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DESIGN DISPATCH
By Lauren Gallow
If city dwelling is life in the fast lane, then living in Seattle is akin to moving at warp speed. For most of the 2010s, this was the country’s fastest-growing city, thanks in large part to the rapid expansion of the tech industry that calls it home. The birthplace of Microsoft, Amazon, Zillow, and Expedia, to name but a few, Seattle is a veritable hotbed of high-speed innovation, and not just in the digital realm.
The city’s design scene is flush with pioneering idealists who forge their own paths, often drawing on the lush natural environs of the Pacific Northwest for inspiration. The geography of snowcapped mountains, moss-laden forests, and glimmering lakes attracts folks with a sense of wanderlust and adventure, which spills over into the realm of design. Seattle creators like to go their own way, embracing the risk of trying new things, but with a healthy dose of modernist restraint. Here, a list of five trailblazing designs and designers lighting up the local scene. »
Integrated landscape and architecture firm Wittman Estes is expanding the concept of landscape in Pacific Northwest design with projects like Aldo Beach House, located in Hood Canal, Washington. A transformation of an existing 1940s beach house, the project doubles the livable area while sensitively embracing the regional waterfront ecology.
EXPERIENCE WITTMAN ESTES The concept of merging architecture with nature may be de rigueur in Northwest design today, but Wittman Estes stands out as an integrated landscape and architecture firm doing things differently. “Both Jody [Estes] and I started out as landscape designers and have a deep love of nature,” says founding principal Matt Wittman, who, alongside Estes, leads ground-up construction and landscape projects for the firm, including a design for one of the city’s first new office building to be constructed post-COVID-19.
For their Duwamish Crossings proposal, Wittman Estes speculated on a human-centric, multimodal replacement for the failing West Seattle Bridge, which closed in 2020. Linking cultural sites and restoring
parts of the Duwamish River, the design exemplifies Wittman Estes’ belief that in order to meet the moment, designers must broaden their definition of landscape. Says Wittman, “Landscape is the in between, the around, the beyond. It is the void that includes our surroundings and where space begins. In art theory, this is called the ‘negative space.’ In this space, the world of landscape begins, where movement, light, shadow and the unknown can happen.” »
Epitomizing Wittman Estes’ holistic approach, Yo-Ju Courtyard House features integrated architecture, interior, and landscape design by firm principals Matt Wittman and Jody Estes. Located in a suburban neighborhood, the property nevertheless manages to welcome the natural environment inside via a strategically placed courtyard.
SEE HEIDI CAILLIER DESIGN Perhaps Seattle’s best-kept interior design secret, Heidi Caillier maintains a low profile despite her pitch-perfect interiors that effortlessly merge modern and vintage—perhaps because of her untraditional entry point into design. “I actually have a master’s degree in international public health,” says Caillier, who started a design blog as a passion project 12 years ago and never looked back.
Since launching her eponymous studio in 2014, the designer has steadily built a portfolio of residential and commercial interiors that deftly walk the line between traditional and contemporary. Caillier’s must-follow design rule? “Every room needs at least one piece of vintage,” she insists. “The patina helps the design feel lived-in, and they often end up being pieces that clients keep forever and pass down to their children.” Caillier’s deep love of history and period detail lends her interiors an authoritative yet modest elegance—traits also embodied by Caillier herself.
SHOP HOUSEWRIGHT GALLERY Launched in 2018 by Tim Pfeiffer and Steve Hoedemaker of Seattle architecture and interiors firm Hoedemaker Pfeiffer, Housewright Gallery has become a Northwest destination for the best in international design. Part furniture showroom, part antiques shop, and part art gallery, Housewright offers a tastefully curated assemblage of bespoke home goods sourced from artisans in Belgium, Brazil, and everywhere in between. Reflecting Hoedemaker Pfeiffer’s art-forward design philosophy, the shop hosts a rotating series of art exhibitions in its airy new space in Seattle’s industrial-hip Georgetown neighborhood, giving design treasure-hunters even more to love. »
WEAR GUILLERMO BRAVO Locals often speak of the “Seattle freeze,” a reclusiveness that manifests in a standoffish demeanor—and in the understated fashions created by Northwest designers. When Colombian designer Luis G. Vélez launched his apparel and sneaker brand, Guillermo Bravo, in late 2018, he wanted to shake things up. “I felt there was plenty of room for people with an authentic voice who were trying to do things differently,” Vélez recalls, and with that, Guillermo Bravo’s off-kilter and subtly subversive sensibility was born.
Riffing on Seattle’s techforward ethos, the brand features androgynous puffer jackets, shorts with magnetically detachable pockets, and a particularly quippy spin on the fisherman’s vest with meticulously ruched pockets. And don’t forget the fashion-forward sneakers, which Vélez peddles to the masses at Corre, a new boutique he launched with fellow designer Shadia K’David in the quiet, tree-lined Madrona neighborhood. Through it all, Vélez is driven by the personal power that fashion can foster. “Growing up as an insecure Latino kid, I’ve long explored how clothes can be like armor,” he says.
