MARION GREEN COURTYARD TOWNHOMES
MARION GREEN COURTYARD TOWNHOMES BUILDING COMMUNITY AND DENSITY IN THE FASTEST GROWING CITY IN THE NATION
Lot size: 7,691 sf Building size: 9,237 sf Location: Seattle, WA Project type: Multifamily housing AIA 2015 Honor Awards Jury Review Materials
Seattle is currently the fastest growing city in the nation. Originally developed as a city of single family homes, Seattle has more or less run out of single-family zoned land. In order to continue to absorb growth, the city has to build its new housing in a more urbanized form. Currently the city is grappling with a problem: How to increase density without sacrificing neighborhood character and livability? While older cities have successful dense housing archetypes like row housing, these forms were developed without the need for parking, and cannot accommodate parking without losing their street character, or their open space, or both. In 2011, Seattle enacted more flexible low-rise zoning code to encourage production of a broader diversity of dense infill housing types and to enable more thoughtful design solutions. In short, the hope was that someone would figure out a new, better archetype. Marion Green pioneers an entirely new approach to low-rise multi-family housing in Seattle: The Courtyard Townhome. This new housing type creates a community center for all the residents to share, mitigates the visual impact of parking, facilitates interaction between neighbors, and increases access to open space and natural light. Some notable features: • The courtyard serves as the primary pedestrian circulation route, promoting chance encounters among neighbors. Semi-private deck spaces for each unit ring the periphery, and the center of the courtyard provides communal space. • Public, semi-private, and private amenity areas are layered and nested— e.g., zones within the courtyard, balconies, individual unit roof decks, and small decks for the rear units—allowing residents to find a balance between privacy and community. • Outdoor and indoor living space flow together. Living rooms and kitchens open onto and look into the courtyard. • The courtyard breaks up the project massing and brings natural light into the center of the project. • Parking is situated under the courtyard deck. The buildings are pushed out to the edge of the site. The negative visual impacts of parking are mitigated, and the site area normally taken up by parking is returned to open space. • The parking is simply constructed, above-grade with conventional wood framing. It is an affordable solution for conventional development budgets. Marion Green is a model for how urban neighborhoods can grow successfully, satisfying pragmatic concerns like parking and project economics, while providing an architectural solution that is people-centered and humane.
PROBLEM: How to build density that centers around community in a city still reliant on cars. Seattle has developed most low-rise multifamily housing in the form of “4-Pack” townhouses. Complaints about poor design and livability led policy-makers to examine overly restrictive, car-centric zoning.
1
Imagery ©2014 Google Map Data
INSPIRATION: Develop a prototype that gives the space used for parking back to people.
VS
TYPICAL “4-PACK” TOWNHOME DEVELOPMENT
COURTYARD TOWNHOME PROTOTYPE
This isn’t a housing type. It’s a parking diagram.
Cars are parked in the center, covered with a courtyard deck, creating a large common space between buildings.
SEMI-PRIVATE SPACES SURROUND THE COMMON COURTYARD
PRIVATE EXTERIOR SPACES WITH VIEWS CENTRAL COURTYARD ALLOWS INCREASED LIGHT EXPOSURE
ECONOMICAL ABOVE-GROUND WOOD CONSTRUCTION
HIGH WINDOWS AND OPEN PLANS ALLOW DAYLIGHTING AND VIEWS BALCONIES ACTIVATE STREET EDGE
SOLUTION: A replicable design that accommodates vehicles but delivers an architecture that is all about community.
DOWNTOWN SEATTLE
2
SITE
CENTRAL DISTRICT
1
3
SITE CONTEXT The site is located on a west facing sloping hillside, affording regional views west towards Downtown Seattle. The existing building stock is primarily composed of older single family homes interspersed with more recent multi-family buildings and townhouses.
1 2 3
SITE CONTEXT VIEW TOWARD DOWNTOWN VIEW WITHIN NEIGHBORHOOD
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
UNIT 1 UNIT 2 UNIT 3 UNIT 4 UNIT 5 (ABOVE) BIKE PARKING COVERED DRIVE COURT STAIRS TO COURTYARD
1
7 3 6 5
8
2 4
GARAGE LEVEL The driveway court allows for improved maneuvering space, and accommodates seven garage parking spaces for five units. The height of the building is reduced by one story by setting it into the hillside.
0
2
4
8
N
1 2 3 4 5 6
UNIT 1 UNIT 2 UNIT 3 UNIT 4 UNIT 5 CENTRAL COURTYARD
3
1
6 5
2
COURTYARD LEVEL The plan is arranged to provide progressive layers of community open space, semiprivate space, and private areas. All units connect directly to the courtyard, creating opportunities for chance interaction among neighbors.
