Ryther Campus Renewal Phase I

For the past several years, we have been helping Ryther with a generational renewal of their campus. Our work included a new master plan for the campus, renovation of their Support Services and Clinical Services Buildings, and a top-to-bottom reworking of the public areas of the campus (see previous blog post). In addition to updating the facilities to take care of Ryther's functional and programmatic needs, we returned time and again to the theme that the updated campus needed to manifest and express Ryther's mission to be a welcoming and healing environment for children and their families. Renovation of both buildings and the landscape is nearly complete.

The core of the new campus design began with a re-design of the entry to the campus. The original design located the entry in an alcove of the Outpatient Services Building that was difficult to find and poorly lit.  We relocated the entry to the other side of the building, a large courtyard with a specimen tree, visible as soon as you enter the campus.  

While the 1960s era building exteriors featured handsome brick elements, the grey paint color felt cold and unwelcoming. Each major building on campus now has brighter, kid-friendly colors that compliment the brick. A new colorful entry canopy now provides way-finding and sets the tone for the campus, which express the child-centered nature of the institution using a mixture of gestural elements, cheerful colors, and playful shapes.  

The renovated Ryther Commons features way-finding monuments, such as a kiosk and canopy, to clearly mark the new entry to the Outpatient Services Building. Old side entry before renovation, inset.

Outpatient Services Building custom entry canopy. Special blue door is designed just for kids. 

The double door entry to the clinical services building features a small and brightly-colored door, made specially for children. Portholes in the kids' door add to the spirit of whimsy and discovery. 




























The original entry alcove has been re-purposed into a borrowed landscape that provides a soothing backdrop for the lobby. 

Dubbed the "Zen Garden," the original entry (inset) as now viewed from the renovated lobby.

We worked with the clinical staff and interior design firm, PCI, to ensure colors and patterns would be appropriate for the client population. The renovated lobby has been refinished with new materials and furnishings in a calming blue and brown palette. Before the renovation, the room lacked natural light and felt claustrophobic. New ceiling coves with solar tubes bring natural light into the space, while other coves feature colorful hand-blown glass lights.

The renovated lobby with new finishes and furnishings. Ceiling coves feature solar light and blown glass fixtures. 

The lobby also features a unique children's corner. The wood enclosure wall is extra thick and feature a number of openings, each with it own special purpose: one for sitting; one for crawling through; one for storing toys, one for storing books, one for peeping through. 

The floor of the children's corner is made of macerated rubber and sloped to encourage floor-time play. Sparkle-lighting creates unique star-shaped patterns on the ceiling. The walls feature a gradient mural, reminiscent of waves or mountains. 

Children's corner with interactive wood wall, sea-to-sky mural and sloped rubber floor.

We wanted to make sure that the new campus experience started at the street. Previously, the monument signage at the street was dark and difficult to see. Updated signage matches Ryther's current brand and is also more visible. 

New street monument signage is much more visible.

The Support Services Building also received a face lift. Exterior cladding is freshened up with a brighter color. Landscape design, courtesy of Johnson Southerland, opens up the once overgrown entry. Windows on both buildings have been upgraded for energy performance.

Renovated Support Services Building with friendlier color palette and open landscape.

Before the renovation, interior spaces of the Support Services Building were cluttered and broken up by a number of different alterations. We opened up the main vaulted space to house waiting and meeting rooms. 

Support Services Building now features a vaulted waiting room and conference space.

Hallways to clinical and support staff offices once felt dark and daunting. New lighting, paint and carpet, along with ceiling tiles to conceal the ductwork make the corridors feel welcoming and professional. 

Bright and professional hallways lead support staff to their offices. 

Offices across campus were in need of an update, with aging wall panels, old carpet and dim light fixtures. Updated offices received new wall board, finishes, window treatments and lights. 

Updated support staff offices with clean walls, indirect lighting, and new finishes. Previous condition, inset.

Through this renovation process, the campus has come to life and now reflects what Ryther truly is at heart—a place of healing for children and families.

Thank you to Ryther and the entire project team for their support in making this vision for the campus a reality:

Architect: Neiman Taber Architects.  David Neiman, Liz Pisciotta, Erin Feeney
Structural Engineer: Harriott Valentine Engineers.  Josh Welch, Doug Clair
Landscape Architect: Johnson Southerland.  Margaret Johnson, Benjamin Barrett 
Interiors and Furniture: PCI.  Paige Otero, Sheryl Guyon
General Contractor:  Abbott.  Andy Powers, Ed Santander, Sidney Morris

Project Managment:  VOKA.  Vlad Oustimovitch and Kathryn Armstrong

Wellington Lofts Update

The Wellington Lofts project is finally complete. A couple years ago, we helped renovate the existing building, adding 6 six new units in the basement. The recently completed alley building provides 3 new studio apartments on top of a re-built 6 car garage structure. All told, we raised the unit count from 16 to 25 and brought the existing defunct parking back into service, all while preserving the existing building.

The alley building roof slopes and overall massing are designed to step down in scale towards the alley, creating a more harmonious composition and limiting the amount of wall area facing the apartments across the alley. The massing scheme allows the sleeping lofts to be placed away from the west building facade, which improves privacy relationships across the alley

The alley building cladding features painted cement panels painted with a range of colors that complement the brick of the original building so the new addition fits more comfortably with the character of its immediate context, while using contemporary forms and materials.

The building has a consistent design concept and a material palette. Garage doors and apartment windows are aligned from top to bottom on the facade in order to provide a orderly composition, similar to that of neighboring masonry buildings.

Each unit has a large sleeping loft above the kitchen, bathroom and laundry at the apartment level. The living area takes advantage of the double height space. The thin floor plate and simple shed form provide each unit with access to good natural light. High windows provide individuals within the units views to the sky and maintain privacy from neighboring buildings.

