Garden apartments offer an amenity that is often hard to come by in multifamily housing: green, outdoor space. CityLine Apartments in the Columbia City neighborhood of Seattle, Washington offers lush greenspace in abundance. This apartment community designed by BAR Architects consists of 244 apartment homes located adjacent to the Columbia City light rail stop, making it an ideal spot for commuters heading into Seattle.

The street façade consists of a long row of townhouses with neighborly stoops and front porches – important elements to have in a neighborhood shared with single family homes and active street life. Porches were not limited to the street façade – all ground floor apartments include deck or patio space.

The gentle slope of this site enabled the construction of a perimeter driveway and two partial basement parking garages located at the back of the property. This freed the remaining site to be dedicated to plantings, yard, and outdoor social spaces. Cars are practically invisible. The landscape design by Hewitt, Seattle, is rich with flowering plants and trees.

Chris served as the Project Architect/Project Manager while employed at BAR Architects, a San Francisco firm with an impressive portfolio of apartment homes. The design of this project served as an opportunity to incorporate elements that are important to Chris in the design of any home: thoughtful placement on the site, celebration of outdoor space, consideration of the neighborhood, and (of course) handsome looking facades that residents would be proud to call home.