Sustainable in Seattle (continued)
Photo: John Granen
The design team confined circulation to the perimeter of the U-shaped apartment and relegated service functions to the center, preserving Puget Sound and Olympic Mountain views throughout the wide-open 11th-floor flat. Discreet pocket doors divide the space when needed, making the free-flowing floor plan ideal for one or 100.
Formaldehyde-free wood products and low-VOC paints and adhesives were used throughout the project, which was overseen by J.R. Abbott Construction. Except in the library, the original terrazzo- and-marble flooring was too pitted to salvage, so the design team covered it with bamboo laid in a traditional herringbone pattern. Even the furniture is green, much of it fashioned from local FSC-certified hardwoods, natural latex cushions and fabrics made from organic fibers or recycled content. "We were thinking responsibly on all levels," Rankin notes.
What wasn't new was often salvaged from Smith's own buildings. "What do you think we can do with this?" he'd ask the design team after dragging them down to his storeroom to survey old marble toilet partitions (now used as thresholds) or piles of sandstone rubble (deployed as a hearth). A massive fir beam from a 100-yearold carriage factory was repurposed as a breakfast bar, and the barstools are made of 80 percent recycled aluminum. The dusky oak in the cabinetry surrounding it comes by its color naturally, thanks to the decades it spent submerged in a German bog.
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