Schemata Workshop Joins Central Waterfront Design Team!

After over a decade of involvement in advocacy for the now emerging transformation of the Seattle's Central Waterfront, we are pleased to announce that Schemata Workshop has been selected to supplement the design team led by CH2M Hill and James Corner Field Operations. We will be responsible for helping execute designs by both JCFO and SHoP Architects (both of New York), as well as designing smaller structures, urban interventions and other miscellaneous structures.  This is a proud moment indeed for the studio, to be included on the most signification urban design, landscape, and infrastructure project in Seattle's history.

 James Corner Field Operations and SHoP Architects at Benaroya Hall, September 2010

Although new to the team, members of Schemata Workshop have had deep involvement with helping to craft a new vision of the waterfront since the opportunity first presented itself in the aftermath of the February 2001 Nisqually earthquake that raised awareness of the vulnerability of the Alaska Way Viaduct.

Continuing the tradition of local architects Lee Copeland and others in the late 1960's under Action:Better City, Schemata Workshop founding partner Mike Mariano worked with a small group of A:BC members on some short films in the early '00s, including one in 2003 that focused on bringing greater public awareness to the opportunities presented on the Central Waterfront and removal of the Viaduct.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6616652310515399799

Mike soon transitioned from A:BC to the executive committee of Allied Arts of Seattle (AAS), and contributed to a substantial effort through this civic organization that helped to redefine the entire waterfront conversation as an opportunity for more than just a transportation corridor. AAS has a long history of positive influence in Seattle, including Victor Steinbrueck's leadership in saving the beloved Pike Place Market from all but certain demolition 40 years ago. For the Central Waterfront, Mike and other AAS boardmembers with Executive Director David Yeaworth built a grass roots effort, that convinced city and state officials, dignitaries, environmentalists, and the public at large of the need to turn our waterfront into the heart and soul of the city. Mike worked with AAS to develop the Guiding Principles for the AAS campaign, principles that have essentially been incorporated into the current project as adopted by the City of Seattle, also under the same Waterfront For All name.

Pike Place Market: An early Allied Arts victory and a key place on Seattle's Central Waterfront

After moving to Seattle in 2002, John Feit also became engaged in the Waterfront For All effort. Working with Mike at Miller|Hull, Mike's enthusiasm for the project was quickly shared with John, who started attending many public meetings to not only understand the challenge, but to later and for a better waterfront solution as part of the Waterfront for All Campaign. As the years progressed, John led two of the three waterfront charrette teams (one city sponsored, the other by AAS). AAS used the graphics from the latter in the ensuing years, as the organization tirelessly lobbied stakeholders, many of whom are now leading the project we are now involved in. Mike & John were at the interviews at Benaroya on 9/15/2010 and took great pride in seeing a grass roots effort lead to presentations by four exceptionally qualified, design teams that interviewed for the project.

Schemata Workshop is incredibly fortunate to have been selected as one of the local consultants, and are putting our best effort forward in support of the fabulous design team we will be working with.

Schemata Workshop Welcomes Kurt Wong

  In July, Kurt Wong joined the SW team as our new office manager. He's a veteran of the profession, and has extensive experience in the multi-family housing realm. Kurt has a Masters in Architecture from UC Berkeley, and  is returning to the field after five years running his own retail business. He's brought a fresh energy to the office, and will no doubt keep the rest of us in line. WELCOME, KURT!

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The Glen Arms, a bit of Monticello on our 'little mountain'.

I have developed a bit of an M.O. with the posts on I write on buildings on Capitol Hill. Find a building or buildings that pique my interest, find a non-Capitol Hill example to place our neighborhood's edifice in a broader context, and weave a narrative betwixt the two. After all, as Capitol Hill is the greatest neighborhood around -- and there really is no reason to ever leave it -- referencing something from the outside is a means to expose readers to the relationship between those other buildings and our and recognize what trend setters we really are. This post will be pushing this formula pretty far, as it is clear that Monticello was built before there was a Capitol Hill (or even a City of Seattle), and that the basis of my admiration for the Glen Arms is its garages -- leading to disparate pairing if there ever was one. Critics will rail this tenuous analogy as 'oh, too academic -- too idiosyncratic' -- but you've been warned. And you should stop reading now.

Thomas Jefferson's Monticello holds a deserved place on the UNESCO World Heritage list of the world's greatest places. Paired with the University of Virginia campus, they comprise one of only eight cultural (as opposed to natural) sites in the United States, compared to, for example, about 45 in Italy and a similar number in Spain. Rarefied company indeed. But of its many attributes, one has stuck with me for decades and it is not to be found on the back of that nickel in your pocket, and stems from how the lawn (pictured above) is retained by a series of walls (seen on the left of the image), that below-grade create a series of spaces that house stables, workshops, and even a nifty below-grade ice-storage silo (pictured below -- noting the location of the railing in both images will help with referencing the images to each other). This alignment between what supports the earth -- in this case Monticello's lawn -- with what supported Monticello's residents -- stables for their horses, etc -- forms a powerful dialogue between what the 20th Century architect Louis Kahn termed servant and served. It is a simple, yet powerful way of organizing space. In the case of Monticello, the fact that the servant spaces are housed below grade and are also earth retaining brings an even greater depth to this fundamental concept and spatial hierarchy and how even the most basic of spaces provide the realm upon which architecture needs in order to have a meaningful presence.

