights. We easily could have skipped the added elements, but really this type of work is very easy and takes any garden to the next level.

With the conduit complete and buried, the next step was to prep the ground above the electrical run for the patio. Using long bits of wood and a spirit level to mark the grade, my dad and I began whacking in stakes around the perimeter. Next was attaching 2x4 pressure treated lumber to the stakes for the frame. We got the first half done, and then began grading the earth. We're planning on removing around 2" of soil from the top of the frame down. This is in order to leave enough room for weed block, a layer of finely crushed gravel for the patio to lay on, and then the patio itself. We've decided on a sandstone from Colorado. For detailed instructions on the groundwork and laying of a patio, check out this site.

Our retail boutique design is coming together...

Wow. Tricia and I are fresh back from a site visit to Bossi & Ich Ky, our latest retail design project. The smell of fresh paint, wallpaper glue, newly cut wood, and general construction resin still lingers. I say wow because this project is turning out REALLY GOOD! Trust me, as always we did our field research before beginning this project. We feel we've raised the bar of design for local retail boutiques... not to say others haven't done a good job of course. But from our research we found that most high-end boutiques looked the same. Stained concrete floor, merchandisers purchased from a global manufacturer (tell them I sent you), some hangers, a hipster or two working the till, and a puffy chair. With some creative designing on our end, we were able to cost efficiently have the entire perimeter of the store be made up of custom built-ins. Simple framing and drywall around well thought space planning, and of course spectacular colors and wall treatments, mean this boutique will stand out on its own.

You see, we love retail design (and shopping). So for us this project was an excellent opportunity to create an environment that makes you (us) feel great about spending your (our) cash! No seriously, come down and visit next month and see for yourself. I'll even walk you through construction plans. The picture above shows the women's fitting rooms taking shape. They'll eventually have fabric privacy screens, and a fabric awning draping across the top of the recessed opening. The blue areas are for glass shelving that will be interior lit with a recessed low-voltage fixture. The picture in this paragraph shows what the general merchandising areas will look like, minus the finish details and trim work yet to happen.

For some before images, as well as some mid-way framing shots, check out this blog post from a week or so ago. One thing worth noting is the crazy timetable for this project. We were contacted by the clients on December 31. A day later, hungover from New Years, we were at the project site measuring and only two weeks later we had delivered a full set of construction documents to the general contractor for permitting with the city. Along with the blueprints we delivered the interior finishes and materials package. This image shows some of the colors and wall treatments you'll find in the store. Those strips on the floor are for the crown moulding for the tops of the built-ins. The two main chandeliers (yet to be installed) will make you drool. Honestly, you could live in this store (minus a kitchen) and be stoked... So all told here we are only 3.5 months from being contacted, and the store is nearly finished! (we should note that the general contractor rocks) You'll be shopping at Bossi & Ich Ky next month sometime.

About the owners: they are a hip young couple on their first retail venture. Last month they traveled to Fashion Week in New York to purchase super awesome designer clothing for the boutique. They've got an entire store load of merchandise ready to display in our creation... I know I'm psyched at the prospect of finding some decent men's fashion in a local store. Also, I hope choosing Pioneer Square as their location will start bringing some cool stuff to a great part Seattle, and continue to boot the import rug stores elsewhere. Finally, if you're a store owner, or an upcoming store owner, give us a call! You can just see our reflections in this picture - that could be your store ;-)

Blogging for design...

Question: Why blog?

Answer: Our latest project, Bossi & Ich Ky, is a high-end men's and women's fashion boutique located in Seattle's historic Pioneer Square. Great client that's letting us run with our scheme. Retail design is super creative and fun, and pushes the envelope.

So what does this have to do with our firm starting to blog? The fact that the clients learned of our services from a Google search! We got a call out of the blue with a project ready to go, and therein lies all the motivation I needed to get going on our blog and increase our exposure. So here we are... blogging for design.

Surely in the past our website has helped to secure us signed contracts... potential clients (that we've already been referred to) take a look at our online portfolio and see that we have some awesome project experience. But to have a choice client FIND US on the web, and then to be sold on services (from viewing our website) PRIOR to even contacting us - well now that's gold.

So here we are, blogging, hoping to reach out and spread a little design love to whomever is willing to receive it. Oh, in the meantime, take a stroll down Seattle's First Avenue just south of Yesler, and on the east side of the street you'll see our latest creation taking shape... the designer fashion boutique Bossi & Ich Ky.