The Winston Townhomes reside between the classic craftsman bungalows of Seattle’s Ravenna neighborhood and a small commercial area featuring a community recreation center and a senior housing development converted from a historic brick school building.

Architecture firm Opsis Architecture of Portland, Oregon, and Seattle-based Johnston Architects (JA) collaborated on the $61.7 million building that took nearly two years to complete. The vision was to create a two-story building featuring state-of-the-art amenities on Redmond’s Municipal Campus that could elevate the community’s health, wellbeing, and vibrancy while connecting the civic side to the surrounding natural elements.

“The community’s experience of the building was the guiding principle of the design. Johnston Architects always strives to create a site-specific design and so look to the existing context for conceptual guidance. We identified, very early on, the idea of buildings embedded in lush landscape and Mercer Island’s strong network of community parks. This shaped the building’s site design strongly: it became a building set in a series of small urban pocket parks,” said McKay, an Island resident.

Accessibility in public spaces isn’t limited to considerations for people in wheelchairs. It spans the gamut of needs, from parents pushing strollers to people with neurological differences.

“We created this idea of a more community-focused living space where we could essentially have our cake and eat it too,” Dale said. “We could have all these amenities, we could stay in the city while also supporting each other and raising our kids together.”

Inspired by the nearby Sammamish River, the center’s design employs biophilic architecture to connect visitors with nature. Expansive wooden elements are exposed in the interior and exterior to create a warm and inviting atmosphere.

Design Institute Hayward looked at ways to design for inclusion, safety, sustainability, and extending a warm invitation to all.

Twenty years ago, Octavia Fellin Public Library outgrew its 15,000 square foot main facility and reached what was meant to be a temporary solution: relocating children’s services to a repurposed bank. Now seeking to reunite and expand operations, library leadership wants to build a 65,000 square foot structure that would serve as a multi-use regional resource and welcome diverse communities with inviting gathering spaces and a fluid, indoor-outdoor experience.

When we design public spaces, we should be continually asking ourselves how to create some of the bespoke feeling of a curated home, rather than using the more typical "matching" scheme that offices and libraries of the past have used.

Following an extensive renovation and restoration project, the landmarked structure is today the site of a vibrant arts and cultural center that acts as a new anchor for the arts and community in Auburn. The center features several gallery spaces for diverse exhibits as well as production spaces for local artists and offers a multitude of arts and cultural education, programming, and events. It is also a rental venue.