Crown Hill Community Microhousing

Inspirational images illustrating the community-oriented aspirations of the project.

On November 7^th we will present preliminary concepts for our latest micro-housing project at 8311 15^th Avenue NW in Crown Hill.  This project is part of our ongoing mission to rethink the possibilities for dense livable housing in our rapidly changing city - a pursuit that has led us to a unique approach to micro-housing that emphasizes small affordable housing paired with generous common amenities arranged to foster social interaction among residents.

An important part of this process is engaging with the communities where we build to let people know what we are planning. The feedback we get from stakeholders helps us to refine and improve our design and integrate it better into the broader community.  With this goal in mind, we met earlier this fall with our immediate neighbors for a conversation.  We also sat down with members of the Crown Hill Urban Village Committee for Smart Growth, who invited us to prepare this blog post to help with the outreach process.

LIVING TOGETHER

Our projects take an approach to micro-housing that differs what people may have seen in the past, so we want to take this opportunity to explain our design and the thinking that informs it.  Our mission is to build housing that pushes forward on the following fronts:

• Livability:  Small units with thoughtful layouts, built-in amenities, storage, etc.
• Community: Generous common spaces designed to augment the livability of the units, purposefully arranged to promote chance interaction among residents.
• Affordability: Affordable rental housing is rapidly disappearing in Seattle. This model allows us to increase the supply of affordable housing and to reach a level of deep affordability that is not possible with conventional market rate housing.
• Social Mission: We look for opportunities to partner with non-profit organizations that need housing to forward their mission and serve their clients.
• Sustainability: Our projects will participate in green building certification programs to push energy performance far beyond code requirements.

A typical loft unit in the Yobi Apartments by Neiman Taber Architects.

LIVABILITY

Each of the private rooms in the project enjoy the following features:

• Private bathroom.
• Built-in wardrobe.
• Kitchenette with sink, lighted mirror, medicine cabinet, microwave, refrigerator.
• Built in storage areas in bathroom, living area, and overhead.
• Double bed.
• Over-sized windows provide generous natural light.
• Lofts at all top level units.

Community kitchens on every floor provide opportunities for interaction often absent in apartment buildings.

COMMUNITY

At each floor level there is an informal “Pajama Commons” on each floor featuring:

• Full Kitchen for casual private and group use by residents.
• Dining area with ample daylighting.
• Laundry

At the main floor there is a larger shared commons for the whole building featuring:

• Full Kitchen
• Dining Area
• Living room/lounge
• Streetside terrace w/ visual connection to public way
• Shared courtyard with commercial tenant (coffee shop or cafe)

The main floor at 8311 15th NW has been designed create a high level of interaction between the retail spaces, the residential commons and the pedestrian environment.

AFFORDABILITY:
25% of the units will rent for $633/month.  These units are affordable for someone making 40 percent of area median income ($25,320 for a single person for 2016). The average rent for the rest of the units is projected at about $900/mo.  These units are affordable to someone making 55 percent AMI ($34,650 for a single person in 2016)

Affordability also means no surprises.  Rents are all-inclusive.  There are no extra charges for utilities (gas, power, lights, heat, water, sewer, waste pickup) and internet. This is a significant savings when comparing rents to a conventional apartment building.

SOCIAL MISSION

We are partnering with Ryther, a non-profit based in North Seattle, helping them launch a new service through their Aspiring Youth program to provide supported community housing for young adults on the autism spectrum.  One of the great strengths of our micro-housing model is that it is ideal for housing a cohort of individuals with common interests that benefit from living together. We expect that up to 10% of our residents will be from the Aspiring Youth program.

SUSTAINABILITY:

·         The project is targeting Built Green 4 star certification. A combination of overall energy efficiency and small unit configuration will create a building with about 1/3 the energy use of a conventional apartment building.

Proposed section through courtyard and retail.  The design proposes a light footprint, allowing for a courtyard at the center of the project with visibility through the retail to the street. Apartments over the courtyard are assured light and ventilation along with a smaller-scale, quiet outdoor area to get together.  Common kitchens on upper levels will all overlook the courtyard.

