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- Architects: David Coleman Architecture
- Location: Seattle, United States
- Area: 6058.0 ft2
- Project Year: 2015
- Photographs: Steve Keating
- Structural Engineer: Gary Gill
- General Contractor: New Town Builders / John Korhumel

© Steve Keating
Text description provided by the architects. Our design explores the notion of merging building and landscape. The original house, designed in 1956 by a prominent Seattle architect, is located in the private enclave of Broadmoor. It was conceived as a meandering, one-story structure on a pastoral, ½ acre site. The original plan was rather ambiguous, gesturing toward the landscape but never fully embracing it. A 1970’s remodel further eroded the integrity of the plan, resulting in a muddled house with little coherent spatial integrity.

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Our goal was to clarify the plan, add on where needed to improve livability, merge interior and exterior space where possible, and elevate the feeling-tone of the building. To accomplish that we set in motion a series of interventions that had the effect of better defining access to the house, movement through the house, and the relationship between interior and exterior space. This resulted in a transformation of the whole, elevating the overall quality of the building and landscape, allowing the promise of the original structures and site to be fully realized.

© Steve Keating
From the street, one ascends the original, meandering stone stair from the sidewalk to a new courtyard, defined by building and stone landscape walls. A portion of this courtyard was excavated 30” deep to create space for a long, low window opening into the lower level yoga room, and to allow construction of a bridge between garden and home. This bridge acts as a threshold, a point-of-arrival, and a clean demarcation between public and private space.
The interiors are organized around a gallery on the street side of the building. The rooms have a processional quality, opening to one another and to the great outdoors. Most rooms overlook the meadow, located in the back yard. Oversized lift-slide doors and large planes of glass dissolve the line between inside and out and allow free movement, physically and visually.

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Floor plan

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The plan retains the openness that one expects in a modern home, but also contains a semblance of intimacy that is not expected in such a large, open building. This is accomplished by the insertion of subtle yet effective architectural devices, all lending a more human and approachable scale. Changes in ceiling height, changes in wall and/or flooring material, the insertion of free-standing cabinets, a floor-to-ceiling wall here, a twist and turn in the plan there, all help to create this quality of intimacy.

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The master suite retains the openness characteristic of the rest of the plan. One enters rather uniquely into a dressing room, complete with vanities, access to the bath, walk-in closet and sleeping chamber. The bath is conceived as a wet room, and contains a free-standing bathtub that opens onto a private courtyard. The sleeping chamber opens on to the meadow.

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The children’s wing is located in a 2-story suite, the lower level containing a play/art/work space that opens onto the kitchen and side-entry, complete with a laundry/mud room. An open stair ascends to two bedrooms and a bath, all wrapping around a two-story, light-filled atrium overlooking the play room.

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The material pallet was kept decidedly simple to create a unified ambiance, reduce visual noise, and minimize distraction to the outdoor views. Sapeli windows and doors provide a warm frame for those garden views; complimentary dark wood floors create continuity, warm gray ceramic tile recalls the concrete slabs on the exterior; clean white plaster ceilings and wall partitions help to maintain brightness on the bleakest days; blackened steel hardware and trims provide contrast and visual interest.

© Steve Keating