Central to the name, identification and restoration of wetland habitat was central to the Rainier Beach Urban Farm & Wetlands. The location of all site improvements, including agricultural fields, buildings, roads, parking, and other farm infrastructure, was dictated by the need to not only avoid riparian zones, but to facilitate their enhancement. Rather than treating this as a limitation, our team of Landscape Architects, Architects, and Civil and Environmental Engineers used the wetlands at the center of the site as an organizing principle that strengthened the project.

Rainier Beach Urban Farm and Wetland

complex sites

Finding the right place to build the Icicle Creek Retreat within a 22-acre private inholding in the Wenatchee National Forest required a careful and deliberate process. CAST worked closely with a wetland biologist and a geotechnical engineer to identify a buildable site, triangulating between several types of stream and wetland buffers, geological hazard areas, location of access roads, and forest fire safety concerns. The project required both SEPA review and Conditional Use Permit approval through the Chelan County Hearings Examiner.

Icicle Creek Retreat in the Wenatchee Forest, Washington

The Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe Hatchery Building is located on the beach in a known archaeological site. CAST worked closely with the Tribe’s Cultural Resources team to develop an amendment to the Tribe’s Archaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA) permit and to incorporate the resultant Monitoring and Discovery Plan (MDP) into the project specifications. Located in the intertidal zone, the design required close coordination with Structural and Geo-Technical engineers to ensure that the building will be resistant to higher tide levels predicted to occur with rising sea levels.

Rendering of Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe Beach Shelter and Hatchery Building in the distance

CAST ARCHITECTURE’s AWARD-winning Rainier Beach Urban farm ND WETLANDS

Rainier Beach Urban Farm and Wetlands Classroom Building has won an AIA Washington Council Civic Design Merit Award and an Honorable Mention from the AIA Seattle Honor Awards.

Rainier Beach Urban Farm and Wetlands (RBUFW) transformed a former City of Seattle seven-acre tree nursery into an urban agriculture center for a culturally diverse area of Seattle. Run by Tilth Alliance and Friends of Rainier Beach Urban Farm and Wetlands, the project inspires and educates people to safeguard our natural resources while building an equitable and sustainable local food system. Local food production for a neighborhood abundant with immigrant culture means refugees, who were forced to flee their homeland farms, now pass down food, farming traditions, and identity to the next generation through RBUFW. At the heart of the farm is the new Classroom Building. It brings together people from a full spectrum of cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.

The building program was a result of a community-driven process that led to the design of a flexible gathering space and a commercial kitchen for community meals and cooking demonstrations. In addition to monthly community dinners, kid’s summer camps, and a pay-what-you-can farmstand, RBUFW hosts fresh food related programs for community-supported agriculture, gardening, beekeeping, and food production.

The Classroom Building’s canopy is framed with parametric trusses that transition from convex to concave, wrapped in translucent polycarbonate. It cantilevers 24 feet to create a protected porch where the community can gather outdoors, regardless of the weather. To either side of the canopy, service boxes contain restrooms, storage, and the community kitchen. Situating the new building on a slope between two groves of trees at the edge of the site maximizes the arable land in front of the building and minimizes the building profile for the neighbors. Beyond the Classroom Building, RBUFW’s site was designed to include substantial wetland restoration, permaculture, greenhouses, over 30,000 square feet of in-ground farming, and composting and cold storage facilities. An original garden shed was renovated to create space for administration, restrooms, and a conference room.

Rainier Beach Urban Farm and Wetlands is a vibrant community hub for food, urban farming, and environmental education in the heart of Rainier Beach-- one of the most diverse zip codes in the nation. The 7.2 acres site is ½ dedicated to organic food production and ½ restored natural wetlands. They offer a variety of community education classes and workshops including growing and preserving your food and conserving our environment, plus volunteer opportunities for individuals and groups year-round.

As a vibrant working farm and environmental center, it provides 20,000 pounds of fresh produce thru CSAs and a pay what you can farmstand. The Good Food Bags program links local farms to consumers. A youth employment program prepares young people for agriculture careers. Community meals feed thousands every year. Nearly half the site is a wetland that has been painstakingly restored, removing invasive species and replanting thousands of wetland trees and shrubs.

We're almost done with a believe it or not historical renovation of a mid-century architect's own house--more to come! 

There is a certain ethereal, minimal quality to a room without walls, without columns, without visible support. 

At Rainier Beach, our classroom building has a 24' x 24' covered outdoor space, with a translucent roof components, cantilevering off the building. Last week, they put up the trusses and now the skeleton of the space is taking shape, and I'm pretty excited.  The Big Cantilever can be absolutely magic on a visceral level, where the structure's logic defies gravity.  

Now can you be begin to perceive the core of the design: heavy elements buttressed into a hillside, between two groves of trees, with a translucent wedge floating over a simple gathering space, out of the rain, with the farmland stretching out, uninterrupted.  

After a 4 year process, we've finally started construction!  We can't wait to see it take shape--it fits right into the trees perfectly! 

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RBUFW Classroom building, view looking south from the entry path (architectural rendering)

RBUFW Classroom Building

We've been on an intense push the last few weeks to develop a schematic design for the new Classroom Building at the Rainier Beach Urban Farm and Wetlands (RBUFW). We're incredibly excited that Seattle Parks and Seattle Tilth were able to compress a two-phase master plan into a single project, but the result has been a very aggressive schedule for the design phase!

For  inspiration, we've been looking at pragmatic agricultural structures, both the simple closed forms of storage sheds and more "prismatic" shapes of greenhouses and barns. Greenhouses are particularly intriguing in the way the inside reveals a complicated structure and interior volume that is barely suggested by their taut and simple exterior form.

Greenhouse interior & exterior images

Sited to preserve the maximum agricultural land, the Classroom Building is nestled into a hillside along the east edge of the property. Three closed "boxes" containing support functions are slotted into the hillside, with the open space between accommodating the classroom and a grove of existing trees.

RBUFW Classroom Building Floor Plan

Above the boxes, a pair of elevated canopies create the primary function spaces and extend out over the pathway to provide plenty of covered outdoor space.

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RBUFW Classroom Building, view from the SW (architectural rendering)

From the outside, these canopies appear as simple translucent volumes, but the inside reveals vaulted space, filtered sunlight and expressive structure. We've taken inspiration from architects such as MW Works and VJAA who accept the construction techniques of industrial space-making, but turn around and use those conventional materials in a very refined and thoughtful manner.

RBUFW classroom building, view under main porch (architectural rendering)

RBUFW classroom building, interior view (architectural rendering)

More media about RBUFW:

Seattle Magazine "On the Urban Farm"

Seattle's Child "Urban Farms Grow Healthy Eaters"

The Seattle Times "An Urban Farm Helps Immigrants from East Africa Settle in Seattle"

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