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Homes that fit and inspire - Seattle’s Urban Canyon

This post is by Jared Silliker, a new contributor to the Building Green Blog.

Want some inspiration in our current housing crunch? I’ve had the good fortune to tour a couple Central District projects designed and built by the architect/developer duo of Brad Khouri and Graham Black. And the back stories are just as impressive as

Urban Canyon

the finished products.

To start, both Khouri, who runs b9 architects, and Black, owner of gProjects, bicycle to all their projects and strive for designs that integrate with the neighborhood’s character and scale. They are big fans of the design review process, which they say encourages better and more profitable projects.

While Khouri designs efficient and smart use of space for these human-scale homes, Black concentrates on salvaging building materials for reuse. A couple projects, for instance, use reclaimed wood from old Fort Lewis barracks that dates to the 1930s. And Black employs all his own builders in order to maintain quality and pay competitive rates. The final result are modern homes that fit and work–efficient on resources and high on function and style.


And with the market bearing down, the best inspiration may be that the homes are selling. There’s plenty of evidence to build green, but clear market success will most quickly drive more quality sustainable projects.

AIA Seattle is hosting a case study and tour tomorrow at the Urban Canyon (pictured above), Khouri’s and Black’s latest project at 19th and Pine, which is the first 5-Star Built Green multi-family development in Seattle. The Alley House, a Madison Valley urban infill residence seeking LEED Platinum, by Urbanmix and Cascade Built, will also be highlighted. Check out www.aiaseattle.org as space is limited.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 at 12:11 pm and is filed under AIA, Archtiecture, Density, Green materials, Projects, Seattle, Tours, Waste. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Homes that fit and inspire - Seattle’s Urban Canyon”

  1. Wo do I contact? New homes and no trees out front of the houses? Says:
    October 8th, 2008 at 5:07 pm

    [...] Homes that fit and inspire - Seattle’s Urban Canyon [...]

  2. Kind of Blue | hugeasscity Says:
    October 15th, 2008 at 11:18 pm

    [...] (photo below). These two firms do great work and are starting to get more recognition for it (e.g. here, here, and [...]

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