Residential

Hillside Residence

Transparency and Ascension

On a steep hillside facing downtown Seattle, this four story house is reduced in scale by a transparent main floor (Piano Nobile) that opens onto a plinth above a partially submerged garage. An atrium is sandwiched between the parallel rectangular volumes of the two upper floors providing a transparent connection from the rear garden terrace south to the city. A tensile steel stair ascends from a cave-like lower floor to the actual daylight of the upper floor with sweeping views to the city and Elliot Bay.