Seattle Design Festival

Saturday, September 12 - Sunday, September 13
10 am - 6pm
Occidental Mall and Park, 300 Occidental Ave S, Seattle, WA 98104
A full listing of installations, exhibits and performances on display during the SDF Block Party can be found here.

The 4th annual Seattle Design Festival Block Party is a two-day street fair celebrating Seattle's diverse design community hosted on Occidental Ave S in Pioneer Square.  This fun outdoor event serves as the kickoff to the two week Seattle Design Festival and is an opportunity for the design community to come together and interact with the public in a public space.  Large scale design installations, performances and design activities will take place throughout each day.  The installations are designed to be enjoyed by people of all ages, sizes, and abilities.   

Have an open conversation about the design of projects in Seattle and cast your vote. Visit our booth and get information about urban design and recently built Design Review projects all over Seattle.  Learn about the Design Review program, and about the processes and factors that influence urban design and development in Seattle. Reflect on design and development as it relates to equity in both the design process and project outcome, and explore what constitutes an exemplary Design Review project.

Seattle is currently experiencing unprecedented growth in population with over 120,000 new residents expected by 2035. Given the ongoing discussion of housing issues, residential zoning, and transportation - VIA Architecture has developed a game using Legos that asks participants to think creatively about where in the city can best accommodate growth.

With a specialization in architecture, planning, and design within an urban context, VIA's hope is to generate ideas and facilitate the discussion of creating the best city possible with Block Party thrill seekers. 

Trace helps us reimagine the question of equity in the design of GIS routing applications — how we might built tools for travel that prompt meaningful dialogue across social, cultural, economic and geographic difference. The application generates walking routes based on digital sketches people create and digitally mark without a map. In addition to creating walking paths, people can share their paths with others.

Instead of emphasizing transport, the project foregrounds experiences of travel. Rather than orienting toward end goals, the project supports social connections. Beyond precision and step counts, the project promotes exploration and indeterminacy. In other words, Trace asks how existing technologies might be done in different ways.

Explore, invent and experiment at the Tinker Tank! Explore equitable design through a hands-on design challenge that’s fun for all ages. Join Pacific Science Center and IxDASeattle and get creative by imagining, crafting, testing and then refining your design solution.

The Living Building Challenge (LBC) is a philosophy, advocacy tool and certification program that is enhancing the human experience and working to preserve the planet's most precious resources. Join the International Living Future Institute (home of the LBC) staff to learn about Seattle's Living Buildings, affordable housing projects and work in the First Hill neighborhood. We want your help to make Seattle an inclusive and robust place for all; let's start the conversation. 

King County is seeking input as it develops an Equity and Social Justice Strategic Plan.  At this exhibit and engagement station (303 Occidental), you'll be able to share your perspective on:

• What community-scale inequities can designer practitioners help to remedy?
• What pro-equity design practices allow designers to be part of the solution?
• How can King County and designers better collaborate to advance equitable and socially-just communities?

Whether we are cognizant of it or not, each of us is regularly and significantly impacted by education and the effects of its design and position in our world. Though access to quality education is imperfectly and unequally distributed, educational identity often affects economic prosperity, social mobility, and complicated, sometimes externally-driven, definitions of self worth. The critical questions we must all ask are: What does it mean to design for equity in education, and how can we create this environment?

Through traversing this series of installations, participants interact with a broad education ecosystem that they have inherently inhabited but have only been able to fully identify in narrow interactions and by way of decidedly unequal lenses. The four educational spaces spark curiosity and engagement, embodying the macro-to-micro educational ecosystem: from the self, to the home, into the instructional space, and across the community, individuals and groups are inspired to consider how they interact with education and how this system is designed to promote or inhibit equity.

This system of installations are accessibly located around the block party space and are designed for visitors of all ages. This installation is part of a larger program, including a conference panel taking place at noon on September 19, 2015 at the Seattle Public Library.

Featuring:
Print by United Repographics
Coffee by Zeitgeist Coffee 
Blooms by Petal City
Design and content support from: Ashley Brinster, Claudia Lofton, Sam Schryver

Live Performance Art by:
Lenna Kai
Alex Brubacher 
Cornelius Brudi
Nina Shen Rastogi and Marc Berger
JD Scholten
Justis Phillips
Jeff Busby
Matthew Rowe

Special thanks to:
Michael Ellsworth and Molly Derse of Civilization
Nick Gesualdi of Creature 

This is "Design for Good" in action.

Join us at the Changemakers exhibit and engage in a learning experience that addresses opportunities for equity in our food economy; the socioeconomic effects it has on Seattle families; and the people that are dedicated to tackling these complex issues head on. 

The Changemakers exhibit explores:

• Helping underserved communities build small business owners; 
• Access to grocery stores in non affluent neighborhoods (food deserts); 
• Using crowd sourcing to help starving families; 
• Fair pay for farmers and labor; 
• Pollution from the industrial food system; 
• Alternative market places for local farmers to sell; 
• The re-design of government assistance programs (SNAP/Food Stamps); 
• Wasted food due to lack of consumer access; 

What is the Changemakers Series about?

This year, AIGA Seattle launched it's Changemakers Series; an annual initiative that pairs local designers with Seattle based social impact organizations. The response from our community has been overwhelming. Over 50 designers have been paired with 8 different non-profits, start-ups and government organizations, that are focusing on solving problems related to our theme for this year; “food”. By teaching and applying Design Thinking, we are creating tools that help these organizations better serve their communities and impact peoples lives here in Seattle. You can learn more about these problems and organizations that are helping by visiting our installation. 

Due to unforseen circumstances, "I <3 This Place" will not appear at the Block Party.
Please look for it at future preservation programs - we look forward to your participation!

Share why you love Pioneer Square! 

A divide exists between the preservation movement, those concerned about the pace of development in our city, and the affordable housing, anti-gentrification, and sustainability movements. At the core of all of the movements is a love of place, the places that define our neighborhoods. This installation is a demonstration of that love and aims to bridge the divide.

 Beyond Integrity is the 4Culture task force sponsoring the installation. The social experiment centers around rethinking how we as society decide what places are worth saving. Architectural significance and integrity are often used to define a “landmark.” But, the hypothesis behind this installation is that most people connect to place for deeply personal reasons that go beyond architecture. We are bringing the conversation to the streets of Seattle by asking you to complete the following sentence: "I <3 this place because __________ .” First stop, Pioneer Square!

• WHAT IS DESIGN REVIEW
• STAGES OF SEATTLE’S DESIGN REVIEW PROCESS
• ABOUT SEATTLE’S DESIGN GUIDELINES
• ABOUT SEATTLE’S NEIGHBORHOOD GUIDELINES
• HOW TO UNDERSTAND A NOTICE & GET INVOLVED

Room for Common Ground invites participants into an experiential encounter with equity. Harnessing the levelling power of play within a universally designed inverted ball pit, opportunities to engage, connect, and have fun abound! All festival goers are invited to take part and contribute to this unique experience.

This interactive installation invites festival attendees to creatively and dynamically define a space to share with others. The objective is to engage the community in a conversation about small living in Seattle and how the spaces we live in today can and will change in the future. We see this installation as a mobile educational outreach tool with a focus about small /smart living. We want to raise questions of what this installation is or what it could be. Is it a house, backyard cottage, temporary shelter, tiny home, ADU, shed, tent, etc? The installation will move around different areas and neighborhoods of the city to engage the public and get feedback and response.

Threshold of Equity is an object in space that represents the crossing of a boundary. The threshold in this installation is a door, a universal boundary that we interact with everyday independent of culture, age, religion, race, gender or ability. We  have taken this object out of its usual context and placed it in the public realm.  We invite visitors to cross the threshold and engage with the barrier by sharing their ideas on equity. The interactive installation will provoke question and thought. Each personal experience through the Threshold of Equity will unite the community into a collective whole.

Is public space truly equitable? What makes public space comfortable, safe and inviting to all? By teaming up with some of YouthCare’s adolescents and the general public, Miller Hayashi Architects and YouthCare challenge the notion of equitable public space. Both the youth and the general public are invited to answer some simple questions such as: What/Where is equitable space in Seattle; What/Where is not an equitable space in Seattle; What are the qualities of equitable space for you? By gathering these answers, we hope to visually create a physical forum that displays everyone’s thoughts on spatial equity in the public realm. 

Equity is a big and complex idea; its relationship to design perhaps only complicating how one defines the word or identifies with the concept. This installation however, intends to be small and straightforward, picking one path within this labyrinthine idea. That path is about connection and ways in which human beings can relate to each other and to design as a means to enhance our community.  

For this installation, two pieces of information are being solicited: your name and something you identify as beautiful. Names are important. Everyone has one. Your name represents a way to identify you independent of any other information other than that you are a human being. A name is democratic in that way while at the same time being uniquely individual. Although quotidian and seemingly inconsequential, acknowledging someone by their name is in fact a very humanizing gesture.

Our perception of what is beautiful is similarly equalizing and idiosyncratic. Beautiful can describe an infinitely diverse group of things. However, a beautiful object, whatever it may be, has the capacity to elicit a response in its viewer; regardless of viewer’s background, gender, race, education, means, or even understanding of the object at hand. A beautiful object has the capacity to be enhancing in ways that can be both personal and shared.

Providing those two pieces of information creates an opportunity for connection and embodies the broader idea of the installation. In finding points of connection with others, we find same-ness in difference. We learn. We are enhanced. Our contributions to our communities become better: more intelligent, more empathetic, more beautiful. In design, there is opportunity to employ this enhanced self.

