client: Seattle Housing Authority scope: Complete redevelopment of 120 acre infill site to create a sustainable mixed-income neighborhood. Winner of multiple awards including ULI Global Award. role: Project Urban Designer for Mithun Architects. team: Craig Skipton, Brian Sullivan, Matt Sullivan
overview
High Point is a HUD HOPE VI redevelopment of 1600 housing units on a 120 acre urban site in West Seattle. The successfully completed project has won national attention for sustainable planning of a large scale urban redevelopment. Defying expectations, the for-profit portion of the mixed-income project led the market in terms of price/sf for new housing. Working under a pioneering public housing architect, I led the team of site consultants, and was responsible for integrating social, technical, and aesthetic aspects of site design with an overall vision for the character of the place.
community involvement
Over the course of two years, we conducted design workshops in multiple languages, incorporating input from residents of diverse cultural backgrounds. Workshops covered all scales from master planning to open space design to unit layout. Each block of the existing 1940’s public housing site was documented to record patterns of open space use, level of personalization, site characteristics of preferred spaces, and dominant user groups. This detailed input informed the design of a new street grid, allowing for an unusually fine-grained approach to planning, site design, and architecture.
design approach
Creating a fabric that balanced ecological function with the social demands of urban open spaces required an intense interdisciplinary design approach. Careful sequencing of scale, attention to adjacencies, and simultaneous design of architecture and site all contributed to the creation of a successful place. With the goal of maximizing hydrologic perfomance I worked closely with the civil engineers, architects, landscape architects, and municipal officials to enhance a watershed protected by the Endangered Species Act.
