Photo: Johnston Architects
About a decade ago, Chad Dale watched as his friends started to leave Seattle. “They wanted to stay in an urban environment, but the city was too expensive,” Dale says. They wanted backyards and guest rooms; they looked for houses in the suburbs. But Dale, a developer, saw a different solution. What if he and several friends joined together to build their own apartment building—and all lived in the same place? He and his wife, along with 10 other families started plotting what it could look like. They decided to build apartments in a range of sizes, from 500-2000 square feet, based on what each family needed. They also wanted to include 24 units to be rented out to others. The building, completed in 2023, has several other shared spaces that go beyond what a typical apartment building offers. Starting with a core group of longtime friends as tenants transformed the feeling of the building. “The people who live here now treat each other wildly differently than in a typical apartment building,” he says. “Apartment living is pretty incredible. In terms of function and livability, it’s actually maybe the best way to live, particularly when you’re in an environment where there are other people that you enjoy being around.”
|
|
More:
