The Capitol Residence by Pb Elemental Architecture
Najela from Pb Elemental Architecture in Seattle, Washington has been sending us photos of the great work they’re doing, and today she comes through with another one of their latest houses. Here’s their description:
“The project includes 1688 sft of living space, one car garage, driveway, and green space on a small lot centered in Seattle’s Capitol Hill urban community. The house is clad in aluminum paneling, white and black, with Cedar accents. Extensive store-front windows facing the street add a voyeuristic element to the home, giving away intimate views of the master suite and living room floors. Exposed cedar beams on the ceiling and steel-supported stair treads can be seen as well. The stairwell is made of 6” thick Tiger Wood treads. Clerestory windows located near the ceiling line allow light to continuously move through the home.”
Thanks to everyone at Pb Elemental for both bringing great contemporary design to your corner of the world, but also proudly sharing it with everyone around the world.
Visit the Pb Elemental Architecture website ? here.
Be sure to click on through to see loads of photos of the home’s interior.
Karen on 04 Jun 2008 at 9:52 pm #
Thanks for posting this. This is really inspiring and I can see the amount of detail & thought that has gone into designing the entire house. I love the small windows throughout the house, the lit up kitchen backsplash, the exposed beams…I could go on & on! Just a couple of questions, where is the front door and is there a backyard? Also is this house for sale, if so how much?
Steve on 04 Jun 2008 at 11:33 pm #
Wow, this is everything a contemporary house should be. I love it.
Grace Chee on 05 Jun 2008 at 12:30 am #
Very nice. Is that a concrete floor in the kitchen and living room?
Speedmaster on 05 Jun 2008 at 8:16 am #
Fantastic! I love the lighting and wood floors, staircase is sharp too.
Jason on 05 Jun 2008 at 10:03 am #
Nice detailed work! I love the black and white panels on the outside.
Couple of things I would do if it were my house.
- less concrete floors to prevent it from feel so “cold”.
- tile in the entry foyer to make it feel more special
- a different tile in the bathroom; something that isn’t so cliche modern
The windows and the wood accents are great!
Andrew on 05 Jun 2008 at 1:43 pm #
Very nice. But I hope there’s option for curtains in front of a couple of those windows. I would hate to expose myself to the neighborhood while walking from the shower to the sink.
JN on 05 Jun 2008 at 5:39 pm #
I like the style, but I have to question a lot of the livability.
Floor-to-ceiling windows in the master bedroom and the master bathroom facing the street seem like odd choices in an urban setting. The only window in the dining area is up high. The voyeuristic nature of the house sounds cooler in theory that it’ll be in reality.
And electric baseboard heaters?
ndb on 06 Jun 2008 at 5:40 am #
Wow! Really very nice! However, there are some questions that I would ask. How much of the materials are produced within the local area? The Pacific Northwest is one of the largest lumber producing regions in the US, where did you get your Tigerwood?
As for the second question…How well does the design fit within the neighborhoods existing flavor? Did you take into consideration the architecture that already exists in the neighborhood? The current residents of the area? Again, very nice. If they were not part of the design process this time then perhaps local materials and the neighborhood in question, could be taken into consideration next time.
menelaus22 on 06 Jun 2008 at 10:22 am #
Just to add a local pessimistic perspective to this post; the house seems totally out of place in the neighborhood. It’s situated on one of the highest traffic streets (12th avenue) and would be an exhibitionists dream come true.
While I enjoy the design, I think the location couldn’t be worse. I would imagine this house on a quiet residential street, nestled amongst trees, with a nice view that would complement the open nature of the “store front” windows. However, this placement does nothing but open an intimate life as a moving storyboard for passing motorists and heads down pedistrians hustling to get past the no man’s land of 12th ave.
Chris Sark on 06 Jun 2008 at 10:57 am #
Karen –
The front door is on the left side of the house. The home is for sale @ $912k.
Jason –
The concrete floor are all radiantly heated so the physical warmth of concrete is warm although some visually think concrete is a hard cold surface which is what you might be refering to.
Andrew –
We typically leave the window dressing options up to the home buyer as it is a fairly personal choice. We’ve been seeing a lot of frost film, reflective film, or variation of shades done in our homes.
JN –
The baseboard heater is in addition to the in floor radiant heat on all floors. The baseboard heater is heated by the hot water going through it as well so it isn’t a huge power hog. It gives the room an optional heating boost in the winters.
jordan on 06 Jun 2008 at 11:19 am #
existing seattle neighborhoods have no flavor. they’re all decades old remnants that should be replaced
The Gay Curmudgeon on 07 Jun 2008 at 10:30 am #
I’m with menelaus22 on this. Taken on its own I find the exterior architecture and materials very appealing, but the building is insensitive to the neighborhood character and it’s established architecture.
