Perched on a scenic corner lot in West Seattle, this replacement home embraces sweeping Puget Sound views while enhancing functionality and flow. By shifting the entry to the long side of the house, we optimized the layout and created a more welcoming arrival. An L-shaped front garden and fenced rear yard provide inviting outdoor spaces, while the home’s existing two-car garage now supports a large solar array. Inside, a custom staircase connects three thoughtfully designed levels. The open-plan main floor centers around the view, with expansive sliding doors leading to a heated deck. Upstairs, the primary suite enjoys the best sightlines, while two additional bedrooms and a spacious laundry complete the level. A hybrid insulation system and all-electric Mitsubishi heat pump ensure year-round efficiency and comfort. The basement offers a generous family room, guest suite, office, and storage. This home balances sustainability, practicality, and stunning Pacific Northwest views.

 

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Nestled in a heavily treed residential area of Kirkland, Washington, this new home gracefully replaces a modest single-story dwelling on an expansive 9,500 SF lot. Designed to offer over 4,600 SF of luxurious living space with an oversized three-car garage, this custom-built home parallels the northern boundary of the site, ensuring the primary living areas are bathed in southern light.

A striking entry space with custom stairs elegantly separates the front arrival from the rear autocourt. The main level connects seamlessly to an upper lawn area, creating a harmonious indoor-outdoor flow. Emphasizing sustainable design, all viable trees were preserved, with only one non-viable tree removed. Inside, the main level features a front-facing office and open living, dining, and kitchen areas that extend to the generous covered patio with outdoor heaters. The upper level boasts four bedrooms, including a versatile room at the top of the stairs, ideal for TV, guests, play, or homework. The primary bedroom offers serene privacy at the rear, complete with a spacious bathroom and custom closet system.

 

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Located just blocks away from Capitol Hill’s picturesque Volunteer Park, this triplex blends new and old to fit into its historical context. Originally on the site was a dilapidated rental with a failing foundation. The property has been thoughtfully reimagined to optimize the LR-2 zoning while honoring the charm of its early 1900s neighboring homes. Positioned between two single-family houses, we minimized the building’s scale by employing a steeper front roof pitch, creating a harmonious blend with the surrounding structures even though the building is a full story taller. The building features a 3 bedroom 2.25 bath owner’s unit occupying the top two floors, a 2 bedroom 2 bath rental unit occupying the ground level, and a 1 bedroom 1 bath occupying the daylight basement. An elevator connects the owner’s 1 car garage to the upper floors. The design of each unit enjoys its own private outdoor space. Collaborating with Francine Day, we designed the landscape to meet Seattle’s Green Factor requirements, incorporating drought-tolerant plantings for sustainable urban living. On the interior, large windows and window bays, and carefully designed spaces make the most of the narrow site. Constructed to Built Green 4 and 5 star standards, the triplex not only features green materials, but efficient mechanical systems and superior insulation, along with a host of other green features.

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Nestled on the edge of a Native Growth Protection Area, this 4,500 SF custom-designed home offers breathtaking views of Lake Washington from its upper floors and expansive roof deck. At the entry, a striking stairway serves as a focal point but also creates a visual barrier from the oversized six-car garage in the rear. The main level features an open layout with living, dining, kitchen, and breakfast nook areas. It opens to a view deck with a double-sided indoor/outdoor fireplace, while the rear opens to another deck with access to the rear yard and autocourt. Accessibility and aging in place are supported by a residential elevator serving all levels of the home. The upper level boasts four large bedrooms, all with walk-in closets, and a full-size laundry room. The custom staircase leads to a spacious roof deck high above everything surrounding it, offering stunning views of Lake Washington. The exterior is clad in a mix of durable cement board siding and natural materials, blending seamlessly with its surroundings.

