Photo by R&D Masonry The Harvard & Highland design team used masonry to help make the five-building condominium project fit in with neighboring homes on Capitol Hill.

Harvard & Highland is a 38-unit, five-building condominium project located adjacent to Seattle’s historic Harvard-Belmont district. The major design goal was to create a timeless, durable project that would fit well with the neighborhood.

Harvard & Highland’s design team needed to pursue a traditional aesthetic to match with the surrounding homes. With the large site but low-rise (three- to four-story) land-use zoning, five independent buildings were created to approximate the scale of the surrounding properties both in height and footprint.

Even with the five-building design concept, the individual structures were still a good bit larger than the neighboring homes. The texture and detail of the masonry enabled the design team to reduce the visual scale of the buildings.

The site plan concept sets the buildings toward the edge of the site, encompassing an internal landscaped courtyard.