After all connections are made, all taped lines struck from one dot to another, the panel will be painted and all dots and tape removed, leaving an artifact of connections made, an art object. Created in an unforeseeable way, with the minimal constituent parts of color and line, the object suggests that perhaps equity can be less big, less complex. Perhaps it can be simple: your name, something beautiful, a connection.

This installation attempts to expose the memory of the literal edge of Downtown Seattle by showcasing slices through time. We want to evoke the memory of the people who have lived here through the ages, from the Duwamish to the industrial colonialist, to the present and future. The installation attempts to dig through the evolution of the site, gain back some of what we’ve lost, and to expose a palimpsest of waterfront development. 

The installation attempts to hold the dialectic of the natural versus the built. In a sense, the waterfront is evidence of the manmade carving into the natural. Through this process, what have we lost? What have we gained? Progress is not always loss - or is it? 

Waterfront - It’s About Time slices perpendicularly from neighbourhood to water. We hope that visitors will be able to literally feel this perpendicular connection with their hands, elbows, bums, knees, feet. 

Tour begins on Capitol Hill, on the Seattle Central Community College Campus, outside the Broadway Performance Hall, 1625 Broadway.

This urban neighborhood is in the midst of a building boom, and some fear Pike/Pine’s unique character is under threat. From its beginnings as a quiet residential district to its time as Seattle’s first ‘Auto Row’ and its later role as the heart of the local LGBT community, Pike/Pine has always been defined by change. Its story is written in the buildings and streetscapes that help give the neighborhood its character. Can this character be preserved amidst all the new development? Decide for yourself as we explore the past, present, and future of one of Seattle’s most dynamic districts.

Parking can be found at the Seattle Central Community College parking lots and garages. The Harvard Garage is located at 1609 Harvard Avenue, Seattle, WA 98122. Any of the #10, 11 or 49 buses departing from the Downtown area, will be able to get you right outside Seattle Central Community College.

This tour involves moderate walking with minor hills/stairs and some maneuvering due to construction.  This cost of the tour is normally $15, but to make it accessible to all, a special FREE Design Festival Pass is available for this date.  Limited free tickets available, so please register in advance.

Integrus Architecture in partnership with the Alliance for Pioneer Square want to bring PLAY4ALL!  Embark on a self-guided scavenger hunt for playful "disPLAY" installations throughout Pioneer Square. Begin at the Integrus Architecture storefront or visit the PLAY4ALL website to find a map of current disPLAY locations.  From there, it's up to you to explore! disPLAYs will rotate throughout the neighborhood for one week from Sept 12 - 19.

PLAY4ALL participating businesses include:

Arundel Books | Caffe Umbria | Clementines | Drygoods Design | Good Bar | Grand Central Bakery | Velouria | Zeitgeist

BACKGROUND 
As designers of schools and educational spaces, we are challenging the common preconceptions of play and learning environments.  In recent years, our understanding of play has undergone a radical shift.   Play was once considered a distracting diversion from "real” learning.  Now it is understood as a fundamental component of cognitive development. The more we learn about play, the more we believe that access to a diversity of quality play experiences is fundamental to support equity in learning. PLAY4ALL is a community-based exploration of how simple moments of play can encourage learning, and by extension, support an improved quality of public life.  Through play, we believe people can find greater connections with each other and with their environment. 

FRAMEWORK FOR EQUITY
In thinking about how to lower barriers to play, we have identified four PLAY4ALL principles:

1. INCREASE ACCESS. Identify ways to integrate play into everyday life. We challenge the notion that play should occur within the time constraints of recess and the spatial definition of a playground.
2. DECREASE COST. Explore how to recycle/repurpose everyday materials in a playful and elegant way.
3. DIVERSIFY MODALITIES. Frequently, play is synonymous with large-motor activities (climbing, jumping, sliding) and visually-oriented games. What about playing with sound or texture?  How about a game in which all players have limited mobility?
4. OPEN-ENDED SIMPLICITY. No instructions, no right or wrong way to play. Outcomes are unpredictable so play can occur without pretense or competition.

In an age when our communities are divided in multiple dimensions, we believe play has the power to unite. Play is not just for kids – most adults will eagerly play if given an opportunity. Individuals who may not typically interact can connect through play and have fun in the process!  In what other ways can play benefit our lives, both as individuals and as a community?  What are your favorite ways to play? We invite you to play with us in Pioneer Square anytime throughout the Seattle Design Festival and to become part of the #PLAY4ALL conversation!

• equitable use
• flexibility in use
• simple and intuitive use
• perceptible information
• tolerance for error
• low physical effort
• size and space for approach and use

In just over one hour, get a snapshot of large and small design elements that make walking and rolling nearly impossible for all ages and abilities to equitably use our transportation system. Join us as we collectively advocate for achieving a broader perspective to design and policy. Participants will also learn from the Seattle Department of Transportation’s ADA Coordinator about the City’s ADA Transition Plan and steps it is taking to ensure all places are safe, inviting, and accessible for people.

Tours have a limited capacity of 20. Reserve your spot using the RSVP link.

Location Details
The tour will leave from the outdoor plaza of the King Street Station (303 South Jackson Street) 

• equitable use
• flexibility in use
• simple and intuitive use
• perceptible information
• tolerance for error
• low physical effort
• size and space for approach and use

In just over one hour, get a snapshot of large and small design elements that make walking and rolling nearly impossible for all ages and abilities to equitably use our transportation system. Join us as we collectively advocate for achieving a broader perspective to design and policy. Participants will also learn from the Seattle Department of Transportation’s ADA Coordinator about the City’s ADA Transition Plan and steps it is taking to ensure all places are safe, inviting, and accessible for people.

Tours have a limited capacity of 20. Reserve your spot using the RSVP link.

Location Details
The tour will leave from the outdoor plaza of the King Street Station (303 South Jackson Street) 

Ask More is a space for SDF goers to physically partner with all bodies and genders in an open-invite, fun partner dance setting. An hour-long drop-in intro to blues dance lesson (no partner required) will be followed by an hour social dance.

Lesson will cover partner dance basics, breaking down assumptions about dance role based on gender, and invoke the practice of asking more questions—verbally and nonverbally—to share a dance full of enthusiastic consent.

In order to capture the momentum of both the Seattle Design Festival and the AIA national Women's Leadership Summit happening this September 2015 in Seattle, the AIA Women in Design committee is curating an exhibit of portraits to highlight the achievements and history of female architects in the Pacific Northwest. The portraits celebrate and tell the story of the twenty-two women Fellow AIA’s honored in Seattle, and each piece is rendered by a different artist. The A Gallery, in Pioneer Square, will be hosting the Portraits of Architects exhibit from September 3rd through November 1st. After November, it is our hope to move the Portraits of Architects exhibit to different gallery spaces throughout Seattle to raise the level of discussion surrounding the role of women in architecture and leadership both locally and nationally.

• The opening of the Portraits of Architects exhibit will coincide with the Pioneer Square First Thursday Art Walk in the A Gallery, on Thursday September 3rd at 6pm. 
• The main gallery reception event will take place on Saturday September 12th at 5pm, during the Festival's lively "Block Party" in Occidental Park and the surrounding Pioneer Square district. We welcome the Seattle Design Festival participants, the AIA Women in Design committee, AIA Women in Leadership Summit, the artists, the Fellow AIA’s and those from various design firms around the region to the reception to acknowledge the legacy and contribution of the twenty-two female FAIA’s to the profession of architecture.  

Saturday, September 12 - Sunday, September 13
10 am - 6pm
Occidental Mall and Park, 300 Occidental Ave S, Seattle, WA 98104
A full listing of installations, exhibits and performances on display during the SDF Block Party can be found here.

The 4th annual Seattle Design Festival Block Party is a two-day street fair celebrating Seattle's diverse design community hosted on Occidental Ave S in Pioneer Square.  This fun outdoor event serves as the kickoff to the two week Seattle Design Festival and is an opportunity for the design community to come together and interact with the public in a public space.  Large scale design installations, performances and design activities will take place throughout each day.  The installations are designed to be enjoyed by people of all ages, sizes, and abilities.  

Have an open conversation about the design of projects in Seattle and cast your vote. Visit our booth and get information about urban design and recently built Design Review projects all over Seattle.  Learn about the Design Review program, and about the processes and factors that influence urban design and development in Seattle. Reflect on design and development as it relates to equity in both the design process and project outcome, and explore what constitutes an exemplary Design Review project.

Seattle is currently experiencing unprecedented growth in population with over 120,000 new residents expected by 2035. Given the ongoing discussion of housing issues, residential zoning, and transportation - VIA Architecture has developed a game using Legos that asks participants to think creatively about where in the city can best accommodate growth.

With a specialization in architecture, planning, and design within an urban context, VIA's hope is to generate ideas and facilitate the discussion of creating the best city possible with Block Party thrill seekers. 

Trace helps us reimagine the question of equity in the design of GIS routing applications — how we might built tools for travel that prompt meaningful dialogue across social, cultural, economic and geographic difference. The application generates walking routes based on digital sketches people create and digitally mark without a map. In addition to creating walking paths, people can share their paths with others.

Instead of emphasizing transport, the project foregrounds experiences of travel. Rather than orienting toward end goals, the project supports social connections. Beyond precision and step counts, the project promotes exploration and indeterminacy. In other words, Trace asks how existing technologies might be done in different ways.

