When it comes to new housing, Seattle is just not beating the function-over-form allegations. Right here, as in lots of different main US cities confronted with a housing disaster, the admirable purpose of making extra locations to reside has led to some satirically lifeless buildings.
A few of the blame lies with the town’s stifling design overview course of, and a few with builders’ more-or-less inevitable need to scale up whereas preserving development prices down. Regardless of the motive for our little containers fabricated from ticky-tacky, a townhome in Ballard and a five-over-one in Capitol Hill form of look simply the identical.
And that’s precisely what makes this Orange Place townhome, a part of a newly constructed improvement located a number of blocks from Queen Anne’s important drag, stand out.
Its white-brick facade—impressed by Queen Anne Excessive Faculty, a neighborhood architectural landmark (turned not-so-cookie-cutter condominium constructing) proper across the nook—subtly subverts the sparse, fashionable look typical of so many new builds. “Our main purpose was to make sure that the townhouses felt like conventional houses,” just like the historic buildings ubiquitous in New York Metropolis or London, says Katie Rains, in-house designer at developer Windsor Properties. “Typically, townhouses in Seattle lean in the direction of an industrial aesthetic, however we wished these to really feel purely residential.”
It’s their inside design that feels particularly placing. “Our purpose was to pick components that may stay stunning for many years,” Rains says. As an alternative of super-sleek fashionable finishes—certain to really feel far much less fashionable in about 5 years—the workforce opted for up to date takes on timeless classics, like micro-shaker cupboards, a streamlined model of the centuries-old design. Neither too heat, nor too cool; not too mild, nor too darkish. The engineered hardwood flooring really feel lab-grown to climate our fickle inside design preferences. A rooftop deck affords equally timeless views of downtown and the Cascades.
Panel wall molding and arched doorways add classic attraction patrons would possibly anticipate from the house’s century-old neighbors, not the townhouses subsequent door. Additional proof that single-family houses don’t have a monopoly on design that does extra than simply get the job executed.
$1.345 million–greenback townhomes aren’t precisely the frontline of Seattle’s efforts to extend its accessible housing provide. However they provide a blueprint for a way the architectural character of a historic neighborhood—and the density necessities of mentioned neighborhood in 2024—can peacefully, even superbly, coexist.
Itemizing Quick Information
1412 Orange Pl N, Seattle, WA 98109
Measurement: 1,665 sq. toes, 4 bedrooms, 2 loos
Record Value: $1,345,000
Record Date: 9/27/2024
Itemizing Agent: Michele Hanrahan, Windermere Actual Property Co.
Images: Alessandra Brescia alessandrabrescia.com
