2018 - Year in Review

In preparing for our annual retreat, we did a recap of 2018. We did quite a lot so we thought we’d share.

Things we finished:

Sunset Court was the final project of an eight-year contract with the Renton Housing Authority. This 50-home community offers modern housing to veterans and a mix of low to moderate-income households. Designed around a central green space and a small grove of existing trees, this project embodies many aspects of community-oriented design principles of cohousing. The homes are a mix of flats and townhomes, ranging in size from 1 to 4 bedrooms. The project was designed to the Evergreen Sustainable Development Standards (ESDS) and incorporates sustainable features such as low VOC and locally sourced materials, edible landscaping, low-flow fixtures, and natural ventilation.

Phase 1 of Mount Angeles View, a 63-home community in Port Angeles, WA. Located on a beautiful site at the base of the Olympic Mountains with views north to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, this site provides stable housing for low- and moderate- income households, so they can find success at work and school. The Peninsula Housing Authority has received many positive comments from the community at large about the catalytic nature of these homes – not just as affordable housing, but as a benchmark of future market rate development as well. The project was designed to the Evergreen Sustainable Development Standards (ESDS) and incorporates sustainable features such as low VOC and locally sourced materials, low-flow fixtures, and natural ventilation.

ISRD Design Guidelines. Finished writing design guidelines for new development (particularly at larger scales) for the historic cultural district.

Vision Meeker:  City of Kent had recently established urban design guidelines for future development along Meeker Street – the main arterial through town. However, they knew the portion fronting Kent Elementary School would not likely be developed since the School District did not have plans for redeveloping the school. Schemata Workshop worked with the students, parents, and teacher at Kent Elementary to develop ideas for how to improve their playground experience and provide a better and safer buffer along Meeker Street.

Kaiser Permanente WA Rebrand: Schemata Workshop partnered with NBBJ to implement a new design strategy at 5 sites for KP WA’s rebranding as they took over the Group Health facilities across the state. Schemata lead the effort for 4 sites in Kent, Lynnwood, and Spokane.

2019 Staff Retreat at 12th Ave Arts.

Things we started:

Construction at Queen Anne Bungalows in lower Queen Anne. This was supposed to be a 3rd story addition but turned into a major renovation project.

Construction at the TOD sites on Capitol Hill is well underway! Schemata team is working on two buildings B-North (a.k.a. Station House) & B-South. The projects have two different owners, Capitol Hill Housing and Gerdin Edlen, and are being constructed by two separate contractors, Walsh and Lease Crutcher Lewis. The Station House will provide 110 homes, made up of a mix of studios, 1-bdr, 2-bdr and 3-bdr dwelling units which will serve people making up to 60% of the AMI. The building also includes a Community Room that will be available for rent / use by the public. The B-South project is comprised of 74 high-end apartments, 20% of which will serve people making up to 80% of the AMI. This project also includes more than 3000 sq ft of commercial space. Both projects are scheduled to be completed in March 2020.

Masterplanning for a renovation at Kappa Delta sorority house at WSU in preparation for their Centennial.

We also started 3 new cohousing projects.

Skagit Cohousing selected Schemata to design a new community in Anacortes for 30 families. Their site contains a wetland and has distant views to the water and mountains. While this group is mostly seniors, they look forward to welcoming families. They have members who are currently living in Arizona, Hawaii, and Massachusetts.

Located in Hood River, Adams Creek Cohousing selected Schemata to design a new community of 26 homes. This group is very local with only a few households currently living in Portland. They have a number of young families as well as boomers. Their site is wooded with an active creek and a lot of topography.

Marysville will be home to Sunnyside Village Cohousing. Their site has been previously cleared which makes it suitable for the significant gardens that they have already started planting. This community has a strong value towards living lightly on the earth and environmental stewardship so their future generations can live sustainably on the site. This community is multigenerational.

Retreat lunch break at 12th Ave Arts.

Things that we were recognized for:

Historic Seattle Award for Neighborhood Investment – Parsonage Apartments

DRT AIA Committee Award

Things Froggers did:

Marge got married and took 7 week honeymoon

Sarah led the Seattle Design Festival and was a juror for the AIA Seattle Honor Awards Young Voices Selection

Marge, Joann, Marijana and Grace led SAF workshop for Rainier Beach High School.

Marge was voted on to the Board of Directors for AIA Seattle.

Grace was Chair of the Seattle Planning Commission

Sarah got licensed.

Mira had baby Felix.

Tegan and Emma started at Schemata.

Guy and Mira celebrated 5 years at Schemata.

SAF Model Workshop

Post-retreat bocce at Rhein Haus in Capitol Hill.

Mount Angeles View Construction Completion

This past January, our new development for the Peninsula Housing Authority completed construction. Located at the northern edge of the Olympic National Park in Port Angeles, Mount Angeles View consists of 63 townhome and flat apartment homes distributed over seven different buildings, and is the first phase of a 232-home master plan. Surrounded and inspired by the beauty of the Olympic Peninsula, each building is named after a nearby mountain; Ellinor, Constance, Bogachiel, Anderson, Mystery, Olympus, and Hurricane.

view of the Hurricane building

view of the Ellinor and Constance buildings

view of the Anderson and Bogachiel buildings

view of the Mystery building

The site design nestles the buildings into the surrounding community, and creates its own sense of place with many walkways connecting these new neighbors together, and anchors them around a small pocket park at the center of the site. Each home, whether townhome style or flat, provides its future tenant with outdoor space of their own.

