Stazione25: From the Ground(breaking) Up

May 30, 2019

Always a pleasure to see a vision come to life, especially when you can capture 18 months of construction in 30 seconds. Here’s a look back at the Groundbreaking Ceremony, when it all began.

Located across the street from the Mt. Baker Light Rail station at McClellan and 25th, Stazione25 will be the newest hub for urban living in the Mt. Baker and Beacon Hill neighborhoods. Michael D. Ross and Robert B. Spitzer, the principal owners of the development, are excited that Stazione25, with 300+ units, will provide many families and workers with high-quality housing and quick access to Downtown Seattle by Summer 2019.

Meet Kosta Kulundzic - Extraordinary Artist

May 30, 2019

Kosta Kulundzic is a French artist of Serbian ancestry, born in Paris in 1972. He currently lives in Honolulu where he is an adjunct art professor at the University of Hawaii and a drawing and painting professor at the School of Architecture of Paris Val de Seine. He has shown in Paris, Belgrade, Sarajevo, Brussels, Honolulu, and at the SZ Gallery on Mercer Island in 2016, where he performed both a live painting and drawing - lucky us!

Meet Kosta Kulundzic at the SZ Gallery on Friday, June 7th for our First Friday Art & Wine Reception, 5 - 8 pm. Enjoy complimentary refreshments and seasonal bites alongside the wondrous yet wild imagery of Kosta Kulundzic. In the interim, learn a bit more about his background and inspiration in this brief interview below.

New York City: High Line & Hudson Yards (The Vessel & The Shed)

May 30, 2019

In a recent trip back East to visit with family & friends, we had the pleasure of exploring NYC’s recent mega-development, Hudson Yards. I was prepared to dislike it, since it’s exposure on social media. I guess I anticipated it being an expensive one-line, architecturally. Must admit, I was pleasantly surprised. The Vessel was pretty interesting in how it reflected back at you and created a hive-effect with people swarming it’s network of stairs. My favorite, though, was the newly opened Shed - fascinating building envelope. To round out our glorious Spring Day, we walked along the Highline to marvel at Zaha Hadid’s 520w28 stunner. If I was given the choice to live anywhere in Manhattan, I’d pick residency in this incredible building. Here are a few visual impressions of our visit - worth checking out in person, if the opportunity presents itself.

Palm Springs: Smoke Tree Ranch

March 29, 2019

The most effective way to promote energy efficiency is to design a house that takes full advantage of natural light, passive solar energy, shading, cross-ventilation, and efficient space planning. Doing so — by studying sun angles, prevailing winds, and general site orientation — reduces the overall energy load required to live comfortably.