Explore, invent and experiment at the Tinker Tank! Explore equitable design through a hands-on design challenge that’s fun for all ages. Join Pacific Science Center and IxDASeattle and get creative by imagining, crafting, testing and then refining your design solution.

The Living Building Challenge (LBC) is a philosophy, advocacy tool and certification program that is enhancing the human experience and working to preserve the planet's most precious resources. Join the International Living Future Institute (home of the LBC) staff to learn about Seattle's Living Buildings, affordable housing projects and work in the First Hill neighborhood. We want your help to make Seattle an inclusive and robust place for all; let's start the conversation. 

King County is seeking input as it develops an Equity and Social Justice Strategic Plan.  At this exhibit and engagement station (303 Occidental), you'll be able to share your perspective on:

• What community-scale inequities can designer practitioners help to remedy?
• What pro-equity design practices allow designers to be part of the solution?
• How can King County and designers better collaborate to advance equitable and socially-just communities?

Whether we are cognizant of it or not, each of us is regularly and significantly impacted by education and the effects of its design and position in our world. Though access to quality education is imperfectly and unequally distributed, educational identity often affects economic prosperity, social mobility, and complicated, sometimes externally-driven, definitions of self worth. The critical questions we must all ask are: What does it mean to design for equity in education, and how can we create this environment?

Through traversing this series of installations, participants interact with a broad education ecosystem that they have inherently inhabited but have only been able to fully identify in narrow interactions and by way of decidedly unequal lenses. The four educational spaces spark curiosity and engagement, embodying the macro-to-micro educational ecosystem: from the self, to the home, into the instructional space, and across the community, individuals and groups are inspired to consider how they interact with education and how this system is designed to promote or inhibit equity.

This system of installations are accessibly located around the block party space and are designed for visitors of all ages. This installation is part of a larger program, including a conference panel taking place at noon on September 19, 2015 at the Seattle Public Library.

This is "Design for Good" in action.

Join us at the Changemakers exhibit and engage in a learning experience that addresses opportunities for equity in our food economy; the socioeconomic effects it has on Seattle families; and the people that are dedicated to tackling these complex issues head on. 

The Changemakers exhibit explores:

• Helping underserved communities build small business owners; 
• Access to grocery stores in non affluent neighborhoods (food deserts); 
• Using crowd sourcing to help starving families; 
• Fair pay for farmers and labor; 
• Pollution from the industrial food system; 
• Alternative market places for local farmers to sell; 
• The re-design of government assistance programs (SNAP/Food Stamps); 
• Wasted food due to lack of consumer access; 

What is the Changemakers Series about?

This year, AIGA Seattle launched it's Changemakers Series; an annual initiative that pairs local designers with Seattle based social impact organizations. The response from our community has been overwhelming. Over 50 designers have been paired with 8 different non-profits, start-ups and government organizations, that are focusing on solving problems related to our theme for this year; “food”. By teaching and applying Design Thinking, we are creating tools that help these organizations better serve their communities and impact peoples lives here in Seattle. You can learn more about these problems and organizations that are helping by visiting our installation. 

Share why you love Pioneer Square! 

A divide exists between the preservation movement, those concerned about the pace of development in our city, and the affordable housing, anti-gentrification, and sustainability movements. At the core of all of the movements is a love of place, the places that define our neighborhoods. This installation is a demonstration of that love and aims to bridge the divide.

 Beyond Integrity is the 4Culture task force sponsoring the installation. The social experiment centers around rethinking how we as society decide what places are worth saving. Architectural significance and integrity are often used to define a “landmark.” But, the hypothesis behind this installation is that most people connect to place for deeply personal reasons that go beyond architecture. We are bringing the conversation to the streets of Seattle by asking you to complete the following sentence: "I <3 this place because __________ .” First stop, Pioneer Square!

Room for Common Ground invites participants into an experiential encounter with equity. Harnessing the levelling power of play within a universally designed inverted ball pit, opportunities to engage, connect, and have fun abound! All festival goers are invited to take part and contribute to this unique experience.

This interactive installation invites festival attendees to creatively and dynamically define a space to share with others. The objective is to engage the community in a conversation about small living in Seattle and how the spaces we live in today can and will change in the future. We see this installation as a mobile educational outreach tool with a focus about small /smart living. We want to raise questions of what this installation is or what it could be. Is it a house, backyard cottage, temporary shelter, tiny home, ADU, shed, tent, etc? The installation will move around different areas and neighborhoods of the city to engage the public and get feedback and response.

Threshold of Equity is an object in space that represents the crossing of a boundary. The threshold in this installation is a door, a universal boundary that we interact with everyday.  As an object that we interact with everyday, independent of culture, age, religion, race, gender or ability, we take the object out of its usual context and place it in the public realm.  We invite visitors to cross the threshold and engage the barriers by sharing their ideas about what equity means to them. The interactive installation will provoke question and thought. Each personal experience through the Threshold of Equity will unite the community into a collective whole.

Is public space truly equitable? What makes public space comfortable, safe and inviting to all? By teaming up with some of YouthCare’s adolescents and the general public, Miller Hayashi Architects and YouthCare challenge the notion of equitable public space. Both the youth and the general public are invited to answer some simple questions such as: What/Where is equitable space in Seattle; What/Where is not an equitable space in Seattle; What are the qualities of equitable space for you? By gathering these answers, we hope to visually create a physical forum that displays everyone’s thoughts on spatial equity in the public realm. 

Equity is a big and complex idea; its relationship to design perhaps only complicating how one defines the word or identifies with the concept. This installation however, intends to be small and straightforward, picking one path within this labyrinthine idea. That path is about connection and ways in which human beings can relate to each other and to design as a means to enhance our community.  

For this installation, two pieces of information are being solicited: your name and something you identify as beautiful. Names are important. Everyone has one. Your name represents a way to identify you independent of any other information other than that you are a human being. A name is democratic in that way while at the same time being uniquely individual. Although quotidian and seemingly inconsequential, acknowledging someone by their name is in fact a very humanizing gesture.

Our perception of what is beautiful is similarly equalizing and idiosyncratic. Beautiful can describe an infinitely diverse group of things. However, a beautiful object, whatever it may be, has the capacity to elicit a response in its viewer; regardless of viewer’s background, gender, race, education, means, or even understanding of the object at hand. A beautiful object has the capacity to be enhancing in ways that can be both personal and shared.

Providing those two pieces of information creates an opportunity for connection and embodies the broader idea of the installation. In finding points of connection with others, we find same-ness in difference. We learn. We are enhanced. Our contributions to our communities become better: more intelligent, more empathetic, more beautiful. In design, there is opportunity to employ this enhanced self.

After all connections are made, all taped lines struck from one dot to another, the panel will be painted and all dots and tape removed, leaving an artifact of connections made, an art object. Created in an unforeseeable way, with the minimal constituent parts of color and line, the object suggests that perhaps equity can be less big, less complex. Perhaps it can be simple: your name, something beautiful, a connection.

This installation attempts to expose the memory of the literal edge of Downtown Seattle by showcasing slices through time. We want to evoke the memory of the people who have lived here through the ages, from the Duwamish to the industrial colonialist, to the present and future. The installation attempts to dig through the evolution of the site, gain back some of what we’ve lost, and to expose a palimpsest of waterfront development. 

The installation attempts to hold the dialectic of the natural versus the built. In a sense, the waterfront is evidence of the manmade carving into the natural. Through this process, what have we lost? What have we gained? Progress is not always loss - or is it? 

Waterfront - It’s About Time slices perpendicularly from neighbourhood to water. We hope that visitors will be able to literally feel this perpendicular connection with their hands, elbows, bums, knees, feet. 

• WHAT IS DESIGN REVIEW
• STAGES OF SEATTLE’S DESIGN REVIEW PROCESS
• ABOUT SEATTLE’S DESIGN GUIDELINES
• ABOUT SEATTLE’S NEIGHBORHOOD GUIDELINES
• HOW TO UNDERSTAND A NOTICE & GET INVOLVED

Integrus Architecture in partnership with the Alliance for Pioneer Square want to bring PLAY4ALL!  Embark on a self-guided scavenger hunt for playful "disPLAY" installations throughout Pioneer Square. Begin at the Integrus Architecture storefront or visit the PLAY4ALL website to find a map of current disPLAY locations.  From there, it's up to you to explore! disPLAYs will rotate throughout the neighborhood for one week from Sept 12 - 19.

PLAY4ALL participating businesses include:

Arundel Books | Caffe Umbria | Clementines | Drygoods Design | Good Bar | Grand Central Bakery | Velouria | Zeitgeist

BACKGROUND 
As designers of schools and educational spaces, we are challenging the common preconceptions of play and learning environments.  In recent years, our understanding of play has undergone a radical shift.   Play was once considered a distracting diversion from "real” learning.  Now it is understood as a fundamental component of cognitive development. The more we learn about play, the more we believe that access to a diversity of quality play experiences is fundamental to support equity in learning. PLAY4ALL is a community-based exploration of how simple moments of play can encourage learning, and by extension, support an improved quality of public life.  Through play, we believe people can find greater connections with each other and with their environment. 

FRAMEWORK FOR EQUITY
In thinking about how to lower barriers to play, we have identified four PLAY4ALL principles:

1. INCREASE ACCESS. Identify ways to integrate play into everyday life. We challenge the notion that play should occur within the time constraints of recess and the spatial definition of a playground.
2. DECREASE COST. Explore how to recycle/repurpose everyday materials in a playful and elegant way.
3. DIVERSIFY MODALITIES. Frequently, play is synonymous with large-motor activities (climbing, jumping, sliding) and visually-oriented games. What about playing with sound or texture?  How about a game in which all players have limited mobility?
4. OPEN-ENDED SIMPLICITY. No instructions, no right or wrong way to play. Outcomes are unpredictable so play can occur without pretense or competition.