NEIGHBORHOOD

Big changes are coming to Crown Hill. The city recently re-classified 15th Ave NW as a pedestrian street, triggering new standards for pedestrian friendly development. Seattle's new comprehensive plan anticipates significant upzones and expansion of the Crown Hill Urban Village boundaries. As the first project along 15th Ave NW to be designed and built using this new framework, our project can play a constructive role in the neighborhood's growth, setting a positive tone for future projects. Some of the measures we have taken in this regard are listed and illustrated below.

• Provide small scale retail opportunities with clear sightlines and an activated street presence. 
• Dedicate some width along the commercial front to allow space for a wider sidewalk.
• Break up the retail spaces to creates opportunities for small local businesses.
• Provide good daylighting/transparency to promote safety.
• Ensure privacy of adjacent residents by providing screening/fencing and locating active areas away from the shared property line.
• Incorporate concepts from the Greening Crown Hill Master Plan such as green walls to mitigate blank walls and wide planting beds to buffer between traffic and pedestrians

Beautiful Density: Housing Design for a More Liveable City

Seattle was built out as a city of single family homes, but that model has run its course. Most of our new inventory is coming in a denser form – rowhouses and townhouses. As a city we have resisted these changes socially and politically, at great volume. Why are we so unhappy with these new housing forms? To borrow a phrase…It’s the car stupid! To be more precise, it’s the negative effect parking has on the design and configuration of our housing, creating homes that are less livable and less beautiful.

So, how can we build a denser city as appealing as the single family fabric that came before it, while managing all the cars?  Read my new article at Crosscut to find out!

Marion Green Presentation at NW Eco-Building Guild's 2015 Green Building Slam

We were honored to be included in the NW Eco-Building Guild's 2015 Green Building Slam.  The event featured ten projects; each presenter got ten slides and ten minutes.  It was a great opportunity to show off Marion Green to a large audience of our fellow architects, builders, developers, and green building enthusiasts. Click here to see a video of the presentation

The project was really well received.  It is my hope that events like this (and my relentless self-promotion!) will help spread the word about this important new housing type and help speed its adoption in the marketplace. We are working on an article for the Eco-Building Guild's Code Innovation Database that will document they ways we navigated this project through the land-use and zoning code so that others can more easily follow.

Speaking of which, our next courtyard project, Olympic View, is speeding its way toward completion.  Check it out here.

Olympic View Townhomes - Courtyard Meets Panorama

Marion Green, our previous courtyard townhouse project with Paar Development, won a PSRC Vision 2040 award and was featured in the 2015 Green Building Slam. Our next project, Olympic View Townhouses, takes one more step forward, refining the courtyard townhouse concept and adapting the idea to a stunning hillside view lot on the south slope of Queen Anne Hill.

Olympic View features twelve (12) new townhouses, ranging in size from 800 sf one bedroom units to 2100 sf three bedroom units.  The shared central courtyard is the most spacious that we have ever designed and covers a parking level that accommodates 14 cars.  What makes Olympic View unique among our projects is the way we have adapted the courtyard townhouse concept to a sloping site, stepping the project down the hillside.  The terraced cross section allows each unit to see over the top of unit below, providing panoramic views of the Space Needle, downtown, and Puget Sound from the upper living levels and the rooftop decks

Like its predecessors at Marion Green and Beacon Green, the common courtyard creates an elegant way in and out of the homes, hides the parking area, provides generous open spaces and establishes a setting where neighbors have the regular contact with one another that helps to build familiarity and community.

The project will be built in two sections of six units each, with a common pedestrian entry walkway connecting the two halves.  The project will be certified 4 star built-green construction, which requires improved energy efficiency, low voc interior finish materials, green stormwater management, low water use, and a host of other sustainable features.

