LARSON BUILDING
The Larson Building is a 50 unit apartment/live-work building at the north edge of the Portage Bay neighborhood. The project envisioned around the original A.W. Larson building facade, an archetypal 1920s Seattle low-rise brick building. Our design response was to honor this facade by sensibly contrasting with a contemporary design and materials palette. The building is situated on an angular site at the intersection of two prominent arterial streets. It offers westerly lake views under a major freeway bridge overhead. Units are centered around a central courtyard that serves as a buffer and transition from its busy urban surroundings. Cost saving were achieved by keeping an all-wood construction type and eliminating underground functions. Sustainable features include solar shading, green roofs and landscape improvements to an adjacent pedestrian right of way linking to a single-family residential neighborhood.