In an age when our communities are divided in multiple dimensions, we believe play has the power to unite. Play is not just for kids – most adults will eagerly play if given an opportunity. Individuals who may not typically interact can connect through play and have fun in the process!  In what other ways can play benefit our lives, both as individuals and as a community?  What are your favorite ways to play? We invite you to play with us in Pioneer Square anytime throughout the Seattle Design Festival and to become part of the #PLAY4ALL conversation!

Six dancers explore elements of design, social commentary and whimsy in excerpts from " Crayons,"  "Extreme Ironing," "Oblivion," and "Living Sculpture," a starkly compelling, improvisational work which will interact with the various features of the Design Festival Block Party. Audience participation encouraged!

With the apparent ubiquity of water in Seattle it would seem that there is equal access to it. The intention of our installaton/project is to test the equity of Seattle’s waters, both in terms of access and quality.

During the Design Festival we will distribute small, easily deployable water testing kits at allied events, venues and organizations. Kits will prompt and instruct participants to visit a local water body and measure water quality.

Once tested, the location and information will be logged onto an interactive map and website, recording and revealing variations and potential inequities in access and quality.

The kits and the process of measuring water are designed to raise awareness of partner organizations and efforts - including the 12,000 Rain Gardens program - working to rectify imbalances in our city and regional water quality.

Project website: http://water-proof-seattle.tumblr.com/

Test Kit Distribution Locations (updated as new locations are established)

SDF Block Party - 9.12/13

SDF Conference - 9.19

Today we are frequently faced with finding creative solutions for extremely complex social problems. We must often do this in a very short time, with woefully little information and resources, while often working with people who we have never met before.

How is this even possible?

Come to this session and practice “Design Swarming,” a technique that brings together design thinking and agile problem-solving to help teams find creative answers to real 21st Century challenges. You will learn how to collaborate intensively with strangers to harness the collective genius of a team, and to use incomplete information and a frenetic sense of urgency as a creative springboard.

This technique has successfully been used around the world to solve difficult social problem and business problems. At SDF2015, the design challenge that you will be assigned with be related to a pressing and urgent problem of equity; the problem itself will be revealed at the start of the session. During the Design Swarm, you will be led through a rapid series of fun and moderated activities that will eventually result in a solution prototype.  Each of the three scheduled Design Swarms at SDF2015 will address a different, unique design challenge.

The moderator is Surya Vanka, the creator of the Design Swarm technique, who will be assisted by other seasoned designers. No previous design training or specific knowledge is required, but an open and curious mind is mandatory. 

Integrus Architecture in partnership with the Alliance for Pioneer Square want to bring PLAY4ALL!  Embark on a self-guided scavenger hunt for playful "disPLAY" installations throughout Pioneer Square. Begin at the Integrus Architecture storefront or visit the PLAY4ALL website to find a map of current disPLAY locations.  From there, it's up to you to explore! disPLAYs will rotate throughout the neighborhood for one week from Sept 12 - 18.

PLAY4ALL participating businesses include:

Arundel Books | Caffe Umbria | Clementines | Drygoods Design | Good Bar | Grand Central Bakery | Velouria | Zeitgeist

BACKGROUND 
As designers of schools and educational spaces, we are challenging the common preconceptions of play and learning environments.  In recent years, our understanding of play has undergone a radical shift.   Play was once considered a distracting diversion from "real” learning.  Now it is understood as a fundamental component of cognitive development. The more we learn about play, the more we believe that access to a diversity of quality play experiences is fundamental to support equity in learning. PLAY4ALL is a community-based exploration of how simple moments of play can encourage learning, and by extension, support an improved quality of public life.  Through play, we believe people can find greater connections with each other and with their environment. 

FRAMEWORK FOR EQUITY
In thinking about how to lower barriers to play, we have identified four PLAY4ALL principles:

1. INCREASE ACCESS. Identify ways to integrate play into everyday life. We challenge the notion that play should occur within the time constraints of recess and the spatial definition of a playground.
2. DECREASE COST. Explore how to recycle/repurpose everyday materials in a playful and elegant way.
3. DIVERSIFY MODALITIES. Frequently, play is synonymous with large-motor activities (climbing, jumping, sliding) and visually-oriented games. What about playing with sound or texture?  How about a game in which all players have limited mobility?
4. OPEN-ENDED SIMPLICITY. No instructions, no right or wrong way to play. Outcomes are unpredictable so play can occur without pretense or competition.

In an age when our communities are divided in multiple dimensions, we believe play has the power to unite. Play is not just for kids – most adults will eagerly play if given an opportunity. Individuals who may not typically interact can connect through play and have fun in the process!  In what other ways can play benefit our lives, both as individuals and as a community?  What are your favorite ways to play? We invite you to play with us in Pioneer Square anytime throughout the Seattle Design Festival and to become part of the #PLAY4ALL conversation!

An expansion of Pike Place Market is currently underway! Established in 1907 to create an equitable market experience, the enduring Market is widely celebrated for its colorful and eclectic mix of vendors, food and music. Not as commonly known is the Market as a provider of important social services for low-income area residents including a food bank, day care/preschool, medical clinic and affordable housing. The MarketFront expansion enables more of what everyone loves about the Market, along with exciting new amenities and public open spaces that honor its authentic and historic character.

Join us to learn more about what’s going on at one of Seattle’s most popular and cherished landmarks from partner organizations involved. Q&A.

Speakers
Pike Place Market Preservation & Development Authority: Ben Franz-Knight, executive director
Pike Place Market Foundation: Lillian Hochstein, executive director
The Miller Hull Partnership:  David Miller, founding partner; Brian Court, partner

Location Details
Pike Place Market | Atrium Loft in the Economy Market building  (1st Avenue & Pike Place, 3rd floor - take stairs/elevator near DeLaurenti’s) 

Surya Vanka is a designer, educator and author who has been at the leading edge of designing physical and digital experiences for over 25 years. Surya has worked as a corporate design leader for more than 15 years, most recently at Microsoft as director of user experience. Prior to this, he was a tenured professor of design at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a fellow at the prestigious Center for Advanced Study. He has authored two books on design and several publications, has lectured on design in more than 20 countries, and has been awarded several industry awards. Surya is the creator of the Design Swarm technique.

Daniel Gomez-Seidel is a strategist at Artefact, where he helps clients uncover new business opportunities and competitive advantages by crafting experience-centered strategies. Prior to joining Artefact, Daniel was an entrepreneur in the arts industry, a mentor for the World Resource Institute and a design strategy consultant in Colombia and California for clients such as Aetna, Intel and Microsoft. All the while he also traveled, making his way to more than 35 countries. Daniel holds two Bachelor’s degrees from the University of los Andes in Colombia in Business Administration and in Design, as well as an MBA in Design Strategy from the California College of the Arts in San Francisco.

Integrus Architecture in partnership with the Alliance for Pioneer Square want to bring PLAY4ALL!  Embark on a self-guided scavenger hunt for playful "disPLAY" installations throughout Pioneer Square. Begin at the Integrus Architecture storefront or visit the PLAY4ALL website to find a map of current disPLAY locations.  From there, it's up to you to explore! disPLAYs will rotate throughout the neighborhood for one week from Sept 12 - 18.

PLAY4ALL participating businesses include:

Arundel Books | Caffe Umbria | Clementines | Drygoods Design | Good Bar | Grand Central Bakery | Velouria | Zeitgeist

BACKGROUND 
As designers of schools and educational spaces, we are challenging the common preconceptions of play and learning environments.  In recent years, our understanding of play has undergone a radical shift.   Play was once considered a distracting diversion from "real” learning.  Now it is understood as a fundamental component of cognitive development. The more we learn about play, the more we believe that access to a diversity of quality play experiences is fundamental to support equity in learning. PLAY4ALL is a community-based exploration of how simple moments of play can encourage learning, and by extension, support an improved quality of public life.  Through play, we believe people can find greater connections with each other and with their environment. 

FRAMEWORK FOR EQUITY
In thinking about how to lower barriers to play, we have identified four PLAY4ALL principles:

1. INCREASE ACCESS. Identify ways to integrate play into everyday life. We challenge the notion that play should occur within the time constraints of recess and the spatial definition of a playground.
2. DECREASE COST. Explore how to recycle/repurpose everyday materials in a playful and elegant way.
3. DIVERSIFY MODALITIES. Frequently, play is synonymous with large-motor activities (climbing, jumping, sliding) and visually-oriented games. What about playing with sound or texture?  How about a game in which all players have limited mobility?
4. OPEN-ENDED SIMPLICITY. No instructions, no right or wrong way to play. Outcomes are unpredictable so play can occur without pretense or competition.

In an age when our communities are divided in multiple dimensions, we believe play has the power to unite. Play is not just for kids – most adults will eagerly play if given an opportunity. Individuals who may not typically interact can connect through play and have fun in the process!  In what other ways can play benefit our lives, both as individuals and as a community?  What are your favorite ways to play? We invite you to play with us in Pioneer Square anytime throughout the Seattle Design Festival and to become part of the #PLAY4ALL conversation!

ZGF Architects presents a panel discussion exploring equity in the design, development and shaping of our growing city.