See Olympic View Project Site at: http://olympicviewtownhomes.com/

Reinventing Microhousing - Yobi Apartments Open House Tour Aug 25th 5:30-7:30pm (NEW DATE)

NOTE - DATE HAS CHANGED: AUGUST 25TH 5:30-7:30PM  - 1219 E MARION ST

The Yobi Apartments is finally ready.  This project has been much discussed as a new model for how to build microhousing in Seattle.  The Yobi was designed from the ground up with the conviction that congregate housing can be a desirable housing option where the architecture and the shared features can support chance interaction and help to build community among the residents.  For microhousing proponents and critics alike, we welcome you this open house to learn more about microhousing and what it can be.

Event Invitation and RSVP:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/reinventing-microhousing-come-tour-the-yobi-apartments-tickets-17914814693

Some related reading:

Our original post describing the project:
http://neimanarchitects.blogspot.com/2013/03/re-inventing-microhousing.html

A review of microhousing code issues and basic metrics:
http://www.theurbanist.org/2014/09/18/an-architects-perspective-the-details-of-microhousing-projects/

A discussion of the The Yobi's sustainable features and energy use:
http://neimanarchitects.blogspot.com/2015/02/re-inventing-microhousing-yobi.html


Should the Seattle City Council revisit restrictions on micro-housing?
http://www.seattlemet.com/articles/2015/7/17/hala-report-calls-for-modifying-barriers-to-pod-apartments

Marion Green Wins 2015 PSRC Vision 2040 Award

We had a little party today to accept a Puget Sound Regional Council Vision 2040 award for our Marion Green Townhouses. The homes were completed a few months ago, but this is a project that has been more or less nine years in the making.

In 2006, Scott Clawson and Todd Allan walked into my office with a piece of land. They wanted to build a little townhouse project, keep one unit for themselves & hold the other two as rentals.  At the time I was just starting to get into development projects.  I knew very little about townhouses, just enough to be aware that virtually every project was built in the same way:  Build units in the front, units in the back, and the center of the site is a driveway zone that gets you to the parking garages.  Scott and Todd asked me if I could design them one of these. I took one look at the cross section of the building & said "well, you could, but this is a really bad housing design.  Why not just cover the center with a deck?  That would hide all of the car parking & the center of the project becomes a community open space that you all enjoy."   Simple, right?

Turns out why not is because this concept violated about a dozen development standards of Seattle's land use code.  To do this simple little project we had to volunteer go through the design review process to get permission to depart from all of the various standards that we’d need to get the project done.  All told it took over two years to get our permit approvals, and by the time we work our way through the process, it was the fall of 2008, which you may recall was when the entire economy collapsed.  Bank financing dried up, the project foundered, and never got built.

I was upset that we didn’t get this little jewel of a project built but even more so that as a city, our codes were wound so tight that it was a “good ideas to the back of the line” kind of situation.  As it turned out, the Department of Planning and Development was of a similar mindset, and beginning to study a re-write of the multi-family code.  It was becoming clear that we needed to liberalize our land use code if we were going to make good housing possible.  I spent the recession organizing a group architects to work with the city on the code language, and also to go out into the community to give presentations, explain the code changes and why they were necessary.

By 2011, we had a new code in place, and as it turned out I was the person who had spent the most time reading it.  This gave me an opportunity to meet a lot of developers who came to me to ask what was possible under the new code.  This is how I met Joe Paar.  He was one of the first people that recognized the value of combining technical code knowledge and design skill to develop more successful projects, in every sense.  When I decided to develop my first project, I needed a partner to help make the finances work.  Joe was the guy that I asked for help & within a couple minutes discussion we were off to the races.  Joe was a true partner at every step of the way, and he deserves a lot of credit for getting this project successfully to the finish line.

All told it took nine years from the first sketch to where we got to stand in the courtyard with the project team and take a victory lap.  From the outset my goal was to build a better mousetrap:  Provide a replicable model for a better way to do infill housing in Seattle. I truly believe we’ve done that.  We’ve found a way to hide the cars, create more open space, break down project scale, bring more natural light into the homes, and most importantly, provide a commons that helps facilitate and build community among the families that share this little plot of land.  I'm also happy to say that other people have started to pick up on this model.  There are now four other courtyard lid projects in the works, two by our office, but two others by different architect/developer teams. It is my hope that the recognition that we are received today will help to spread the word and speed the adoption of this new housing archetype in the marketplace.

