Better Together: This Take on Co-Housing Emphasizes Quality and Community
ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN SEATTLE MAGAZINE APRIL 20, 2026
BY RACHEL GALLAHER
Shared Roof / Photo by Andrew Storey
Growing up in rural Detroit, Chad Dale spent many after-school and weekend hours playing with neighborhood kids in an open lot near his house. It’s an experience he always hoped his children would have someday, but by the time he became a father in Seattle, land was at a premium: either already developed or prohibitively expensive. About a decade ago, Dale—a real estate developer and part of the ownership team behind the Sea Creatures restaurant group—started hearing from friends who were also lamenting the skyrocketing cost of single-family homes in the area. It seemed that to have the space and amenities they wanted, the best solution was to move out of the city.
At one point, Dale and several families in the friend group purchased a communal farm on Whidbey Island as a weekend getaway, but the distance from Seattle made it difficult for them to spend extended amounts of time there. Not to mention, it had only one bathroom. After a few years, conversations between the friends started to broach whether they could recreate—and afford—a collective living experience in the city proper.
Shared Roof’s Greenhouse / Photo by Andrew Storey
“As we were talking, it dawned on me that there were a lot of things that we’d be happy to share,” Dale says, citing amenity spaces, rooftop decks, a large yard, and rooms for guests among them. “You’re sharing the space, but you’re also sharing the cost of it, and it allows you, on some level, to have your cake and eat it, too.”
Eventually, they landed on an idea for an apartment building that has a mix of traditional renters and owner-residents. Completed in 2023, with 35 units—nearly a third of which are occupied by investors, including Dale and his family—the Shared Roof project is a collaborative venture where stakeholders own shares, receiving dividends from profits made through traditional residential and commercial renters.
Shared Roof’s Public Courtyard / Photo by Andrew Storey
Inspired partly by European architecture—especially multi-family living in Amsterdam—and partly by Northwest modernism, the five-story building orients around the interior courtyard, which opens up to the neighborhood on several sides and holds a handful of popular commercial spaces, including Lioness, Ben’s Bread, Holy Mountain Brewing, and Doe Bay Wine Company. “There was a lot of focus on creating spaces for community,” Fuchs says, “and that courtyard really became the heart of the building.”
“This has happened a couple of times in our business, where a different business model can generate a much more interesting result—and eliminate some of the constraints,” notes Ray Johnston, a founding partner at Johnston Architects.
Johnston Architects worked with the owners to develop a palette of brick, stucco, dark-stained cedar, and black metal accents, blending a sleek, contemporary look with a sense of timeworn coziness. According to Johnston, parts of the project resembled “a puzzle-solving exercise with a Rubik’s Cube quality.” For example, units on the fourth and fifth floors, where many of the long-term investors live, were highly customized, so it took some creative spatial planning to make them fit together seamlessly. For everyone involved, the extra time and money were worth the investment.
“We wanted people to be engaged at a different level than they typically would be in a single-family home living situation,” Dale explains. “Even in a great neighborhood, you’re still not seeing your neighbors that often. Here, it’s a different story. We’ve been so fortunate to have a really incredible, eclectic mix of folks who ended up here because they genuinely want to connect with each other.”
Read more about Shared Roof on Seattle Magazine!