We approach equity as a framework for conversation both from the personal perspectives of women on their diverse leadership roles, as well as to discuss the varying impacts of their decision-making positions in the shaping and development of Seattle's urban environment.

PANELISTS:

AP Hurd - President at Touchstone Corporation
Kathy Nyland - City of Seattle's Director of Neighborhoods
Susan Jones - Founder of Atelier Jones

Integrus Architecture in partnership with the Alliance for Pioneer Square want to bring PLAY4ALL!  Embark on a self-guided scavenger hunt for playful "disPLAY" installations throughout Pioneer Square. Begin at the Integrus Architecture storefront or visit the PLAY4ALL website to find a map of current disPLAY locations.  From there, it's up to you to explore! disPLAYs will rotate throughout the neighborhood for one week from Sept 12 - 18.

PLAY4ALL participating businesses include:

Arundel Books | Caffe Umbria | Clementines | Drygoods Design | Good Bar | Grand Central Bakery | Velouria | Zeitgeist

BACKGROUND 
As designers of schools and educational spaces, we are challenging the common preconceptions of play and learning environments.  In recent years, our understanding of play has undergone a radical shift.   Play was once considered a distracting diversion from "real” learning.  Now it is understood as a fundamental component of cognitive development. The more we learn about play, the more we believe that access to a diversity of quality play experiences is fundamental to support equity in learning. PLAY4ALL is a community-based exploration of how simple moments of play can encourage learning, and by extension, support an improved quality of public life.  Through play, we believe people can find greater connections with each other and with their environment. 

FRAMEWORK FOR EQUITY
In thinking about how to lower barriers to play, we have identified four PLAY4ALL principles:

1. INCREASE ACCESS. Identify ways to integrate play into everyday life. We challenge the notion that play should occur within the time constraints of recess and the spatial definition of a playground.
2. DECREASE COST. Explore how to recycle/repurpose everyday materials in a playful and elegant way.
3. DIVERSIFY MODALITIES. Frequently, play is synonymous with large-motor activities (climbing, jumping, sliding) and visually-oriented games. What about playing with sound or texture?  How about a game in which all players have limited mobility?
4. OPEN-ENDED SIMPLICITY. No instructions, no right or wrong way to play. Outcomes are unpredictable so play can occur without pretense or competition.

In an age when our communities are divided in multiple dimensions, we believe play has the power to unite. Play is not just for kids – most adults will eagerly play if given an opportunity. Individuals who may not typically interact can connect through play and have fun in the process!  In what other ways can play benefit our lives, both as individuals and as a community?  What are your favorite ways to play? We invite you to play with us in Pioneer Square anytime throughout the Seattle Design Festival and to become part of the #PLAY4ALL conversation!

• WHAT IS DESIGN REVIEW
• STAGES OF SEATTLE’S DESIGN REVIEW PROCESS
• ABOUT SEATTLE’S DESIGN GUIDELINES
• ABOUT SEATTLE’S NEIGHBORHOOD GUIDELINES
• HOW TO UNDERSTAND A NOTICE & GET INVOLVED

Deepening Human Connection shows how design, across all disciplines, can be utilized to deepen human connection. In a day and age where new and emerging technologies and social habits lead to the fragmentation of physical and emotional connections, SDF sees the importance of a design driven critical inquiry. How can we utilize design strategies to forge and maintain the essence of human relationships when the digital world is vying for our attention?
  
Event highlights include:

Human Connection Reading Room - Art journals read by local artist under the theme of human connection in an intimate reading space. Hosted by the New Foundation

Human Connection Photobooth - Connect with other people in real life and have if documented!

Gallery displaying this year’s grant proposals with opportunity to add votes to the 'popular vote grant' for $500

Announcing this year’s design grant winners with comments from our judges (Jennifer Nava Milliken, curator of design at Bellevue Arts Museum; Stefani Bartz, past SDF grant winner graphic and UX designer; Rob Girling, Co-founder and Principal of Artefact Group; Tyler Engle, principal at Tyler Engle Architects and President of On The Boards; Dave Mikula, Founder and Creative Director of Friends. Nicholas Kamuda, Creative Director for Microsoft HoloLens and Windows Holographic at Microsoft, and Seattle Design Foundation board member)

Tell us what social issue the design grant theme should address in 2016.

Integrus Architecture in partnership with the Alliance for Pioneer Square want to bring PLAY4ALL!  Embark on a self-guided scavenger hunt for playful "disPLAY" installations throughout Pioneer Square. Begin at the Integrus Architecture storefront or visit the PLAY4ALL website to find a map of current disPLAY locations.  From there, it's up to you to explore! disPLAYs will rotate throughout the neighborhood for one week from Sept 12 - 18.

PLAY4ALL participating businesses include:

Arundel Books | Caffe Umbria | Clementines | Drygoods Design | Good Bar | Grand Central Bakery | Velouria | Zeitgeist

BACKGROUND 
As designers of schools and educational spaces, we are challenging the common preconceptions of play and learning environments.  In recent years, our understanding of play has undergone a radical shift.   Play was once considered a distracting diversion from "real” learning.  Now it is understood as a fundamental component of cognitive development. The more we learn about play, the more we believe that access to a diversity of quality play experiences is fundamental to support equity in learning. PLAY4ALL is a community-based exploration of how simple moments of play can encourage learning, and by extension, support an improved quality of public life.  Through play, we believe people can find greater connections with each other and with their environment. 

FRAMEWORK FOR EQUITY
In thinking about how to lower barriers to play, we have identified four PLAY4ALL principles:

1. INCREASE ACCESS. Identify ways to integrate play into everyday life. We challenge the notion that play should occur within the time constraints of recess and the spatial definition of a playground.
2. DECREASE COST. Explore how to recycle/repurpose everyday materials in a playful and elegant way.
3. DIVERSIFY MODALITIES. Frequently, play is synonymous with large-motor activities (climbing, jumping, sliding) and visually-oriented games. What about playing with sound or texture?  How about a game in which all players have limited mobility?
4. OPEN-ENDED SIMPLICITY. No instructions, no right or wrong way to play. Outcomes are unpredictable so play can occur without pretense or competition.

In an age when our communities are divided in multiple dimensions, we believe play has the power to unite. Play is not just for kids – most adults will eagerly play if given an opportunity. Individuals who may not typically interact can connect through play and have fun in the process!  In what other ways can play benefit our lives, both as individuals and as a community?  What are your favorite ways to play? We invite you to play with us in Pioneer Square anytime throughout the Seattle Design Festival and to become part of the #PLAY4ALL conversation!

A significant source for inequity in our community is the zoning map. Very present in the news with recent code changes and corresponding debate, zoning is a complex subject. This exhibition illuminates the relationship between zoning and inequity and provide an opportunity to envision zoning as equitable and enhancing. 

This installation in the b9 Architects storefront in Pioneer Square poses the questions: What does zoning look like now? What would Seattle look like if the zoning map changed and building types intermixed? How would that impact community? How would such changes affect neighborhood character, demographics, property values? How could zoning actively improve equity in Seattle? 

A series of maps shows information about height, bulk, transit, race, cost, and more. In concert with the mapping studies are sculptural sections of a case study neighborhood. These sections, through color and scale, represent zoning and related size requirements. They show what an existing neighborhood looks like, and provide the opportunity to rearrange elements and explore what this neighborhood could look like. 

An open house on Tuesday, September 22 invites the community into our office to view the project and join us in this conversation. 

Seattle Aquarium
Discuss the aquarium’s vision for waterfront, that create a destination and supporting placemaking opportunities.

Colman Dock
Discuss the waterfront’s new connection to businesses and find out the challenges and opportunities with the turning lane from the ferry and opportunities to provide flexible lanes. Identify how this integrated multimodal system supports the Ferries Long-Range Planning efforts.

Pioneer Square
Discuss connections from Pioneer Square to waterfront and the improvements for pedestrians on Main and Washington Streets.

Feet First Walk & Talk events foster active civic engagement and are designed to showcase area redevelopment incorporating features to promote livable and walkable communities. The unique events encourage people to become more aware of the importance of safe, inviting, and accessible places for people to walk.

Location Details
Meet in the main entrance of the building - DLR Group, 51 University St, Seattle, WA 98101

This program will show how public and private stakeholders, as well as social services groups, are an integral part of the City of Seattle’s vision for a Waterfront for All. The program will explore how consideration of the existing community of residents and business owners can be transformed as we consider the neighborhood and prospective retail/commercial district as complement to design of the park, boulevard and transportation corridor. The program will orient attendants to the existing conditions of the waterfront and current design development of the reimagined public right-of-way. Through three current development case studies and three concept design vignettes, we will explore how private development and social services might engage and be informed by the Waterfront Seattle plans currently being developed by James Corner Field Operations.

Hack the CD, Umoja PEACE Center, Heart Haven Artist Cooperative, and Africatown Preservation and Development Association will be opening a pop-up space at 23rd and Union.

For the past two months, this group of community stakeholders has been collecting feedback from a black board mural at the location, which was launched during the 2015 Umoja Fest and sponsored by Seattle Office of Arts and Culture. The response has been revealing, and our community has confirmed that they’d like to see a sense  of Black pride, empowerment, and business.

We’d like to create an art gallery, retail space, and tech lounge in this pop-up space and we need your help!

For Work Party 1, we’ll be filling holes and painting the walls! Bring tools if you have them, but most importantly bring your hands and wear work clothes!

PARK(ing) Day is a worldwide celebration that happens once a year, on the third Friday in September, where community members and groups turn on-street parking spaces into public places. This international event raises awareness about the importance of a walkable, livable, healthy city and helps people re-think how our streets can be used.

