When the owners, a couple with five children between them with one still living at home, purchased the overgrown, approximately 1.5-acre property, located in the tree-lined Seattle neighborhood of Washington Park with views of Mount Rainer, Lake Washington, and the Bellevue skyline, it contained a charming but modest traditional house and guest cottage in need of repair. The architects spent time pursuing the possibility of a remodel and addition, but the state of the house and site made this option unfeasible. The ensuing design stemmed from a combination of reverence for the original house and site and Domestic Architecture’s theoretical studies of how memory manifests itself in contemporary forms.
Design concept and solution: At 6,500-square-feet, this house is scaled down from the owners’ previous home. The owners are significantly involved in the Seattle contemporary art community, and their collection, which they change several times a year, varies from small drawings to large sculptural and video art. The program for the house consisted of 5 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, 2 separate home offices, a TV room, living room, dining room with seating for 12, a large kitchen with attached family room, and lots of room for displaying art. This program would accommodate the owners’ intention to host frequent gatherings that range in size from intimate dinners to large events.
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