Slipped into the Mt. Baker neighborhood of Seattle, this house was built as a speculative project and was the first house in a planned development of five houses. The area is a veritable catalog of the styles that have influenced Seattle residential architecture for 100 years, with many classic craftsman houses in the mix. The neighborhood accommodates all of these styles gracefully because of a shared sense of scale and relationship to the street. The house as an infill project that respects those attributes and borrows from tradition while expressing a more modern aesthetic. The use of hardipanel, aluminum windows, steel and fir handrails, modern lighting and vivid colors bring the house unequivocally into the present, but the attention to detail, the expression of separate materials and the clarity of the construction reflect its traditional roots.