You can join the fun by visiting small parks created by your friends and neighbors! This year, Seattleites have planned the biggest PARK(ing) Day celebration yet, with 60 pop-up parks and pop-up protected bike lanes occurring across the city. Altogether, PARK(ing) Day will reclaim 110 parking spaces for public space on the day of the event. Plan your route with the printable PARK(ing) Day Map (download below). 

To find our more or to learn how you can create your own park next year, visit Seattle's Park(ing) Day Website and check out photos from prior events on the Seattle PARK(ing) Day Flickr album.

Seattle PARK(ing) Day would like to thank its 2015 sponsors for their generous support to community groups and park hosts—Play & Park Structures, Swift Company, GGLO, The Watershed Company, Brumbaugh & Associates, SvR Design, Mithun, and Ned Gulbran Landscape Architects.

• WHAT IS DESIGN REVIEW
• STAGES OF SEATTLE’S DESIGN REVIEW PROCESS
• ABOUT SEATTLE’S DESIGN GUIDELINES
• ABOUT SEATTLE’S NEIGHBORHOOD GUIDELINES
• HOW TO UNDERSTAND A NOTICE & GET INVOLVED

Integrus Architecture in partnership with the Alliance for Pioneer Square want to bring PLAY4ALL!  Embark on a self-guided scavenger hunt for playful "disPLAY" installations throughout Pioneer Square. Begin at the Integrus Architecture storefront or visit the PLAY4ALL website to find a map of current disPLAY locations.  From there, it's up to you to explore! disPLAYs will rotate throughout the neighborhood for one week from Sept 12 - 18.

PLAY4ALL participating businesses include:

Arundel Books | Caffe Umbria | Clementines | Drygoods Design | Good Bar | Grand Central Bakery | Velouria | Zeitgeist

BACKGROUND 
As designers of schools and educational spaces, we are challenging the common preconceptions of play and learning environments.  In recent years, our understanding of play has undergone a radical shift.   Play was once considered a distracting diversion from "real” learning.  Now it is understood as a fundamental component of cognitive development. The more we learn about play, the more we believe that access to a diversity of quality play experiences is fundamental to support equity in learning. PLAY4ALL is a community-based exploration of how simple moments of play can encourage learning, and by extension, support an improved quality of public life.  Through play, we believe people can find greater connections with each other and with their environment. 

FRAMEWORK FOR EQUITY
In thinking about how to lower barriers to play, we have identified four PLAY4ALL principles:

1. INCREASE ACCESS. Identify ways to integrate play into everyday life. We challenge the notion that play should occur within the time constraints of recess and the spatial definition of a playground.
2. DECREASE COST. Explore how to recycle/repurpose everyday materials in a playful and elegant way.
3. DIVERSIFY MODALITIES. Frequently, play is synonymous with large-motor activities (climbing, jumping, sliding) and visually-oriented games. What about playing with sound or texture?  How about a game in which all players have limited mobility?
4. OPEN-ENDED SIMPLICITY. No instructions, no right or wrong way to play. Outcomes are unpredictable so play can occur without pretense or competition.

In an age when our communities are divided in multiple dimensions, we believe play has the power to unite. Play is not just for kids – most adults will eagerly play if given an opportunity. Individuals who may not typically interact can connect through play and have fun in the process!  In what other ways can play benefit our lives, both as individuals and as a community?  What are your favorite ways to play? We invite you to play with us in Pioneer Square anytime throughout the Seattle Design Festival and to become part of the #PLAY4ALL conversation!

A significant source for inequity in our community is the zoning map. Very present in the news with recent code changes and corresponding debate, zoning is a complex subject. This exhibition illuminates the relationship between zoning and inequity and provide an opportunity to envision zoning as equitable and enhancing. 

This installation in the b9 Architects storefront in Pioneer Square poses the questions: What does zoning look like now? What would Seattle look like if the zoning map changed and building types intermixed? How would that impact community? How would such changes affect neighborhood character, demographics, property values? How could zoning actively improve equity in Seattle? 

A series of maps shows information about height, bulk, transit, race, cost, and more. In concert with the mapping studies are sculptural sections of a case study neighborhood. These sections, through color and scale, represent zoning and related size requirements. They show what an existing neighborhood looks like, and provide the opportunity to rearrange elements and explore what this neighborhood could look like. 

An open house on Tuesday, September 22 invites the community into our office to view the project and join us in this conversation. 

• WHAT IS DESIGN REVIEW
• STAGES OF SEATTLE’S DESIGN REVIEW PROCESS
• ABOUT SEATTLE’S DESIGN GUIDELINES
• ABOUT SEATTLE’S NEIGHBORHOOD GUIDELINES
• HOW TO UNDERSTAND A NOTICE & GET INVOLVED

Three organizations will be honored on September 18th in Seattle, with the Architects Designers Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR) 2015 Lewis Mumford Award in the categories of Peace, Environment, and Development.

The ADPSR Lewis Mumford Awards are presented to individuals and organizations nationally on an annual basis in recognition of their innovative and influential work. The winners of the 2015 (21st annual) Lewis Mumford Awards embody ADPSR’s mission to promote world peace, environmental protection, and socially responsible development.

They include:

·                 Peace  -  Black Lives Matter
·                 Environment  -  Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition
·                 Development  -  Environmental Works Community Design Center

The awards will be presented at an event on Friday, September 18th from 5:00-7:00PM  at the Bullitt Center - 1501 East Madison Street, Seattle, WA

The event will include the conferral of awards, presentations by awardees and a reception.

We look forward to seeing you at the event! Please spread the word!

ADPSR is a national nonprofit organization founded in 1982 to raise professional and public awareness of critical issues. It works for peace, environmental protection, ecological building, social justice, and the development of healthy communities. The annual ADPSR Lewis Mumford Awards program was initiated in 1992 to honor people and organizations whose work exemplifies social responsibility. The awards were named after Lewis Mumford (1895-1990) an American historian, sociologist, philosopher, and critic, noted for his study of cities and his writings , which remind us that architecture, design, and planning must respond to human needs, harmonize with its surroundings, and reflect the aspirations and social context of our civilization.

For more information please contact Ben Spencer at bspen@uw.edu or visit http://adpsr.org/home/mumford_award_history

Hack the CD, Umoja PEACE Center, Heart Haven Artist Cooperative, and Africatown Preservation and Development Association will be opening a pop-up space at 23rd and Union.

For the past two months, this group of community stakeholders has been collecting feedback from a black board mural at the location, which was launched during the 2015 Umoja Fest and sponsored by Seattle Office of Arts and Culture. The response has been revealing, and our community has confirmed that they’d like to see a sense  of Black pride, empowerment, and business.

We’d like to create an art gallery, retail space, and tech lounge in this pop-up space and we need your help!

For Interior Design Jam Session, we’re calling all architects, designers, and artists to this cypher. Bring an open mind and fill up on your creative juices as we collaborate to envision what our new space will look like. 

Saturday, September 19
9:30am - 6pm
Seattle Central Public Library, 1000 4th Ave, Seattle, WA 98104
See the full Conference schedule here. 

The day-long Conference during the Seattle Design Festival is an opportunity to examine in-depth the theme of Design for Equity. Located at the Seattle Central Public Library, the conference includes workshops, panels, films, lectures, and installations. Participants can engage professional and community experts on issues such as equitable urban planning, designers' role in youth incarceration, design for social movements, and gender equality in product design. The conference will be a high-level conversation among community stakeholders where children and families are welcome and you are welcome to explore all the offerings of the Central Library in between scheduled sessions.

What are Gender Open restrooms? Come engage and take action to create more space for us all. 

Design for a Trans* Inclusive Seattle will be converting some traditional men’s and women’s restrooms into Gender Open restrooms during specific events throughout the festival. Our goal is to promote the awareness of a critical opportunity facing people, specifically those in the design community, to create more space for people who identify outside of the traditional gender binary by actively promoting Gender Open restrooms in public and private spaces. 

Please use a facility throughout the event to learn more about this important issue and to participate in helping us select a Gender Open restroom plaque which can be used by businesses to help create space and awareness for Gender Open restrooms. 

My Interactive Art Installation, "The Sandbox of Life" is a foundation for the exploration of complex systems, digital life, and human/computer interactions. It is a Sensebellum original art installation created in 2012 in Maui. We live in a time of complex systems and rich amounts of data. The Sandbox synthesizes this knowledge into one easy to use platform for exploring worlds.

Using custom engineered layers of software, 3D printed hardware, cameras, projectors, wood, and metal the Sandbox can simulate anything from islands and animals, fluid dynamics, bacteria, cellular automata, Conway's Game of Life, and many more modes - truly an ecosystem simulator. The combination of computer vision and augmented reality combine to make a seriously surreal experience that is at one time digital and yet completely natural.

To create and change the world all you need are your hands, imagination, a little time, and some friends don't hurt either! Without a cumbersome interface one can explore these digital worlds in intuitive ways that feel natural and react in real time.

A significant source for inequity in our community is the zoning map. Very present in the news with recent code changes and corresponding debate, zoning is a complex subject. This exhibition illuminates the relationship between zoning and inequity and provide an opportunity to envision zoning as equitable and enhancing. 

This installation in the b9 Architects storefront in Pioneer Square poses the questions: What does zoning look like now? What would Seattle look like if the zoning map changed and building types intermixed? How would that impact community? How would such changes affect neighborhood character, demographics, property values? How could zoning actively improve equity in Seattle? 