The interior space is bland and cold and it’s enforced exhibitionism in private spaces is presumptuous and cryptoprurient.
I have to disagree with jordan’s assessment that Seattle neighborhoods have no flavor. The character seems apparent to me and to those people who choose where they live based on how they feel about the neighborood.
I wonder if it might be more honest to say that some people just doesn’t like the flavor of Seattle neighboroods.
Either way, the best prescription might be for them to move somewhere else.
~GC
Josh Santangelo on 07 Jun 2008 at 10:41 am #
I live in the neighborhood and love the look of the building, but I’m not sure why you’d put such giant windows on a house when there’s nothing to look at across the way other than a block of townhomes.
Douglas on 07 Jun 2008 at 3:46 pm #
I love the big windows, I love everything about the house. Can I have it?
Mark Haizlip on 09 Jun 2008 at 12:41 pm #
JN, ndb, menelaus22, the gay curmudgeon, josh -
You might find the article below interesting. It is written about another project of ours that faces the street in the opposite fashion of the Capitol Hill Residence. Blank facade vs. store front window. Point being, there will always be criticism one way or the other (and should be). I appreciate architecture that challenges the norm. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Some people love it and some people hate it. But at least it is progessive. I’d like to assume that we don’t all live in the exact same way. Currently, the thousands of homes I see throughout Seattle make it appear as though we do. Classic punched windows (3′x5′) seem to be the only socially acceptable way to face a street. We choose to challenge these “givens”. For the Sterling Residence some criticize us for being too private w/ respect to the sidewalk. For the Capitol Hill Residence some criticize us for being too open w/ respect to the sidewalk. If we don’t want any criticism it seems as though our only option is to simply repeat (genuinely or not) the architecture of the past. We welcome criticism and are happy to spark debate with respect to our built environment. I appreciate your comments because while they might be directed toward this residence in particular they are also addressing much bigger issues.
Stranger Article:
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=532069&mode=print
Sterling Residence Pics:
http://www.elementalarchitecture.com/projects/single/sterling/index.html
Douglas on 09 Jun 2008 at 4:01 pm #
Big windows are way better than no windows.
Please keep designing and building houses with big windows facing the street.
Steven White on 13 Jun 2008 at 10:05 am #
What sort of material are the black & white facings made of? I’ve seen something like that in my home town (Milwaukee, WI, US) and am wondering what it is exactly.
Thanks…
Erin on 13 Jun 2008 at 10:18 am #
Hi Steven – The black and white siding is made from Aluminum composite panels…Erin
Pb Elemental sux on 18 Jun 2008 at 11:35 am #
Geesh, another Pb elemental house that looks just like all of the other ones they are “mass producing” all over Seattle. When are these guys going to expand their material pallete? Every building they do looks the same….go back to architecture school you amateurs and stop polluting Seattle with your spec homes! Aren’t they a little bit overextended? I figure in a few years these guys will be ran out of town. I guess their theory is that no publicity is bad publicity.
Franklin on 04 Jul 2008 at 2:48 am #
Mass production is not inherently bad…once you realize this you might start to understand how this world works. For better or worse, mass production is very necessary. Would you like every home to be a “one off”? Entirely custom and so different from the next that they become outrageously expensive? Take your pick. You seem like the type of person that is constantly spouting negative criticism toward everything around you. You’re going to criticize either way so no point in trying to make you happy. Why do you keep checking out Pb Elemental’s projects if you dislike them so much?
micah shotel on 12 Oct 2008 at 11:52 pm #
These posts are really funny to me. As I live in a PB house and hear and see feedback from the neighborhood almost every day. I see material choices in new neighborhood projects being influenced by PB. People walking by often express how they love the openness of my house and that it flows into the neighborhood. I love the natural light that all the glass provides.
With regard to concrete floors being cold… like the reply above stated, my radiant concrete floors are very warm
but, all joking aside… I think the owner of the house always has an option to throw down some “warm” area rugs… and also the use of all the wood (at least in my project), combined with my furniture and art, really helps to make the place warmer.
When I first ran into the PB projects I wrote a letter to the principles thanking them for not doing the standard cookie cutter town houses that are going up all over the city. You cannot call their work cookie cutter, yes they have defined a style but they are constantly evolving. Most of there work is evolutionary building off past projects (what worked and what did not). If everything was a revolution, throwing out the past and starting over, how do you grow as a designer?
Just my 2 cents.