4
0
2
4
8
N
1 2 3 4 5
UNIT 1 UNIT 2 UNIT 3 UNIT 4 UNIT 5
3
1
5 2 4
UPPER LEVEL Bedroom levels are arranged to prevent master suites from facing each other across the courtyard. Large units have two bedrooms to accommodate families. Juliet balconies activate the street facade
0
2
4
8
N
1 2 3 4 5 6
UNIT 1 UNIT 2 UNIT 3 UNIT 4 UNIT 5 LIGHT MONITOR
3
1
4 5 6 2
ROOFTOP LEVEL Private open space with 360˚ views of city and mountains. Rooftop planters provide privacy screening and gardening opportunities and the stair penthouse provides privacy screening between adjacent units.
William Wright Photography
0
2
4
8
N
1 1 2 3
VIEW OF EAST INTERIOR UNIT 1 COURTYARD VIEW NORTH VIEW OF COURTYARD
OPEN TO THE NEIGHBORS The project opens up the most socially active area — the courtyard — to the neighboring sides, rather than turning its back to adjacent properties.
2
3
1
OPEN TO THE LIGHT High windows allow for views to the brightest part of the sky — crucial on Seattle’s grey days. The courtyard breaks up the project’s massing and brings natural light into its center while creating a balance of semi private and shared living space.
William Wright Photography
Vista Estate Imaging
2 1 2
UNIT 2 KITCHEN + COURTYARD UNIT 5 KITCHEN + PATIO
1
1 2
WEST ELEVATION SOUTH WEST FACADE
2
OPEN TO THE CITY The project makes ownership in the city accessible. The smaller units are more affordable and better suited for singles or couples. The larger units provide opportunity for families to live in a vibrant urban neighborhood with access to mass transit and pedestrian amenities.
William Wright Photography
1
OPEN TO DENSITY AND COMMUNITY This new housing type creates community space for residents, mitigates the visual impact of parking, and increases access to open space and natural light. It is high density ownership housing in a form that balances diverse needs of individual homeowners with opportunities to create community among neighbors.
2
1 2
INTERIOR EAST ELEVATION VIEW OF COURTYARD
MARION GREEN COURTYARD TOWNHOMES
Lot size: 7,691 sf Building size: 9,237 sf Location: Seattle, WA Project type: Multifamily housing AIA 2015 Honor Awards Jury Review Materials
Seattle is currently the fastest growing city in the nation. Originally developed as a city of single family homes, Seattle has more or less run out of single-family zoned land. In order to continue to absorb growth, the city has to build its new housing in a more urbanized form. Currently the city is grappling with a problem: How to increase density without sacrificing neighborhood character and livability? While older cities have successful dense housing archetypes like row housing, these forms were developed without the need for parking, and cannot accommodate parking without losing their street character, or their open space, or both. In 2011, Seattle enacted more flexible low-rise zoning code to encourage production of a broader diversity of dense infill housing types and to enable more thoughtful design solutions. In short, the hope was that someone would figure out a new, better archetype. Marion Green pioneers an entirely new approach to low-rise multi-family housing in Seattle: The Courtyard Townhome. This new housing type creates a community center for all the residents to share, mitigates the visual impact of parking, facilitates interaction between neighbors, and increases access to open space and natural light. Some notable features: • The courtyard serves as the primary pedestrian circulation route, promoting chance encounters among neighbors. Semi-private deck spaces for each unit ring the periphery, and the center of the courtyard provides communal space. • Public, semi-private, and private amenity areas are layered and nested— e.g., zones within the courtyard, balconies, individual unit roof decks, and small decks for the rear units—allowing residents to find a balance between privacy and community. • Outdoor and indoor living space flow together. Living rooms and kitchens open onto and look into the courtyard. • The courtyard breaks up the project massing and brings natural light into the center of the project. • Parking is situated under the courtyard deck. The buildings are pushed out to the edge of the site. The negative visual impacts of parking are mitigated, and the site area normally taken up by parking is returned to open space. • The parking is simply constructed, above-grade with conventional wood framing. It is an affordable solution for conventional development budgets. Marion Green is a model for how urban neighborhoods can grow successfully, satisfying pragmatic concerns like parking and project economics, while providing an architectural solution that is people-centered and humane.
