By: Johnny Hartsfield

In 2007, the City of Portland, Oregon, invited architects from around the world to submit design ideas on housing oriented to shared courtyards in the Portland Courtyard Housing Competition.  This is a new push to add an “infill” housing type to the urban grid that will provide solutions for how higher-density housing can meet the needs of families with children, while providing new opportunities for community interaction and contributing to environmental sustainability.

The winning designs all presented positive solutions that respond to the continual loss of families in Portland’s inner city due to affordability issues and high-density housing that takes away useable open space.  Emerging from the entries was a set of design principles that the jury and staff categorized into five goals…..

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By: Johnny Hartsfield

Sharon Pian Chan of The Seattle Times has just written an interesting new article on the rise of townhome development here in Seattle.  This new “movement” has sparked some major debates in our city over the last few years - mostly focused on the dilution and denegration of design and craftsmanship.  These are the townhomes we all love to hate with poor materials and skinny asphalt driveways that replace usable open space.

To make things worse, most of these new developments are not subject to environmental or design review.  Vlad Oustimovitch, a West Seattle architect and a former design-review board member, sums up the effects of this process in his own neighborhood - “instead what we got was a very vanilla, cookie-cutter” development.

Developments like these are just one of the many reasons why GreenFab is determined to develop projects that provide healthy, inspired and affordable living.  We value private and community open space as well as safe and walkable neighborhoods. 

As the article points out, developers are not the only party to blame, our own planning department, permit and code review process almost encourage these types of developments.

GreenFab is following this trend closely and will be posting updates as changes develop. 

READ THE FULL ARTICLE “TOWN HOMES SPARK NEIGHBORHOOD DEBATE”   

Source:  Seattletimes.nwsource.com

Related Stories:

Townhome Invasion

Townhouse Market Slows

By: Johnny Hartsfield

The 1.6 acres of Lake Union Park’s phase 1 opens today.  After a year and a half of construction, the park will have it’s grand opening from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. today.  Karen Daubert, executive director of the Seattle Parks Foundation says that “after 100 years of vision, 20 years of land acquisition and five years of fundraising, Lake Union Park is now open to be enjoyed by all.”

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By: Johnny Hartsfield

Mossop + Michaels, a Landscape Architecture firm out of New Orleans, has just received an Award of Excellence from the ASLA for their analysis and planning of the “Viet Village Urban Farm“.

Located in New Orleans East, the Viet Village Urban Farm is a community design response to the destruction left by Hurricane Katrina.  Attempting to reestablish the tradition of local farming in this community, the project is focused on providing an economic catalyst for the community and the development of a flexible, strategic plan for seeking funding for it’s execution.

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By: Johnny Hartsfield

You won’t see this Eye Pod in your local Apple store.  Instead, you would have had to visit the University of Minnesota’s Landscape Arboretum’s collection of “Secret Gardens.”  Back in 2006, Chris Wegscheid’s entry did not include a single plant but rather a “body-sized camera obscura that would bring an ever-changing view of the arboretum into a secret indoor space.”

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By: Johnny Hartsfield

Are you ready to get inspired by two brothers (ages 22 and 30) from Portland, Oregon, who are single handedly developing one of the first residential “Living Buildings” in the country?

Dustin and his brother Garrett Moon, whom I saw present last week at the Living Future Unconference in Vancouver B.C., are in the process of raising $200,000 to construct “The Commons“, a project conceived to push the envelope on what it means to live communally and sustainably.  Their new home in Southeast Portland will be built in place of an existing inefficient home they bought for $195,000 in 2007 on Craigslist.

According to their website, the Moon brothers have three main goals with The Commons: to answer the Living Building Challenge; to design and develop a communal living space for two families; and to study, learn, exemplify and contribute to the knowledge of sustainable designs and dwellings.  They are attempting to accomplish all this by building the house themselves.

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By: Johnny Hartsfield

The ASLA has announced the recipients of its 2008 Professional Awards.  With over 500 entries, the jury selected 29 projects to receive awards.  The awards will be presented on October 6 at the ASLA Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.  There are many great designs mentioned here but I wanted to highlight one that I think needs some attention.

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By: Johnny Hartsfield

Join Seattle Great City Initiative for a brownbag lunch discussion led by T Frick of Mithun. 

T Frick, an Associate Principle at Mithun and a former colleague of mine, will be leading a discussion this coming Thursday April 10, on how to transform Seattle streetscapes into usable, pedestrian friendly spaces. 

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By: Johnny Hartsfield  

For me, there is no better way to kick off our conversation about site design than with my own personal experience. It’s been three years and eight months since Sarah and I purchased our first home in Ballard. Coming from a Landscape Architecture background, it took me all of two weeks before I ripped out the newly laid turf blanketing our yard. It has taken three complete summers of long days, a hernia operation (blue stone is heavier than I thought) and money we didn’t have for us to get to this point. What we have so far, in my prideful opinion, is a landscape that incorporates native and drought tolerant plants, bird habitat, a green roof and beauty that we can enjoy everyday.

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