view of the pocket park playground

boulders that were found on site during construction have been transformed into natural landscaping elements

communal seating provided in the central park for residents to gather

cedar porch entry at the Mystery building

unit entries at the Ellinor building

one of two communal bike shelters being put to good use

A phased building delivery approach kept things interesting throughout construction with the first building being turned over for move-in August of last year, and construction continuing for an additional six months with the last building completed this past January. Not long after construction completed, the Peninsula Housing Authority hosted a block party celebration to thank all of the residents and community partners that came together to make this project a possibility.

aerial view of the entire site

a portion of the project team from left to right; Margaret Knight (Schemata Workshop), Korey Smith (Neeley Construction), Annie O’Rourke (Peninsula Housing Authority), Dan Wolfe (Neeley Construction), Grace Kim (Schemata Workshop)

This much needed affordable housing development has been a long time coming for the Port Angeles community. From schematic design through construction, Schemata has been a part of the effort for the past 6 years. Now that the project is complete, we are excited to see how this development evolves over the coming months as residents continue to move in and make these houses their homes.

Design in Public : Architect Sarah Haase

Sarah is an architect interested in designing and advocating for a socially and culturally conscious built environment. A generalist and a strategist, Sarah believes the best designs come from deeply engaging with the users and context of the projects’ communities and environment. Her current work falls under the umbrella of community-based design, with clients such as public housing authorities, non-profit affordable housing developers, social service providers, and public transit agencies.

Read more about Sarah and Design in Public here and at Schemata Workshop.

Happy Holidays 2017

Our sincere appreciation goes out to our clients, friends, family and consultants who continue to support us as we enter our 14th year of practice!

Highlights of the year include:

• Grace's April 2017 TEDTalk in Vancouver reaches over 1.5 million views
• Marijana receives AIA Seattle Young Architect Award
• The Parsonage student housing apartments is completed and receives Built Green 4-star certification
• Completion of the Waterton Mixed-Used apartments in Eastlake
• Engaging with the Central Area community and completing the Central Area Design Guidelines
• Freehold Interbay R&D industrial building opens
• More affordable housing breaking ground: Mount Angeles View Redevelopment and Sunset Court Apartments
• Groundbreaking of Queen Anne Bungalows Apartments Renovation and Addition
• 160+ attended the AIA Resilience Thinking: Place, Spaces and Communities workshop, organized by a task force that included Mike (co-chair of the AIA Disaster Preparedness & Response Committee)
• Capitol Hill Transit Oriented Development gets approval from Seattle Design Review Board. 
• Exhibiting Capitol Hill TOD at the Seattle Architecture Foundation's 20th Annual Model Exhibit: Resurgence
• Capitol Hill EcoDistrict (co-chaired by Mike) seeks to be first certified EcoDistrict in the nation to comply with Equity, Resilience, and Climate imperatives. 
• Margaret, Will and Mira becoming Licensed Architects
• Welcoming baby Edison in May as part of our Schemata Workshop growing family. 

Wishing you all a happy holiday season!

grace h. kim
mike mariano
will crothers
marijana cvencek
sarah haase
margaret knight
mira mui
donnie north
christopher palms
andrew stewart
guy thomsen
margaret tyson
joann ware

N.B. Schemata Workshop will be closed from end of business December 22nd, reopening January 2nd.

Architects in Schools

As volunteers in AIA Seattle’s Diversity Roundtable (DRT) Committee, we are about to embark on another adventure with our Architects in Schools program! As the 2017 - 2018 school year is now in full swing, we wanted to share a little bit about the program, the past work we’ve accomplished, and our exciting plans for the future.

First, a little bit of background. The DRT’s Architects in Schools Program is designed to expose K-8 students of underrepresented communities to architecture, and engage them in the design process. The goal is to give the youth involved an understanding of design basics through hands-on experiences and discussions, while focusing on bringing awareness of the architectural profession to children of diverse racial backgrounds. This is in support of the DRT’s overarching mission; to enrich the architectural profession by nurturing future designers who have diverse experiences, skill sets, and perspectives. Such shifts will create innovative solutions and approaches, while supporting an inclusive environment within the architectural profession.

Architects in Schools has been a part of the DRT’s agenda in the past, however last year, we rebooted the curriculum with a new pilot program at St. Edward’s Elementary School in Columbia City. DRT volunteers worked with 19 of the school’s eighth-grade students, all either female or minorities, through weekly one-hour lessons. The curriculum for the pilot was divided into quarterly groups of sessions, which introduced students to the profession, taught them the basics of the design process, and exposed them to architectural drawing techniques. The program ended with a final design project and public presentation, where the students learned SketchUp as a tool to express their designs. The broader strategy for last year was to develop the students’ creative problem-solving and computer skills, as well to help with their math and artistic development.

Sprinkled throughout our classroom sessions with the students, the University of Washington provided a guided tour of the Department of Architecture where students learned about the first steps toward becoming an architect. We also incorporated an office tour, where students heard about how a firm works, and were able to ask questions to get a sense of what it’s like to work in an architectural office.

The first two sessions for this year’s Architects in Schools kicked off a couple weeks ago at St. Edward. We’re excited to have support through the K-8 Architecture & Design Education Grant from The Architects Foundation and Armstrong World Industries Foundation this year to be able to expand what our program can offer. We will also be shifting the curriculum focus from computer based design, to honing skills around scale, model building, and transforming 2D drawings into 3D physical forms.

Looking towards the future, we are hoping to broaden our outreach to multiple schools within the next year or two. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to grow and evolve our program!

-Marijana & Margaret