PROBLEM: How to build density that centers around community in a city still reliant on cars. Seattle has developed most low-rise multifamily housing in the form of “4-Pack” townhouses. Complaints about poor design and livability led policy-makers to examine overly restrictive, car-centric zoning.
1
Imagery ©2014 Google Map Data
INSPIRATION: Develop a prototype that gives the space used for parking back to people.
VS
TYPICAL “4-PACK” TOWNHOME DEVELOPMENT
COURTYARD TOWNHOME PROTOTYPE
This isn’t a housing type. It’s a parking diagram.
Cars are parked in the center, covered with a courtyard deck, creating a large common space between buildings.
SEMI-PRIVATE SPACES SURROUND THE COMMON COURTYARD
PRIVATE EXTERIOR SPACES WITH VIEWS CENTRAL COURTYARD ALLOWS INCREASED LIGHT EXPOSURE
ECONOMICAL ABOVE-GROUND WOOD CONSTRUCTION
HIGH WINDOWS AND OPEN PLANS ALLOW DAYLIGHTING AND VIEWS BALCONIES ACTIVATE STREET EDGE
SOLUTION: A replicable design that accommodates vehicles but delivers an architecture that is all about community.
DOWNTOWN SEATTLE
2
SITE
CENTRAL DISTRICT
1
3
SITE CONTEXT The site is located on a west facing sloping hillside, affording regional views west towards Downtown Seattle. The existing building stock is primarily composed of older single family homes interspersed with more recent multi-family buildings and townhouses.
1 2 3
SITE CONTEXT VIEW TOWARD DOWNTOWN VIEW WITHIN NEIGHBORHOOD
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
UNIT 1 UNIT 2 UNIT 3 UNIT 4 UNIT 5 (ABOVE) BIKE PARKING COVERED DRIVE COURT STAIRS TO COURTYARD
1
7 3 6 5
8
2 4
GARAGE LEVEL The driveway court allows for improved maneuvering space, and accommodates seven garage parking spaces for five units. The height of the building is reduced by one story by setting it into the hillside.
0
2
4
8
N
1 2 3 4 5 6
UNIT 1 UNIT 2 UNIT 3 UNIT 4 UNIT 5 CENTRAL COURTYARD
3
1
6 5
2
COURTYARD LEVEL The plan is arranged to provide progressive layers of community open space, semiprivate space, and private areas. All units connect directly to the courtyard, creating opportunities for chance interaction among neighbors.
4
0
2
4
8
N
1 2 3 4 5
UNIT 1 UNIT 2 UNIT 3 UNIT 4 UNIT 5
3
1
5 2 4
UPPER LEVEL Bedroom levels are arranged to prevent master suites from facing each other across the courtyard. Large units have two bedrooms to accommodate families. Juliet balconies activate the street facade
0
2
4
8
N
1 2 3 4 5 6
UNIT 1 UNIT 2 UNIT 3 UNIT 4 UNIT 5 LIGHT MONITOR
3
1
4 5 6 2
ROOFTOP LEVEL Private open space with 360˚ views of city and mountains. Rooftop planters provide privacy screening and gardening opportunities and the stair penthouse provides privacy screening between adjacent units.
William Wright Photography
0
2
4
8
N
1 1 2 3
VIEW OF EAST INTERIOR UNIT 1 COURTYARD VIEW NORTH VIEW OF COURTYARD
OPEN TO THE NEIGHBORS The project opens up the most socially active area — the courtyard — to the neighboring sides, rather than turning its back to adjacent properties.
2
3
1
OPEN TO THE LIGHT High windows allow for views to the brightest part of the sky — crucial on Seattle’s grey days. The courtyard breaks up the project’s massing and brings natural light into its center while creating a balance of semi private and shared living space.
William Wright Photography
Vista Estate Imaging
2 1 2
UNIT 2 KITCHEN + COURTYARD UNIT 5 KITCHEN + PATIO
1
1 2
WEST ELEVATION SOUTH WEST FACADE
2
OPEN TO THE CITY The project makes ownership in the city accessible. The smaller units are more affordable and better suited for singles or couples. The larger units provide opportunity for families to live in a vibrant urban neighborhood with access to mass transit and pedestrian amenities.
William Wright Photography
1
OPEN TO DENSITY AND COMMUNITY This new housing type creates community space for residents, mitigates the visual impact of parking, and increases access to open space and natural light. It is high density ownership housing in a form that balances diverse needs of individual homeowners with opportunities to create community among neighbors.
2
1 2
INTERIOR EAST ELEVATION VIEW OF COURTYARD
MARION GREEN COURTYARD TOWNHOMES