A series of maps shows information about height, bulk, transit, race, cost, and more. In concert with the mapping studies are sculptural sections of a case study neighborhood. These sections, through color and scale, represent zoning and related size requirements. They show what an existing neighborhood looks like, and provide the opportunity to rearrange elements and explore what this neighborhood could look like. 

An open house on Tuesday, September 22 invites the community into our office to view the project and join us in this conversation. 

This presentation will illustrate how thoughtful design can truly impact vulnerable populations in meaningful ways, from at-risk youth to families in recovery to citizens experiencing homelessness. We want to inspire other designers to provide high-quality design to public and nonprofit projects, meeting the schedule and budget while refusing to compromise beauty. Additionally, we will demonstrate the importance of designing public and nonprofit projects with sustainability, durability, and the health and safety of residents at the forefront.

Rosengard, Malmö, Sweden successfully moved from a period of riots, due to

a disenfranchised immigrant population to actively empowering and engaging

young women in participatory place making. Thirteen young political refugee teenager women

from Iraq and Afghanistan organized and led design workshops, community events working

with Rosengard residents and the City of Malmö Environmental and Parks

Departments. Learning how to accomplish physical change to support positive

sustainable development, the spaces between existing buildings shaped

their proposed projects; a playground, enhanced town center, and community

gardens. These projects in this presentation have been recently built by

the City of Malmö adding to Rosengards social capital. Through dialogue

and community organizing of 6,400 participants, 136 workshops, events

comprised of over 60 % of political refugee women. Their informed wholeisitic

decision-making, through an empowered strong local process, together with

deliverables of strategic physical improvements started the process of building

a sustainable Rosengard. The “pink” large play area and the enhanced town

centers “social square” was completed in September of 2013. With the

leadership and collaborative genius of these young girls Rosengard has now

become the new Eco district in Malmö, Sweden.

Four agencies from the City of Seattle present a workshop on visioning an equitable city.  

The City of Seattle has made a commitment to work towards social equity with an emphasis on racial equity, across all departments. In this workshop you will hear from the City of Seattle’s Office for Civil Rights, Seattle Design Commission, Seattle’s Planning Commission and the Office of Arts and Culture as they share the role that we as designers, urban planners, and artists play in creating a new equitable vision for our cities. There will be a panel of commissioners, design professionals, artists and staff who will share what is happening at a city-wide level to realize the City’s commitment to building a racially equitable Seattle, followed by an interactive brainstorming breakout session where we will all explore our own individual roles in visioning and realizing a more inclusive home that serves all communities. There will be an opportunity to report out on the smaller-group discussions and share what we’ve learned from each other.

Speakers and facilitators will include:

Kirin Bhatti, Seattle Office for Civil Rights;Michael Austin, commissioner, Seattle Planning Commission; Vanessa Murdock, Executive Director, Seattle Planning Commission; Lee Copeland, commissioner, Seattle Design Commission; Ellen Sollod,Vice Chair, Seattle Design Commission; Valerie Kinast, coordinator, Seattle Design Commission; Leilani Lewis, Director of Marketing and Communications, Northwest African American Museum; Lara Davis, Arts Education Manager, Seattle Office of Arts & Culture; Ruri Yampolsky, Public Art Director, Seattle Office of Arts & Culture. Assisted by Payton Bordley, Racial Equity Liaison, Seattle Office fo Arts & Culture.

Through a panel discussion we hope to promote open dialogue about what it means practically to consider equity in design. Considering equity is not necessarily a part of traditional training for designers, whereas other professional disciplines—like public policy, social work, public health, and education—have established approaches, frameworks, and scholarship that support practitioners’ reflection on and approaches to issues of power, privilege, and access.  

This session, a presentation and panel discussion, focuses on issues around urban regeneration at the local and global scale, in particular in low-income housing. Our panelists challenge some of the implicit assumptions about mixed income housing- not only in design, but in policy decisions.

This is a timely discussion in Seattle as economic pressures are rapidly gentrifying many of our neighborhoods, and displacing many people who currently reside in low-income housing. New housing developments in Seattle must include a certain percentage of affordable housing, but does mixed-income housing help improve the socio-economic status of low-income residents? Our panelists bring a range of perspectives, hailing from all the fields of design, urban planning, social justice, social work, affordable housing, and environmental psychology.

Today, the field of design is in a renaissance period. While design has been contributing to solving complex issues for many years, in order for it to have an even greater impact, design should focus not only on the product or solution level, but it should transform at the system level, changing culture and therefore, society. In her session, Artefact's Masuma Henry aims to create awareness and share insights about the role of design in driving towards positive social and cultural changes. 

There are three main factors at play when designing for movements that lead to cultural and social change: Deep understanding of how design shapes individual behaviors, enabling a sense of agency and designing for action. Using global case studies as well as examples from Artefact’s portfolio of social impact projects, Henry will outline how design can create transformative experiences with deep social impact. 

The story of Africans in America has been one of resilience, creativity, reinvention and accomplishment in the face of tremendous obstacles. This workshop will highlight some of the amazing work being done to harness and build upon this legacy in the face of rapid displacement in the Central District. We will generate ideas for survival in the midst of existing real estate market forces. #HackingGentrification will be a two-way, generative conversation and work session - so bring your notepads, tablets and thinking caps!

Why wait for permission to act when you already have the right to your city, your neighborhood, and your home?  

• WHAT IS DESIGN REVIEW
• STAGES OF SEATTLE’S DESIGN REVIEW PROCESS
• ABOUT SEATTLE’S DESIGN GUIDELINES
• ABOUT SEATTLE’S NEIGHBORHOOD GUIDELINES
• HOW TO UNDERSTAND A NOTICE & GET INVOLVED

A significant source for inequity in our community is the zoning map. Very present in the news with recent code changes and corresponding debate, zoning is a complex subject. This exhibition illuminates the relationship between zoning and inequity and provide an opportunity to envision zoning as equitable and enhancing. 

This installation in the b9 Architects storefront in Pioneer Square poses the questions: What does zoning look like now? What would Seattle look like if the zoning map changed and building types intermixed? How would that impact community? How would such changes affect neighborhood character, demographics, property values? How could zoning actively improve equity in Seattle? 

A series of maps shows information about height, bulk, transit, race, cost, and more. In concert with the mapping studies are sculptural sections of a case study neighborhood. These sections, through color and scale, represent zoning and related size requirements. They show what an existing neighborhood looks like, and provide the opportunity to rearrange elements and explore what this neighborhood could look like. 

An open house on Tuesday, September 22 invites the community into our office to view the project and join us in this conversation. 

A two-part event: panel discussion + activity
11:00am panel discussion at Center Theater, Seattle Center; 12:00pm activity for all ages at the Artists at Play Playground, Seattle Center

The panel discussion will focus on the collaborative experience in design and how engagement, especially with the community of users, can affect design outcomes.  This moderated discussion will include key members of the Artists at Play design team: Site Workshop Landscape Architecture, Seattle Center and contributing artists.

Following the discussion, Artists at Play Olympics is intended to facilitate the exploration of the site through collaborative and lively activities. This is an activity open to all ages and abilities.

***

11:00 am panel discussion will be located at Center Theater at Seattle Center, on the ground floor of the Armory just inside the east entry.
12:00 pm activity will be located at the Artists at Play Playground at Seattle Center.

(updated September 14, 2015) 

Seattle Office of Arts & Culture and South Park Arts co-present Horatio Law’s South Park Crisálida

Portland artist Horatio Law and South Park Arts present a hands-on art making workshop that invites community members and Design in Public participants to partner in the creation of South Park Crisálida, a temporary public artwork that will be installed in the South Park neighborhood.  Law’s sculpture invites the South Park community to be co-creator of the artwork by weaving “Community Yarns” that will form the outer skin of the artwork. Each participant will be able to create a 10’ “yarn” by weaving colorful ropes and incorporating personal artifacts. Design in Public participants are invited to observe and participate in this equity-building activity that empowers the community to create change.

Law is designing South Park Crisálida to raise community awareness about a sewer improvement project that Seattle Public Utilities will construct in 2016 and become a destination piece that attracts visitors to the neighborhood during construction. Through this workshop, community members and merchants will work together to build stronger ties, as well as incorporate their vision for a future transformed South Park.

“Community Yarns” created during the workshop will be displayed at the South Park Library (8604 Eighth Ave S, 98108) until South Park Crisálida is installed in spring 2016. The artwork is commissioned by the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture with Seattle Public Utilities 1% for Art funds.

More information on SPU's South Park Sewer Improvement Project can be found here.

ACCESSIBILITY: ADA/Wheelchair Accessible, Family Friendly, Scent-Free Space, Multilingual program: Spanish interpretation (please check back for additional language interpretation) 

Celebrating the 2015 Seattle Design Festival, this free family-friendly event will include music, entertainment, food trucks, and art exhibits on the Sound Transit Plaza and inside the Artspace Mt. Baker Lofts Community Room. Through partnerships with the City of Seattle, local residents, and local business owners we have organized the street festival to bring together members of the Mt Baker community for a free and fun afternoon event. We hope attendees will enjoy meeting local artists and musicians as well as learning more about the history of the neighborhood and future improvements to transit and infrastructure. 