Thank you to the residents of Marion Green for sharing you home with us today. I hope you enjoy living in Marion Green as much as we enjoyed making it for you.

Project Team:

Architect:  David Neiman and Juan Vergara - Neiman Taber Architects

Developer:  David Neiman and Joe Paar - Paar Development
Structural Engineer:  Jim Harriott and Benjamin Bird - Harriott Valentine Engineers
Landscape Architect: Patricia Lenssen - Philbin Landscape Architects

Geotechnical Engineer: Rob Ward - Geotech Consultants
General Contractor:  Peter Ottele and Doug Scheer - Village Builders
Strategy and Marketing:  Joe Paar - Paar Development
Sales Agent:  Jacob Menashe - Berkshire Hathaway

Marion Green Tour

For a few minutes this weekend the rains relented and we were able to enjoy some clear skies for our Marion Green tour.  We truly enjoyed the opportunity to show off the completed project to our friends and to thank many of the people who helped take this project from concept through to completion.

This was our second project using the central covered courtyard concept and our first project as architect/developer.  It is difficult to prototype a new housing type and we were helped enormously by efforts of the city council and DPD who saw merit in what we were trying to do and helped clear away some of the regulatory hurdles that cropped up along the way.  Marion Green wasn't easy to pull off, but the path has been mowed and the next one will certainly be easier.

I noticed that another development group has picked up on the courtyard-over-parking idea and is proposing a similar kind of project.  It is my hope that many others will follow suit as well.

Marion Green Sneak Preview

Alec Gardner from our office ran out to Marion Green last week to snap some sneak preview pictures.  We hope to see you at the tour.  Open House on Saturday Nov 1, 1-3pm.  More pictures at:  http://www.neimantaber.com/marion-green

Olympic View Courtyard Townhomes

Our latest courtyard townhouse project is getting ready to submit for permit review.  Olympic View sits on lower Queen Anne on a sloping site that looks over the Uptown neighborhood with views out to Downtown, Mt Rainier, and Elliot Bay.

While Olympic View shares many attributes with its predecessors Beacon Green and Marion Green, it is the first time we have applied the idea to a sloping site, so the project terraces down the hill to provide units with an unobstructed view from each roof terrace.

The parking level is a little different than anything we've done before, featuring a mixture of garage and open parking that allows us to get a larger parking area.  This translates above into a larger courtyard space than on any of our previous projects.

We've been experimenting with using Google Earth to help study the views from the project.  To help verify the Google Earth info, we modeled distant bits of the topography, shoreline, and downtown buildings.  An example of the framework we use for this is shown below

Olympic View is scheduled to construction in April 2014 with units coming to market by the end of the year.

Olympic View Townhomes - Overview

View from Roof Deck

Section View Through Courtyard

Model framework of Downtown and Elliot Bay used to test views and window placements.

Housing on the Green - WSCN Townhomes Update

This week we released a first look at our Housing on the Green project for the West Seattle Church of the Nazarene.  The project is a joint venture of DNA, Paar Development, and WSCN. Proceeds from the development will be used to fund a renovation of the church and improvements to the grounds including a public playground.

The project features a cluster of six new homes built along the alley side of the church green.  Each of the homes has a two car garage accessed from the alley, a main living level that faces out to the public green, and a top level with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a sleeping loft tucked into the eaves of the roof.

Between the homes and the park are a series of transitional spaces:  A covered porch steps down to a semi-private yard, which steps down to the level of the park.  Each height transition is marked with visual cues such as railings, fences, pathways, and planting beds that provide clear definitions between the public realm and the private realm and all of the gradations in between.  The homes are not connected internally to their garages so that comings and goings from the homes help activate the commons.  In turn, people using the commons help keep an eye on the housing.  Many opportunities are created for chance interactions among neighbors that help build strong communities.



