Adrienne Quinn, Director of the Office of Housing for the City of Seattle handed out SeaGreen Achievement Awards to Stone Way Apartments and Broadway Crossing, two project designed by Seattle’s GGLO. These honors recognized each project for a team approach towards integrating sustainable building materials and methods to promote environmental quality, economic savings and social benefit through design, construction and operation.
Stone Way Apartments, developed by Housing Resources Group, is a full block, urban site located in the Wallingford neighborhood. It contains 70 affordable apartments comprised of studios, 1, 2 and 3 bedroom units for low income individuals and families earning up to 60 percent of the median income. Sustainable design goals focused on tenant health and operational savings. The project is pursuing LEED™ Silver certification with exemplary use of local and recycled content materials. Low flow fixtures reduce water use, while Built Smart measures reduce energy consumption. Solar panels, which provide some on-site renewable energy, are complemented by a green power agreement with the local utility. The project contractor was Walsh Construction.
Capitol Hill Housing’s Broadway Crossing is an affordable housing project in the Capitol Hill neighborhood built by Rafn Company. The residential portion of the project includes 44 affordable apartments comprised of studio, 1 and 2 bedroom units for individuals and families earning up to 60 percent of the median income. Eight apartments will be reserved for households transitioning from homelessness. The design of the building places a contextually appropriate masonry, stucco, and metal facade on the streetfront with a contrasting playful, green courtyard in the back. The project has strong community support from a very involved neighborhood population. Broadway Crossing is also pursuing LEED™ Silver certification.
GGLO’s own Bill Gaylord headlined the 2007 ISS Trash Fashion Bash, a fundraising even created to highlight waste and the need for environmental sustainability. Bill’s been involved in the event for the last two years, and his most recent created, created by GGLO Associate Jennifer Stormont and called the “Ghost of Christmas Past and Future”, was another stunner.
The Seattle Times reported it well:
Gaylord's eye-popping pants are a rainbow of used ribbon sewn together with silvery Mylar. Stormont knitted together wires from old Christmas lights for a sleeveless sweater and a turtleneck with flashing lights. They glued used batteries to a pool cue for a walking cane and included plastic disposable water bottles as the base for the fez-shaped headdress adorned with salt and pepper shakers. Materials came from their garage and what they could scrounge up from businesses and friends.
"This is a really fun way to make people think but also get creative with materials that would be thrown out normally," Gaylord said.
"Once you start brainstorming ideas, it gets infectious," Gaylord said. "It's fun, and you're doing it for a good cause to enlighten people on the day-to-day decisions that they make. It's all about changing people's behavior."
Bill and GGLO look forward to future Trash Fashion Bash events.
Photo above courtesy Hiro Davis. More great images here.
