Shared Roof in Seattle's Phinney Ridge neighborhood is redefining multifamily living, prioritizing community bonds and shared resources to address the growing need for hyper-local connection in urban settings.

The Johnston Architects (JA)-designed building focuses on helping apartment residents build bonds with one another.

Chase and Meredith were impressed, not only with Johnston's credentials and many unique projects, but with his passion for the land, honoring with gratitude the first people and their traditional land. Ray understood the desire that Chase and Meredith had to create a house with a small carbon footprint and one that honored the surrounding natural habitat.

Around a decade ago, Chad Dale watched as some of his friends started to leave Seattle. “They wanted to stay in an urban environment, but the city was too expensive for them to have all the things that they wanted to have,” Dale says. So, what if he and several friends joined together to build their own apartment building—and all lived in the same place?

"It’s a continued expansion of ways of thinking about libraries that started a while ago, and people are continuing to push the envelope when it comes to nontraditional library spaces. Whereas a few years back, it might have been people adding multipurpose spaces into their libraries, now we’re adding a demonstration kitchen and a recording studio and creating space for community partnerships. We have a Discovery Garden where we’re putting power in the outdoor seating elements." - Mona Johnston Zellers

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.

A re-imagined and re-invigorated Edmonds Library reopened to the public in January after an extensive renovation and modernization that followed a major flooding event in June 2022.

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.

"Inspired by the agrarian buildings in the region, [the Winthrop Library] includes broad overhangs and open roof trusses, and the massing suits the community's aesthetic." ⁣

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.

JA Partner Alison Walker Brems sat down with Mansion Global to talk about taking a 1950s kitchen into the 21st century.

The Winthrop Library, completed in 2022 through a unique collaboration with the Friends of the Winthrop Library, Town of Winthrop, and Prentiss Balance Wickline Architects, was selected for an AIA Seattle Award of Honor.

The design team’s refreshing take on agrarian vernacular also delivers on utility, practicality, and cost. “We turned to a light-frame wood and steel structure as both an expression of the region’s historic architecture and for its affordability, sustainability, and ease to construct with local crafts persons.”