Seattle projects win design awards
May 18, 2011 by Sofia Camfield · Leave a Comment
An image from the gu vision for Seattle.
Imagine Seattle with bubble wrapped buildings and wildlife feeding on grass growing in the street.
That vision, called [gu] (Growing Urbanism), won an Images that Provoke Award last month in the International Living Future Institutes Living City Design Competition.
And, last week, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that it and the American Institute of Architects had chosen three affordable-housing projects, including one in Seattle, for the HUD Secretary’s Housing and Community Design Award for excellence in residential housing design.
Gundula Proksch, a member of zeroplus architects and assistant professor of architecture at the University of Washington, led the [gu] team, which included Joshua Brevoort, Lisa Chun and Lucky Lanphere from zeroplus, Lauren McCunney from the the University of Washington and Cameron Hall from STAVE studio.
The Seattle of 25 years from now redefines the relationship between the built environment an the natural world, according to the project. T
Drop in foreclosure filings not necessarily good news
May 11, 2011 by Sofia Camfield · Leave a Comment
Foreclosure filings continued to fall in April, but not necessarily because fewer people were behind on their mortgages, according to a new report.
“Foreclosure activity decreased on an annual basis for the seventh straight month in April, bringing foreclosure activity to a 40-month low,” James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of foreclosure data company RealtyTrac, said in the report. “This slowdown continues to be largely the result of massive delays in processing foreclosures rather than the result of a housing recovery that is lifting people out of foreclosure. Filings were down 16 percent in King County and 34.3 percent nationwide from a year earlier and down 22.6 percent and 8.6 percent, respectively, from March, RealtyTrac reported. There
Institute for Systems Biology opens SLU headquarters
May 8, 2011 by Sofia Camfield · Leave a Comment
The Institute for Systems Biology has opened its new global headquarters in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood, the Institute and Vulcan Real Estate announced Monday.
Our new facility will enable the accommodation of additional faculty, researchers, and laboratory space, which provides us the opportunity to further increase the depth and breadth of our scientific capabilities,” the research institutes co-founder and President Leroy Hood said in a news release. ISB has a long-standing tradition of sharing our discoveries in computation, technologies, and related areas of systems biology research with others, so we are excited to move to this regions life sciences research and technology hub. Th
Windermere focuses on modern homes
May 3, 2011 by Sofia Camfield · Leave a Comment
A Windermere Real Estate listing for a modern home on Hunts Point. Click photo for listing.
Fans of modern architecture can have trouble sifting through listings to find a truly modern home. Windermere Real Estate wants to help with that.
“This buyer demographic is one that seeks serious modern homes; not conventional homes with modern accents,” Windermere President OB Jacobi said in announcing the Windermere Modern program, launched in February.
“Windermere Modern attracts the right buyers and eliminates those who aren’t looking for modern architecture,” Jacobi said.
The program highlights modern homes with special branding, marketing and advertising. Windermer
Seattle home prices a bit less out of step with rents
April 28, 2011 by Sofia Camfield · Leave a Comment
Seattles home prices are a slightly better bargain, compared with rents, than they were a few months ago, according to a new report.
In January, real estate website Trulia.com deemed Seattles home prices the second-worst bargain among the largest 50 U.S. cities, with the median cost to buy a two-bedroom apartment, condominium or townhouse 24 times the median annual rental cost for a similar home. Now, Seattle is sixth, with a price thats 19 times median annual rent. Seattle followed a nationwide trend of falling prices and rising rents making buying more attractive. The citys 20 percent quarterly swing in favor of buying was the fourth-largest, behind Fresno, Calif. (30 percent), Omaha, Neb. (25 percent), and San Jose, Calif.