 

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This house in Madrona was an exercise in maximizing the potential of a small lot.  With only 2,400 SF of area and substantial elevation change, the envelope was constrained, but the steep slope and corner location provided beautiful views of Lake Washington and Bellevue beyond.  The house bends in the middle, both to capture these views and fit on the irregular lot, with a lightwell and stair at the elbow distributing light from skylights above.  The roof of the house repeats this bend, tilting up at the East to allow for expansive glazing but continuing down on the West side, helping the scale of the house and providing area for solar panels. We used a reverse plan, with an open great room and roof deck on the highest level offering vaulted ceilings and sweeping views.  A buried garage connects to the house on the lower level, with a dumbwaiter used to help move groceries to the kitchen.

 

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This project for a developer in Kenmore created a modern farmhouse with plenty of connection to outdoor space. We worked around the existing large trees onsite, both one at the front yard which became the focal point of the curved driveway access and several behind the house which provide a beautiful backdrop to the double height living space and immediately adjacent covered outdoor patio. An open plan concept for the great room at the back of the house flows into the backyard outdoor space and provides a spacious feeling. Above the attached garage, this project also includes an attached accessory dwelling unit with a separate access allowing it to be used flexibly, either rented out, or as an addition to the main house.

 

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Perched above Puget Sound on a dead-end street, this 2,565 SF home utilizes innovative design to accommodate its steep slope as well as high performance design for healthy living. In collaboration with the City of Seattle, we maximized the site’s potential by working through their steep slope regulations. The home features a Prairie-style hip roof with broad eaves. A 15-foot deep rear view deck enabled the use of an advantageous height calculation within Land Use code provisions, helping to optimize views and create outdoor living spaces on this steep site. The owner, a Boeing engineer, prioritized building performance, resulting in the integration of in-floor radiant heating and a heat recovery ventilation system (HRV) for continuous fresh air. The main level includes a flexible bedroom/office, living areas with views of Puget Sound and the ravine, and a custom-designed stair connecting all three levels. The upper level houses the primary bedroom with an expansive view deck, along with additional bedrooms, a bathroom, and a laundry room. The daylight basement has a family room, bedroom, bathroom, and mechanical spaces.

 

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This developer project in Seattle’s Crown Hill neighborhood was one of our first new projects permitted after the 2019 upzone / mandatory housing affordability adoption. We were able to work with the client to reimagine the development to work within her business plan.

The unit plans are offset, creating access to southern light for the North unit, and creating privacy at the backyards, patios, and decks off the primary bedrooms despite mirroring the plan. The offset also helps to differentiate each unit on the street and helps the new homes stand out.

Limited by the allowable floor area, we used double height spaces at the center of each unit to maximize the use of the allowed space and make both units feel more expansive than the 1,850 SF allowed. This created a useful homework or reading space on the bridge, enhanced the privacy of the main bedroom suites, and brought plenty of light into the open plan main levels.

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This developer house near Green Lake was on a site with mature evergreen trees that had to be protected during construction, which drove the shape of the house. Furthermore, the “front” yard was isolated from the street with a tall laurel hedge. The resulting privacy made the front of the house the private space for the family while the back alley would be the way in most of the time. Avoiding the trees dictated that the house get skinny, so we used the leftover to create spaces that flow from inside to out. The large open plan great room spills out onto two decks: one off the living room sharing a double-sided fireplace in the private (and shady) yard, another for outdoor dining off the kitchen with southern exposure. Inside, the shed roof allowed vaulted spaces with large windows capturing light and views of the trees all around.

 

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This development was created from two NR (formerly, single family zoned) lots in Seattle’s Crown Hill neighborhood. Consisting of 5 separately accessed units in three structures, the builder wanted to create both private and communal outdoor spaces for the units while maximizing the potential of the lot. We used a mixture of pitched roofs and flat roof decks to articulate each and provide indoor-outdoor connections to make the most of the space available. Between the structures, we were able to create shared amenity space overlooked by all the units, fostering a feeling of community and safety. Inside the units, we maximized the space by providing open plan great rooms. Even the smaller 1,000 SF accessory units have two bedrooms, and we worked to maximize their space with exempt space exterior decks and bike garages.

 

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