Wellington is a great example of the kind of work we have been doing on existing apartment buildings since the new multi-family code passed in 2011.  We have done renovations like this on a couple dozen apartment buildings, adding needed units to our housing stock while preserving and rehabilitating existing building fabric.  Prior to 2011, density limits and parking requirements prevented building owners from fully utilizing their existing buildings

HUP Wellington Lofts

Wellington Apartments is an existing 22 unit apartment building on the corner of 16th Ave East and East Mercer St in Seattle. It currently has an existing accessory parking structure to the west of the property.  The proposed project will demolish the parking structure and replace it with three new loft units above a new parking garage. Each unit has a large sleeping loft above the kitchen, bathroom and laundry at the apartment level. The living area takes advantage of the double height space. The thin floor plate and simple shed form provide each unit with access to good natural light. High windows provide individuals within the units views to the sky and maintain privacy from neighboring buildings. The façade expression features a  color range of painted cement panels that match the existing brick so the new building will fit within the character of its immediate context. The project is set to begin construction soon.  

Roxette Apartments

Seattle is currently going through a multi-family housing boom, and we are booming right along with it. Looking around the office, almost everyone has a an apartment project or two on their desk.  The first one out of the gate this year is the Roxette, a 20 unit addition to the Roxborough Apartments at 18th & Denny on Capitol Hill.  While we are waiting for our first official design review meeting, we have set up an informal public meeting to show the project to the neighbors and take some early feedback.

Apartment development in lowrise zones is a hot topic in Seattle these days.  LR3 zones were given a height increase up to 40' in the 2011 code revision, and the most recent crop of projects have produced a lot of projects that are out of scale with their neighbors.  The Roxette project is focused on creating a building massing that respects the scale of the adjacent 3 story apartment along the front facade, stepping up to a four story height farther away from the street.  

PUBLIC PRESENTATION:  5:50PM, January 28 ; Polish Home Association - 1714 18^th Ave E.

Ryther Campus Renewal

Ryther is a children's behavioral heath services institution located in North Seattle. For generations Ryther has provided care for children in the state foster care system, many of them suffering from abuse, neglect, and addiction.  Over the years, state funding has become leaner and a funding gap has opened up between the cost of providing care and what the state is willing to pay for it.  Ryther has always managed to bridge this gap through philanthropic support, but doing so has been a constant struggle. Recently, Ryther began a new initiative to secure their future by opening their doors to private outpatients, becoming a health care provider that can serve any child or family that needs help with the wide range of issues where Ryther is uniquely qualified to help.

To facilitate this transition, Ryther has embarked on a major fundraising initiative to renovate the campus. While much of our work will focus on the nuts & bolts of getting the buildings fixed up and ready for another generation of service, we've also been tasked with something really special:  Transforming a fairly non-descript institutional campus into a place that is expressive of its unique nature, namely that Ryther is a mission driven institution, dedicated to healing families and helping children to realize a better life.

Throughout the process we have looked for opportunities to express the child centered nature of the institution through architectural form.  Just in time for Ryther's annual fundraiser, we unveiled our design for the new campus entry and lobby.

The project  features many unique design elements, but the common theme that runs throughout is that they are invitations to children to engage with their environment in an open-ended, creative, and imaginative way.  They are a way of expressing, in built form, the values of the institution.  They are playthings for children, but also a means to communicate Ryther's values to parents who are making choices about where to take their children for help.

Design Team: David Neiman, Liz Pisciotta, Erin Feeney. John Barker Landscape Architect

New campus "kidscape" features playful hopping stones that weave along the entry path and into the garden areas. A forest of colorful poles are used to mount bird and bat habitats, lighting fixtures, and signage.  Footholds on the poles allow kids to climb and walk among them.

New entry to the clinical services building.  A leaf shaped canopy captures rainwater from the upper roof and channels it into a new stream bed.  The building entry features a playful entry door sized just for kids.

The walls, ceiling, and floor of the lobby takes the color ideas that begin in the kidscape and extends them inside.  The design features a playful mix of ceiling coves, niches, skylights and pendant lights.  The kids corner can be accessed by crawling through big holes in the surrounding walls.

The campus lobby kids corner.  A  peaceful, skylit space intended to encourage calm behavior, the room is decorated with a sea-to-sky mural, soft furniture, and a thickened wall that kids can nest inside.

Therapy rooms feature a inviting floor-play corner, colorful lighting, and decorative ceiling clouds.

First brainstorm sketch of the pole forest.

In addition to being Ryther's architect, we are also proud supporters.  If you wish to join us in making a donation to Ryther, here is the link to their fundraising page.

Wellington Alley Apartments

When the new multi-family code went into effect two years ago, it removed a requirement that developers provide one parking stall for every unit of housing. Since that time, we've been up to our elbows in a variety of new project types that have been enabled as a result.

Many of our apartment clients are taking older properties that had been previously frozen in amber, and converting obsolete spaces (storage lockers, boiler rooms, maintenance shops) into new apartments.

At Wellington Apartments we are replacing a dilapidated garage structure along the alley & adding three small apartments on top.  At 300 square feet, the apartments are very compact and affordable.  A sleeping loft will help them live a little bigger, and provide a little more privacy for the bedroom area.

The design features a cement panel siding that appropriates the variegated color palate of original brick building but uses it at a different scale in a wholly contemporary fashion. The color and material palette selection creates a contextual relationship between the original building and its new annex, while maintaining a clear distinction between old and new.

View from Mercer St

Site Plan

Cross Section

Floor Plan

View from the alley

Client:  Hamilton Urban Partners

Project Team:  David Neiman, Liz Pisciotta, Mike Lafon

Structural Engineer:  Harriott Valentine