This remodel and addition to a classic Tucker & Shield Mid Century Modern home in the Laurelhurst neighborhood of Seattle, strengthens the connection of rooms to one another, the public portions of the house to the site, and updates the finishes of this 1955 residence while staying true to the spirit of the original design.

A new day lit stair well creates a logical circulation path between the bedroom wing of the split-level, and the public spaces of the house, creating a more fluid transition to the second floor living.  The new family room addition builds off the home’s original elemental language of brick, wood and glass, providing a deck to take in the expansive views of Lake Washington - Leveraging the house's connection to a quintessential Seattle site.

A special thanks to the project manager Rich Denny of High Country Contractors for being a great partner on this project!

Saratoga Modern--exterior from backyard

Set in the Saratoga, California suburbs, this house is a complete reboot of a 1969 faux colonial.  We're stripping away the historical pastiche, and focusing the design on nearly seamless indoor/outdoor living.  Wrapping the house is a stone terrace and arcade which defines a new dining space, lounge area and a series of gardens.  It screens the intense solar exposure, and reinforces the horizontal in keeping with the City's very restrictive planning regulations.

The palette of natural materials is pretty rich, but understated, using changes in texture and shadow.  We'll be using a light colored, hard limestone, called Fiore from Maidenstone.  We'll use a split face texture for the arcade columns, hammered tile for the outdoor terrace, and a brushed finish for the interior tile.  The cabinetry and trim will be mostly walnut slab and panels.

More information and photos after the jump...

We've been investigating what the Urban Olympic project would look like as an 27 unit apartment building.  One potentially excited twist on the building is that we have split the bulk into two volumes with a 18' wide courtyard atrium.  The atrium and circulation are exterior, so we can apply another 2000 S.F.for an extra 3 units and still come in under the FAR limit.

We also did a first run at some energy modeling, using Archicad's EcoDesigner program, and feel that given the bulk it would be fairly straight forward to achieve the Passive House standard, but the return on investment is better if we design to the envelop to Washington State Energy Code, add solar hot water, switch the lighting to LEDs, and add an ERV.

Dave Boone has broke ground on our latest commercial project, The Canal Street Studio. This mixed use building on an infill lot in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle, will house retail and office space, an artist's studio, and a caretakers residence. This live work studio for an interior designer/ceramicist and a writer, over looks the Fremont Canal, and is projected to be finished in spring of 2012.

Join us tonight at Future Shack 2011 for another evening of great dialogue about houses.  Last year I participated in the 'Speed-Date'---seven minutes to lay out the project and have a design brainstorm, then on to the next architect.  It was a blast, and this year Tim will be sitting in for me. After Speed Date Design, there will be a presentation of innovative ideas in housing.

Our entry, Urban Olympic, is a nine unit townhouse complex designed to use 90% less energy that typical code compliance housing.  See our entries over the last few years : 2011, 2009

It is at Fisher Pavillion in the Seattle Center, starting at 5 pm.

A short subdivison in West Seattle is serving as the site for two prefabricated homes for a Seattle developer.

CAST worked with a modular factory in Oregon to understand the constraints involved with building, shipping, and installing factory built structures. Leveraging this knowledge we have designed a prototype house which balances the economy of modular construction with selective site built elements to gain the modulation, character, and function which stock prefabricated construction typically lacks.

By making changes to the homes orientation, location of site built portions of the structure such as awnings, eaves, parking, and decks, an extremely economical structure is tailored into a series of custom homes.

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This new home was permitted under Seattle's citywide backyard cottage ordinance (which is rapidly approaching it's second year anniversary). The existing home, with a large corner lot and alley access, was an ideal candidate for a backyard cottage. The site allowed both the existing home and new cottage to enter from separate streets, have separate outdoor living areas and maintain a great deal of privacy from one another.

The owner desired a modestly scaled 800 square foot structure with exterior massing that followed the traditional lines of the existing home and a modern, light filled interior that opened to a private courtyard and was suitable for entertaining guests. The floor plan centers on a double height dining room with clerestory windows, sleeping loft and a large 4 panel door that frames views of the private courtyard and terraced garden. The cottage features radiant floor heating, an efficient on boiler with integrated solar hot water collection and a 1500 gallon cistern for rainwater catchment.