STAY LOTTE HOTEL SEATTLE As Seattle’s newest luxury lodging, Lotte Hotel serves up a rare dose of opulence to Jet City. When setting up shop for its first West Coast outpost, Korean hotel group Lotte zeroed in on a ZGF Architects–designed, zig-zagging high rise in the heart of Seattle’s downtown business district. The modern tower is adjacent to the Sanctuary, a 1908 Beaux Arts building that was formerly home to the city’s oldest congregation, the First United Methodist Church, and now functions as event space for the hotel. Lotte’s 189 guest rooms feature modern European-inspired interiors, which the hotel group preserved after taking over the property in late 2020. h
HIDDEN TREASURES IN THE EMERALD CITY
RESOURCE FURNITURE, THE BRAND KNOWN FOR LUXURY, ITALIAN-MADE WALL BEDS AND TRANSFORMABLE COMPLEMENTARY PIECES, continues to provide space-saving solutions for an elevated lifestyle. This month, the company, which off ers a holistic approach to creating a beautiful, functional, fully furnished home, is opening a new showroom in Seattle.
Launched in 2000 in New York City by Steve Spett and Ron Barth, Resource Furniture initially served as a resource library for the trade. In 2007, after they began carrying pieces from Clei, a line of Italian wall beds, the founders pivoted to focus on multifunctional furniture. Fourteen years later, Resource Furniture off ers 25 product lines (all designed and manufactured in Italy) through nine showrooms across North America.
GRAY visited with Resource Furniture’s vice president of sales and design, Challie Stillman, who oversees showroom sales, brand development, and the overarching design of each showroom, to talk about the new Seattle space and the brand’s unique off erings.
Why choose Seattle for your new showroom?
Seattle is a design hub that we have always wanted to be a part of, even in the earliest days of Resource Furniture. It makes sense from a business standpoint, as we’ve seen high demand for our products in the region for some time. The city boasts some of the smallest microapartments in the United States and consistently ranks among the top metro areas investing in highdensity housing. Our transforming furniture naturally lends itself to small apartments, though it adds fl exibility to spaces of any size.
What will visitors discover here?
It’s one of our largest showrooms to date, and twice the size of our spaces in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.! We have the most unique and comprehensive collection of wall beds anywhere in North America, including wall beds with integrated furniture pieces such as sofas, tables, storage systems, and more. Visitors will also be among the fi rst to see our brand-new wardrobes and our new Giro transforming table. We also off er a working design station and resource library.
What does Resource Furniture off er that no place else does?
Our collection of transforming and multifunctional furnishings is unlike anything else available on the market. Clients come to us from far and wide to add fl exibility to their homes, whether that’s by adding a hideaway home offi ce for remote work, carving out extra sleeping accommodations for guests, or transforming a studio apartment to function more like a two-bed room residence. We off er unique, beautifully designed solutions that simply couldn’t be achieved with conventional, static furniture. But our transforming furniture isn’t just functional. It’s designed with aesthetics, longevity, and sustainability in mind, and every piece in our collection is built to last a lifetime.
ABOVE: The new Giro transforming table creates an l-shaped desk or seamlessly folds fl ush into its modular storage system.
OPPOSITE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: The Tango Sectional with vertically-opening queen wall bed. Flip-down desk from the Turati customizable storage collection.
Is the showroom open to the public as well as to the trade?
Yes! We’re open by appointment to both, and we’re open on Saturdays.
Tell us a great behind-the-scenes story about the company or Seattle showroom.
I got my start as a design consultant for Roche Bobois’ Seattle showroom. I eventually made my way to New York City, where I worked for Resource Furniture. Since then, the company has evolved into the leader in the transforming furniture market— but it has always been my dream to return to Seattle. The opening of our latest showroom at the Seattle Design Center is a sort of homecoming for me—a dream come true, in fact! ❈
resourcefurniture.com
GLOBAL DESIGN EXHIBITION AND SYMPOSIUM
EXPO TALK | One of the most recognized industrial designers of his generation, Stephen Burks joined GRAY on IG Live to chat about his inspiring career and his advice to emerging designers.
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Hank Drew is a Seattle-based advertising and editorial photographer with more than 30 years of experience—if we’re counting the first ten years as a kid with his grandfather’s 35mm. Hank’s passion for finding beauty from behind the camera is still as strong as ever. Specializing in product photography for fashion and beauty advertisements and editorial images for magazines, Hank has clients including Nordstrom, REI, Starbucks, Amazon, Phillips, and Marios, and his editorial work has appeared in GRAY and Seattle Metropolitan, among others. hankdrew.com