The project owes a great deal to Ross Chapin and his book Pocket Neighborhoods.  Ross has been a generous teacher, and his work has been enormously helpful in explaining concepts of community design to our clients and their neighbors.

The project has received some publicity in West Seattle Blog and KIRO, and is being followed with some interest in the community-at-large. We held our third public meeting last night, received some good feedback, and will be taking some steps over the next couple weeks to help with the public outreach some more, including:

• Post signage at the site showing some project imagery.  Stake out building footprints on the ground.
• Publish a document explaining how the funds raised by the development will be used by the church.
• Publish a draft of the comp plan amendment (required as a precursor to the rezone).
• Set up an informational website to make project information easy for the public to access.

Project Team:  David Neiman, Juan Vergara, Erin Feeney.

Marion Green Update - Groundbreaking, Design Changes, and First Sale

Marion Green, our most ambitious courtyard townhouse project to date, broke ground last month.  One of my favorite features was that we designed the project around preserving the original streetscape, re-purposing the original garages as automobile and pedestrian entries to the site.  Partway through the permitting process, we discovered that the zoning code would not allow us to keep the automobile entry, as the existing walls blocked sight lines that allow pedestrians and cars to see each other.  In the first week of earthwork we discovered that there was not enough room on site to get equipment in and out without removing the second garage.  Finally, when it came time to start hauling away demolition debris and soil, we needed the entire front of the site for loading, at which point all of the existing site walls came down.  It was a disappointment, but one of those growing pains that all projects go through as they progress from concept to reality.

Original streetscape with garages and street walls preserved.  The intention was that equipment and materials would come in ant out in the area between the two garages.

Current design.  The only remnant is the blade wall on the north property line that holds up the neighbors yard.  Everything else is new.

This picture gives you an appreciation for the mismatch between my original design intent and the scale of the equipment coming in and off the site.

Now for the good news:  We just sold our first unit!  We got a good price (about $50/sf than the previous best comp for the neighborhood), which is encouraging, as a design like Marion Green is more expensive to build than a conventional project and construction costs in general are rising quickly in the current boomlet.  The way this season is shaping up we expect the units will sell out well in advance of project completion this fall.  For anyone following the project as an interested buyer, I would encourage you to contact the sales team soon to let them know.

Housing on the Green - West Seattle Church of the Nazarene

This month we began work on a new housing development for the West Seattle Church of the Nazarene.  In a year where we have designed a number of unique projects, this may be the most unusual of the bunch.

The project began a few months ago when our client Paar Development was approached by WSCN to look at their churchyard as a potential development site.  The church sits on a large parcel of land with an adjacent green that has for generations served as open space for the neighborhood.  The church building itself needs significant repair and the WSCN leadership was faced with the prospect of having to sell off the land to raise money for the repairs.  Joe Paar and I reviewed the site, determined that its zoning would allow two new single family homes and quickly concluded that such a development could not generate enough revenue to meet WSCN's needs.  In developing two houses, WSCN would give up their legacy and still be unable to fix the church.  The idea was a non-starter.

I continued to do some digging.  After a bit of research, I concluded that the site was a candidate for re-zoning.  So I drew up a quick site plan based on changing from single family zone to low-rise multi-family zone (LR1) that would allow development of six units.  By increasing the unit density, the new plan could generate enough return to pay for the church repairs with enough left over to build a playground in the park as well.  We returned to the congregation with the new proposal, it was met with great enthusiasm, and earlier this month we began the process of applying for a contract re-zone on the site.

Existing SF Zoning.  Two Single Family Homes.  In this scheme, all of the open space becomes private yards for the homes, the church loses her legacy open space, and the scheme fails to generate the revenue needed to repair the church.

Rezone to LR1.  The change to multi-family zoning allows six (6) new units along the back of the property, saving the front two thirds as a public green.  This scheme generates enough revenue to repair the church and upgrade the park.