Monticello Stables and Ice Storage

On our own 'little mountain', the Glen Arms, on Boylston between Republican and Mercer, is one of the many charming apartments on that leafy street. What makes it a standout Capitol building is its Monticello-esque retaining-wall-as-servant-space-holding-up-a-garden design. Siting on a continuous base of garages (unfortunately too small for most of today's automobiles -- perhaps lease terms stipulating  vehicles no larger than a Cinquecento are in order?), the Glen Arms base has a robustness and clarity of form that is extraordinary when compared to other Hill apartments. The rigor of the base, with its crisp platonic openings made of board-formed concrete, forms a uniform datum above which the transition from building to landscape deftly occurs, its servant role functioning equally well at both tasks. And it is this base's role of both supporting the building and supporting the landscape -- while housing uses that support the residents -- that proves analogous to the Jeffersonian precedent.

Copyright 2012 John M. Feit

Very well attended to, the apartment's garden forms a shady and welcome contrast to the staccato of its supporting base. Especially nice is the gardener's care in allowing the garden to just creep over the edge of the retaining wall-garage, providing welcome visual relief. The same level of stewardship is extended to the building itself, which is plain and cubic, much as its base. Even in their similarity and alignment, the servant-served distinction between the base and top is preserved by the former's more basic material and terse design. Above the base, buff colored and slightly glazed brick lend a level of quality and dignity that is in no need of further embellishment. Though much of this may seem obvious and hardly worthy of further consideration, that is actually the point, as it imparts a welcome clarity and order. Further up the buildings, note the retractable awnings on the largest windows -- one of the best passive solar strategies around to keep away the summer sun, and sadly absent from our post air-conditioned world.

Copyright 2012 John M. Feit

Between matched pairs of four garages each, the entry stair to the Glen Arms is well framed and provides a nice sequence of spaces to the building entry door. Above the entry door is a concrete canopy, which, like the garages rises from the earth to punctuate the Glen Arm's relationship to the land.

Copyright 2012 John M. Feit

Copyright 2012 John M. Feit

The entry garden must form a great shady relief from the summer's sun, and an advantageous prospect from which to watch and listen to the happenings along Boylston. Above the din, as it were, courtesy of the wall-garage base that support it.

Copyright 2012 John M. Feit

I would like to think, when cars we smaller, that there were wooden garage doors in the openings making the base appropriate for its urban setting. And though continuous parking access along a sidewalk is something one does not normally associate with sound design, in the case of the Glen Arms, its the entire composition of garage, landscape, and building, is well executed, proving an exception to the rule.

july's bike-to-work morning bagel pitstop!

It's that time again! The last Friday morning of each month, Schemata is hosting a small Bike-To-Work bagel pitstop for bike commuters on 12th Ave. Originally a spin-off of the Bike to Work Day DIY Commute Stations, we decided that it was too fun to not continue. Join us this Friday from 7:00am to 8:30am for a bagel, a cup-o-joe, and some friendly banter. Thanks to Eltana for the bagels and the People's Republic of Koffee for the coffee. We hope to see you there!

Jasper Park Lodge's Rustic Modernism

Much of so-called hospitality architecture leans too heavily on nostalgic imagery for my tastes. Especially so are those buildings that are in or adjacent to national parks, which try to harken back to pioneer days. True, there are many great, truly rustic lodges in the West -- Timberline, Crater Lake, Yosemite, Glacier National Park -- to name but a few. But those lodges, if not built during the time period we typically associate with pioneering days  (the 19th Century), were at least pioneering in the location within which they were built, which was more often than not far removed from established roads, towns, and other support infrastructure.

This lack of support meant that -- much as the true homesteading pioneers -- lodge builders relied on hand tools and manual labor, local craft traditions, and other limitations not posed today. Lodges built in the later half of the 20th Century and to this day were (and are) not faced by such hardships, yet many (most?) continue to evoke forms that have nothing to do with the time or traditions within which they were built. This is not the case at Jasper Park Lodge,  where the architect (whose name I could not ascertain during my stay there) artfully blended an historic 'lodginess' with mid-century modern flair.

Most likely built in the 1950's, this incredibly well conceived building combines the seemingly disparate goals of handcraft and the then jet-age aesthetic into a wholly original design. I can only image the struggles the architect endured balancing the expectations of rough-hewn and hand-crafted, with where his or her heart really was -- firmly modern. Fortunately for us, they were able to not only represent both, but do so in a highly original and satisfying way. And is a most spectacular setting.