When redoing a home, it’s not unusual to retain a bit of the old place – a classic chessboard floor, the nook that once housed a rotary phone. Not so when it came to this 1325-square-foot penthouse in Seattle’s historic Pioneer Square neighborhood. When architect Dan Wilson and his wife, Sandra, chair of the interior design department at Bellevue College, took possession of the two-level unit, everything – from the blindingly blue flooring to the walls of glass block – had to go. Their project, recalls Dan, was “an exercise in addition by subtraction.”
That exercise was not just a matter of jettisoning dated and over-the-top décor. “This was also an opportunity to simplify and reduce the number of things we displaced from one home to another,” shares Dan, who had previously lived with Sandra in a much smaller one-bedroom in the city’s Belltown district. “We applied the philosophy that space is a luxury, not necessarily having an abundance of things. It is our expression of ‘enoughness.’”
Dan, principal of Wilson-Haus, took the lead on the project, generating a concept, producing the drawings, coordinating construction and selecting finishes, fixtures and furnishings. Sandra, who holds a degree in architecture from Cornell University, assumed the client role, providing, notes Dan, “a critical sounding board, emotional collaborator and design-educated partner who challenged ideas.” Initially, Sandra was thinking in more traditional terms for the layout, but as the couple explored design possibilities, they landed on an entirely different approach. “Outside of work, Sandra and I travel to Japan and Europe frequently and enjoy adapting our lifestyles to spaces abroad with constraints that are unusual to find in the U.S.,” Dan explains. “In the end, we rejected what most people would consider – for example, a proper primary suite, or a traditionally outfitted kitchen. There are only two enclosed rooms in the project: one powder room, one laundry/powder room.”
The apartment operates, essentially, on an open plan, with the bedroom on the lower level and the living spaces above. “We decided that we didn’t want to overtake the upper floor with the primary suite because that level has the best views and a very large terrace where we’d spend time with family and friends,” explains Dan. “This decision also reinforced our concept that the upper floor is like our beachfront cabin retreat, while the lower level serves as our urban sanctuary.”
Achieving their vision required a few major interventions – shifting the staircase, removing two gas fireplaces and reorienting the kitchen. With every space orchestrated to their intentions, the couple enveloped the interiors in a neutral palette of black and white punctuated with wood tones. Their furnishings – including the Bea chair by Porada and a LazyTime sofa from Camerich – contribute to the physical and visual restraint that pervades the home. Utterly taken with the unit’s large windows, Dan and Sandra relinquished some of the art they had collected over the years to revel, instead, in their view of the city and the mountains beyond. That kind of commitment to context is central to Dan’s practice. “Each Wilson-Haus project is influenced by its context and tied together by an adherence to craft, clarity and seeking ways to connect clients with spaces emotionally, rather than implementing a prescribed set of aesthetic tendencies.” Now that’s a sound plan…