The re-zoning process is lengthy and complicated.  It'll likely take 12-18 months to get through the various hoops.  We filed the initial paperwork last week to get the process started.  Much to our surprise, within a couple of days West Seattle Blog (WSB) had picked up the story, that the church site was to be re-zoned and that townhouses would be built on the site. The comment section was filled with many concerns about the trees, the neighborhood, development, parking, etc..  Pastors Shaun and Terry Mattson quickly got the editor of WSB in for an interview, and filled in some of the details about the project.  A follow-up story in WSB was well received and the comments were very encouraging. Comparing the tenor of the two stories and the public reaction is an object lesson in the importance of talking to the neighbors about upcoming projects.  Nothing is worse than what people will imagine if given an information vacuum.

Over the next few months we'll work through the initial process with the city, put together some preliminary design ideas and the head out into the neighborhood to do public meetings & get feedback from the folks that live nearby.

Beacon Green in the Sunday Times

Lawrence Cheek has a very thoughtful article about small scale infill housing in the Sunday Times that features some discussion of our Beacon Green project.

http://seattletimes.com/html/pacificnw/2021705622_cover0915architecturexml.html

...Still more innovative is David Neiman’s Beacon Green town-house project on Beacon Hill, a beneficiary of that code revision.

Like a lot of local architects, Neiman had steamed for years over Seattle’s dreary “four-pack” and “six-pack” design convention for infill town houses, which typically feature two flanks of craftsmanoid units with a dark and dreary concrete “autocourt” between for driveway and parking. In 2006 Neiman hatched an idea for a three-unit commission he had: Why not put a lid on the autocourt, preserving ground-level parking, and turn its topsides into a second-floor outdoor commons?

“It violated about 15 different parts of the code,” Neiman says. “We had to submit to a very high level of scrutiny, and it was a two-year process just to get from idea to permit. By then it was 2008, and the bottom fell out of the capital market, so the project never saw the light of day.”

Neiman didn’t have much work for the next few years, so along with a number of underemployed architects in other small firms, he spent considerable time working with the city toward liberalized multifamily housing rules. The efforts bore fruit, and Beacon Green, an improved version of the lid/deck idea, is now nearing completion. Six modest-sized (885 to 1,350 square feet), three-story town houses will share a second-floor deck of 1,240 square feet with parking underneath. Each unit will have a semiprivate area on the deck delineated by planters. An idealist, Neiman expects that sharing the rest of the deck will energize a sense of community within the development.

“People who buy here will self-select,” Neiman predicts. “If you want a yard with a 6-foot fence and want to be left alone, you won’t be coming here. If you want a certain level of interaction with your neighbors, you will. My intuition is that the world is probably divided 50-50 this way.”...

Beacon Green Featured in 2013 NW Green Home Tour

360 Panorama view from the roof deck

Beacon Green, our first Courtyard Townhouse project, will be featured in the NW Green Home Tour.  The tour is this Saturday - April 27th - 11 am to 5 pm.  Project address is 1734 13th Ave S.  Tours are open to all, you just show up & join in.

Street View

The project is just finishing up with the framing, but it'll be complete enough that you can walk through the floors & see the shared courtyard and the view from the roof decks.

View of the shared central courtyard

The Seattle smart car dealership will be bringing out one of their Smart for Two models to help show the unit that will be sold with a smart car included.

For more detail about the 2013 NW Green Home Tour - See https://www.ecobuilding.org/guild-chapters/seattle/green-home-tour

For more detail about the units for sale & project features, see http://www.beacongreen.com/

Tour: Saturday - April 27th - 11 am to 5 pm.  Project address 1734 13th Ave S

Marion Green Courtyard Townhomes

Meeting time changed to Tuesday, April 9th, 7:00pm.  SAAS 12th Avenue Conference Room (1140 12th Avenue, in middle of block between Spring and Union/Madison streets. 

This week we started the permit review process for Marion Green, our first project for which we are both architect and developer.

