While developing and designing creative solutions for these issue areas, Allied8 sought to maintain the home’s historic identity and its relationship to the neighboring homes.
Allied8 split the site design so that there are two primary levels: a turf playfield area where the kids can play, and a patio area where the grown-ups gather.
When a young family with two kids bought a home in poor shape on Seattle’s Queen Anne Hill, one of the first steps in the design process was to consider what elements of the original house could be salvaged, reused, or saved, in an effort to link the new project to the past.
“When we peeled back the layers to reveal the early 1920s concrete, we were blown away by the beautiful concrete texture. We then made a point to expose it.”
For 35 years, the client operated out of a church gymnasium on a steep hill, blocks from public transportation–in contrast, the new space is close to transit and marked by welcoming signage, warm materials, and wide windows.
Northwest Harvest has had a storied history in Seattle and across Greater Washington State thanks to its network of 375 food banks and mission to provide hunger relief through equity initiatives.
With their vast, exposed arched rafters and rounded windows, although no two residences are the same size or layout, just like each one of these adaptive reuse projects, they all feature a little part of the building’s history.
