Sustainable in Seattle

Written by Fred Albert • Photographed by John Granen
Produced By Linda O'Keeffe & Linda Humphrey

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While visiting Copenhagen four years ago, Greg Smith marveled at the number of construction projects there that incorporated sustainable design. "I realized that a love of the environment and a love of building don't have to be mutually exclusive," says the Seattle developer. When he returned home, he formed Urban Visions, a company that creates green mixed-use structures.

If he was going to win converts to his way of thinking, Smith realized, he would have to live the kind of life he championed. He gave up his house in the suburbs and signed a long-term lease on the penthouse of a downtown office building that had recently been converted to residential use and certified as LEED silver. Working with SkB Architects and sustainability consultant Monica Smith (with whom he shares a last name, a passion for green design and now his life), Smith turned the 2,200-square-foot shell into a serenely sophisticated aerie that's so stylish you'd never suspect it was good for you—and for the world.

"The goal was for visitors to walk in and not recognize that it was a sustainable, green space," says Smith, who subjected every purchase to rigorous scrutiny. At the same time, SkB principals Kyle Gaffney and Shannon Rankin (assisted by Mark Ward and Jami Howard) tried to avoid the burlap-and-Birkenstock earnestness that can afflict green projects. They covered breakfast chairs in an ebullient J. Robert Scott linen and had Smith round up a gaggle of mismatched dining chairs, paint them black and set them around the dining table. "You need a little levity in every project," says Rankin.

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