Following in the footsteps of our Beacon Green project, we are pioneering an entirely new approach to small scale multi-family housing:  The Courtyard Townhouse.  These projects represent a huge step forward for infill development that we are hoping will supplant the typical “4-pack” auto-court projects that have dominated the market for the past 25 years.  This new housing type mitigates the visual impact of the parking, provides generous open spaces, facilitates connections between neighbors, increases access to natural light, and creates a community center for all the residents to share.

The courtyard is the way in and out of the project.  It’s the front porch for the rear units (and the back porch for the front units).  Living rooms and kitchens look into the courtyard.  Semi-private deck spaces for each unit ring the periphery, and the center of the court provides communal space for group events.

Garage Level Floor Plan

Courtyard Level Floor Plan

The courtyard townhouse has a unique parking solution.  Parking is located in the middle of the site and  buildings are pushed out to the edge of the property creating a large space between the buildings.  Cars are parked in the center, and then covered with the courtyard roof deck.  In addition to concealing the parking area, this configuration is also a more efficient way to park cars and maneuver them.

Where a typical development would provide five parking spaces, we are able to provide parking for seven.  This extra parking allows us to create housing that’s more appealing to families, and so we are able to target some of the units to a whole different demographic than a typical townhome project.

The project will provide five new townhomes.  Three of the homes will be larger 3-4 bedroom units with 2 car garages.  Unit 4 will be a small 2 bedroom unit with a one car garage.  Unit 5 will be a 1 bedroom unit with no parking.  It’s a project made up of units that are either in the top 20% or the lowest 20% in terms of size.

Marion Green is a three story townhouse with roof decks on a block composed mostly of one story houses from the early 20th century.  There's no way for this project to seamlessly fit into its context, but we did want to find a way to help stitch together the old & the new.  To this end, we decided to keep the old terraced garage structures along the street & re-purpose them as gateways into the project.  One garage is used to frame the car entry drive, while the other marks the pedestrian entry stair.

Public Notice of the Streamlined Design Review process will be sent out to nearby property owners sometime next week.  We have also arranged with the local neighborhood council (12th Avenue Stewards) to do an informal public meeting to present the project & get feedback from the neighbors.  Meeting info:

Tuesday, April 9th, 7:00pm.  Seattle Academy (SAAS), 12th Avenue Conference Room (1140 12th Avenue, in middle of block between Spring and Union/Madison streets. 

Beacon Green Courtyard Townhomes

We just got the building permit approved for Beacon Green Courtyard Townhomes.  Beacon Green is an entirely new townhouse archetype that addresses two of the most difficult issues to resolve successfully in small scale multi-family housing:

1)  How to reasonably accommodate automobile parking while mitigating impacts on open space, livability, and overall project aesthetics?

2)  How to create housing that encourages community & provides a place for neighbors to meet, gather, and strengthen social ties?

The typical Seattle townhouse is designed around a central parking court that consumes the majority of the site area for automobile maneuvering and is devoid of human activity.  We used the flexibility of Seattle's new multi-family code and streamlined design review program to push the buildings to the perimeter of the site, put our parking in garages between the buildings, and then cover the parking areas with a courtyard lid.

It took a couple hundred hours of extra work to get through various bureaucratic roadblocks that come along with doing a first-of-its-kind project.  Once this goes to market and gets seen seen by the community at large, we believe that other developers will want to emulate it, and the city will make the necessarily accommodations to allow projects like this to proceed as smoothly as any other townhouse project.

Project features include:

• The courtyard brings natural light into the center of the project, provides a large commons for all of the residents, and provides a gracious means of accessing the units in the rear of the site.
• The visual impact of the automobile is greatly reduced, and the amount of open space is more than doubled compared to a conventional townhouse.
• The project fits six units onto what is typically a 4 unit site, providing smaller, more affordable units than a conventional townhouse project.
• Some garage levels are flexibly configured to allow the alternative of a full size garage, a Smart car garage with one bedroom, or no garage and two bedrooms.  The sales offering will market these units with a Smart car included.