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View from the dining room into the kitchen.

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1,500 gallon cistern for rainwater catchment.

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View from the kitchen into the dining room and living room.

Last night, we had about 50 people come out for drinks and a short program on pro bono design services.  Two non profits were kind enough to speak a little about their experience with pro bono service and what it allowed them to accomplish (a lot!).  One architect, Brian Palidar of GroupArchitect spoke about his partnership with the Sibling House Foundation, doing housing assessments/remodels to keep foster kids together.  We ended with a Q&A covering a wide range of topics, from convincing management to prioritize pro bono services, to selecting non profit clients. I was very pleased with both the attendance and the response!

If you have questions about pro bono service, how to sign up, or would like to have me come to your non-profit and answer questions about how to capitalize on the amazing expertise of local design professionals, please contact me at matt@castarchitecture.com.

CAST architecture and the Miller Hull Partnership have put together an after-work mixer for The 1%, an organization whose design professional members pledge to donate 1% of their billable hours to pro bono causes every year.

The event will have a short program featuring architects and clients talking about the power of pro bono, a question and answer session, light fare and drinks.  Most of all, mix and meet leaders in the Seattle's design profession looking to serve the non-profit sector!

Please let us know that you are coming, by July 22, via  RSVP@MillerHull.com

CAST architecture recently participated in a Seattle City Council discussion regarding backyard cottages. The meeting began with a presentation of backyard cottage statistics that were gathered during the first year of the city wide backyard cottage ordinance. Following the presentation participants discussed working with the ordinance in practice and suggested potential improvements that could be made to the ordinance. You can view a video of the entire discussion at seattlechannel.org: Backyard Cottages: 1 Year Later

There is also a backyard cottage annual report available to download from the DPD's website: Backyard Cottages Annual Report - April 2011

Of particular interest was the number of cottages permitted in the first year (57) and their relatively even distribution throughout the city. One of the primary concerns opponents had expressed in opposition to the ordinance was a fear that dense concentrations of cottages would "take over" single family neighborhoods causing widespread parking and privacy issues. The fear was so potent and adamantly expressed that at one point during the development of the ordinance city council members considered placing limits on the number of permits per year (50) and limits on the number of cottages allowed in any given area. Thankfully, neither limit was written into the code and the fears have been proven to be unjustified thus far.

A few other interesting issues that came to the surface during the discussion were:

1. The relatively high costs of constructing a backyard cottage makes it difficult for home owners to see a return on their investment if they hope to use a cottage to generate rental income. In general it was felt that backyard cottages were an important new housing typology for the city and that the cottages are a valuable addition to the city's rental stock. It was proposed that the city should consider incentives that would help lower the cost of constructing a cottage and help encourage their creation. A reduced permit fee and property tax credits are two areas I think the city should review.
2. The feeling that the off street parking requirements (2 spaces) was in most cases unnecessary and to the detriment of green space and usable yards. One idea put forth was to loosen the parking requirements by making it easier to obtain a parking waiver on streets where parking is not an issue.
3. The base height limit was thought to be a bit too low and creates unreasonable difficulties for the construction of two story structures. During the public comment portion of the meeting architect Jim Burton suggested changing the datum to which the base height could be measured (top of plate) to add a bit to the base height limit and encourage homeowners to exceed minimum requirements for insulating roofs and ceilings. The overall height limit was thought to be adequate with the exception of the following issue:
4. The current ordinance sets the height limit to 15' above an existing home. This was thought to be problematic and unfair in the case where the property owner's lot has a significant slope up behind the existing home.
5. The current ordinance does not allow for a backyard cottage to be built on a through lot (a lot with a street on both the front and rear lot lines of a property). This was generally thought to be a mistake in the writing of the ordinance and that the ordinance should be revised to allow cottages on through lots.

All in all it was a fun and informative meeting. Kudos to the city employees key in the development of the ordinance and to Sally Clarke and the city council for passing the ordinance unanimously. After the first year of real world testing the ordinance has proven to be a resounding success.