EW 2017 Annual Report Out!
Please enjoy our summary of all the great work your support helped make possible in 2017.
15th Ave. East Workshop Ideas Inspire UW College of Built Environments Studio Participants
In April of 2018, Environmental Works and fellow architecture firm Board & Vellum facilitated a community design workshop to gather neighbors’ ideas for the future of Capitol Hill’s evolving 15th Avenue East. Approximately 85 attendees participated in collaborative visioning and interactive design exercises. EW and Board & Vellum compiled their input into summary documents that can be shared with developers, design review boards, and government officials.
The 15th Ave. East Workshop is now bearing still more collaborative fruit, in the form of a fall quarter advanced design studio at the UW College of Built Environments led by Professor Nancy Rottle. This interdisciplinary studio for graduate students studying architecture and landscape architecture is relying on 15th Ave. E. workshop participants’ ideas as a starting point for students’ visions for the neighborhood’s future growth and development. EW and Board & Vellum staff hosted a walk along 15th for students, to show them hot spots and possible solutions identified by workshop participants such as creating new park space, adding affordable housing, and activating large blank walls and sidewalks. EW and B&V also participated in critiques of students’ mid-review designs, which were shared with the public at the Continuity and Change open house on November 16.
Some of the many thoughtful ideas presented:
Redeveloping the Safeway block and Williams Place Park to include activated public space and a mix of uses
Designs to enliven the streetscape and make the sidewalks more pedestrian-friendly
Redeveloping the QFC block to include a mix of community, residential, and small business uses
Integrating affordable housing and community spaces into new development.
After the studio, students’ imaginative ideas for future positive change and growth along 15th will be compiled into a book. EW and Board & Vellum will share this book on the 15th Ave. E. Workshop website and via email updates to subscribers in early 2019. We are honored to provide these tools to empower our neighbors to participate in local design processes.