The event runs from 11:30am to 6:00pm and includes: 

• Entertainment by Ian Siadak, Seattle Capoeira, Isidasidis, and Karim Koumbassa 
• Food by Chopstix and Neema’s Comfort 
• Special exhibits by The Lighthouse for the Blind, Seattle Design Nerds, Friends of Cheasty Greenspace/MtView, and Mount Baker Neighborhood Center for the Arts 
• Art sale and exhibition at Artspace Mt Baker Lofts 
• Sidewalk chalk gallery and other activities 

For this festival day only, Seattle's Bicycle Sunday route will be extended from Lake Washington Boulevard all the way to Cheasty Boulevard, bringing the community to the heart of the Town Center. Ride your bike and follow the signs to this fun-filled afternoon! 

This event is organized by Friends of Mount Baker Town Center with partial funding by the Seattle Department of Transportation and the City of Seattle. Sponsors include Artspace Mt. Baker Lofts, Seattle Parks Foundation, and Sound Transit. 

A significant source for inequity in our community is the zoning map. Very present in the news with recent code changes and corresponding debate, zoning is a complex subject. This exhibition illuminates the relationship between zoning and inequity and provide an opportunity to envision zoning as equitable and enhancing. 

This installation in the b9 Architects storefront in Pioneer Square poses the questions: What does zoning look like now? What would Seattle look like if the zoning map changed and building types intermixed? How would that impact community? How would such changes affect neighborhood character, demographics, property values? How could zoning actively improve equity in Seattle? 

A series of maps shows information about height, bulk, transit, race, cost, and more. In concert with the mapping studies are sculptural sections of a case study neighborhood. These sections, through color and scale, represent zoning and related size requirements. They show what an existing neighborhood looks like, and provide the opportunity to rearrange elements and explore what this neighborhood could look like. 

An open house on Tuesday, September 22 invites the community into our office to view the project and join us in this conversation. 

This interactive session, hosted by Mahlum, is the kick-off for the Voices for Schools project. People of all ages with broad educational backgrounds are invited to share and film their teaching and learning experiences. Interviews will be posted to voicesforschools.com.

 By collecting and broadcasting your voices, we can inform better educational design for the next generation. 

voicesforschools.com

voicesinfo@mahlum.com

This program investigates the deep social impacts of human-centered design.  Designers are but a domino in a very long line of dominoes.  There are a thousand things falling in place before us, and then we ourselves make a thousand other things happen after us.  We address designers' responsibility to those future "dominoes" to give them an equal chance at positive opportunities and outcomes.  The program highlights methods to go beyond an ordinary designer-client relationship by examining, for example, our impacts on the client’s clients, the neighborhood, and the population.

The program includes a workshop to give attendees the chance to discuss and share their ideas about social impact in design.

The location of this session will be:

Olson Kundig  |  159 S. Jackson Street  |  Seattle, WA  98104

Join us as we explore a literal bridge connecting historic Mount Baker to dense urban development taking place in the Rainier Valley. Transit-oriented urban villages dropped in and around historic neighborhoods can create an equity gap with accessibility, infrastructure, cultural, and generational ramifications. For the Seattle Design Festival, local designers have  activated the pedestrian bridge on Rainier Avenue South with wayfinding and experiential graphics that seek to inspire residents and visitors alike in building community-powered solutions that bridge this gap.

We invite you to join designers for a free tour of the site followed by an engaging panel discussion in the Artspace Mt. Baker Lofts Community Room (or visit the installation on your own time through the end of September).

Please RSVP. Arrive a few minutes early to check in at the Artspace Mt. Baker Lofts Community Room. The tours will depart promptly at 6:30pm, with the panel discussion beginning at 7:15pm. Beverages and light snacks will be provided.

Panelists

• Maia Segura, Penniless Projects 
• Talis Abolins, Friends of Mt Baker Town Center 
• Lance Matteson, SEED 
• Barbara Oswald, Mount Baker Neighborhood Center for the Arts 
• Jennifer Ott, Friends of Seattle's Olmsted Parks 
• Michael James, SDOT Accessible Mount Baker 

Location Details
Artspace Mt. Baker Lofts Community Room (in the rear of the building opening onto the light rail station plaza), 2915 Rainier Ave S, Seattle, WA 98144

Sponsors
This project is organized by JeppsonEGD and Penniless Projects with support from Friends of Mt. Baker Town Center. Sponsored by JeppsonEGD, Penniless Projects, Beacon Hill Merchants Association, Seattle Parks Foundation, Artspace Mt. Baker Lofts, and Friends of Mt. Baker Town Center. Partial funding by the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture and Seattle Department of Transportation. 

• WHAT IS DESIGN REVIEW
• STAGES OF SEATTLE’S DESIGN REVIEW PROCESS
• ABOUT SEATTLE’S DESIGN GUIDELINES
• ABOUT SEATTLE’S NEIGHBORHOOD GUIDELINES
• HOW TO UNDERSTAND A NOTICE & GET INVOLVED

A significant source for inequity in our community is the zoning map. Very present in the news with recent code changes and corresponding debate, zoning is a complex subject. This exhibition illuminates the relationship between zoning and inequity and provide an opportunity to envision zoning as equitable and enhancing. 

This installation in the b9 Architects storefront in Pioneer Square poses the questions: What does zoning look like now? What would Seattle look like if the zoning map changed and building types intermixed? How would that impact community? How would such changes affect neighborhood character, demographics, property values? How could zoning actively improve equity in Seattle? 

A series of maps shows information about height, bulk, transit, race, cost, and more. In concert with the mapping studies are sculptural sections of a case study neighborhood. These sections, through color and scale, represent zoning and related size requirements. They show what an existing neighborhood looks like, and provide the opportunity to rearrange elements and explore what this neighborhood could look like. 

An open house on Tuesday, September 22 invites the community into our office to view the project and join us in this conversation. 

Access to the City is everyone's right. Unfortunately in reality this is not the case for everyone, be it Mexico City, or Seattle. The Seattle Design Festival exhibition entitled Recording the City presents documented conditions in Mexico City through the eyes of ten University of Washington architecture students. Through video recordings, sound recordings, written stories, drawings, and paintings, the exhibition intends to broaden people's perception of the City and how people inhabit and interact with it by probing viewers to ask questions about their own City. How do we see the City? How do we read it? How do we live with it, move through it, adapt to it? And how does the city adapt to our own behaviors? By asking these questions of ourselves, and through seeing rather than looking, we generate a greater respect and understanding of the diverse individuals and groups with whom we share the City.

In discussing this year’s theme of Design for Equity, our team felt that a significant source for inequity in our community is the zoning map. Very present in the news with recent code changes and corresponding debate, zoning emerged for our office as a complex subject to explore. We hope to illuminate the relationship between zoning and inequity and provide an opportunity to envision zoning as equitable and enhancing. 

Through a graphic and sculptural installation in our office’s storefront in Pioneer Square, questions will be posed: what does zoning look like now? What would Seattle look like if the zoning map changed and building types intermixed? How would that impact community? How would such changes affect neighborhood character, demographics, property values? How could zoning actively improve equity in Seattle? 

Exhibited in our windows will be a series of maps showing, in addition to zoning, information such as height, bulk, transit, race, cost, etc. In concert with the mapping studies will be abstract sculptural sections of a case study neighborhood. These sections, through color and scale, will represent zoning and related size requirements -- they will show what an existing neighborhood looks like and also provide the opportunity to move blocks around and wonder what could this neighborhood look like. 

The window installation will be informative and provocative as well as an engaging and colorful exhibition to share with the street and community. A sculptural section will sit outside our windows and allow passersby to participate.

We are hosting an open house and panel discussion on Tuesday, September 22 to invite the community into our office to view the project and join us in this conversation. Panelists will include:

Rick Mohler, Mohler + Ghillino Architects, University of Washington
Mike O'Brien, Seattle City Council
Tim Parham, Plymouth Housing
Gundula Proksch, University of Washington
Bradley Wilburn, Department of Planning and Development

• Potential residents of the Ballard and other encampment sites
• Decision-makers who will manage the encampment sites
• Potential designers of the encampment sites
• Neighbors who own or rent housing and businesses near the Ballard and other encampment sites

A significant source for inequity in our community is the zoning map. Very present in the news with recent code changes and corresponding debate, zoning is a complex subject. This exhibition illuminates the relationship between zoning and inequity and provide an opportunity to envision zoning as equitable and enhancing. 

This installation in the b9 Architects storefront in Pioneer Square poses the questions: What does zoning look like now? What would Seattle look like if the zoning map changed and building types intermixed? How would that impact community? How would such changes affect neighborhood character, demographics, property values? How could zoning actively improve equity in Seattle? 

A series of maps shows information about height, bulk, transit, race, cost, and more. In concert with the mapping studies are sculptural sections of a case study neighborhood. These sections, through color and scale, represent zoning and related size requirements. They show what an existing neighborhood looks like, and provide the opportunity to rearrange elements and explore what this neighborhood could look like. 

An open house on Tuesday, September 22 invites the community into our office to view the project and join us in this conversation. 

What will it take to make Seattle inclusive and robust for all?

The International Living Future Institute presents the Equity Drafting Table, an interactive event located at the Bullitt Center on Capitol Hill.

Neighbors from across the city, including partners from Sustainable Seattle, Feet First, Seattle Architecture Foundation (SAF) and King County will gather over refreshments provided by Fremont Brewing to explore strategies for making Seattle a thriving place for everyone.

Through a self-guided tour, attendees will engage with thought-provoking questions on topics of equity, privilege and green building. As you move about the space, you'll share insights to these inquiries in writing, pictures and conversation. You'll also discover a few of our programs, including the Living Community Challenge, and how we're collaborating with the First Hill neighborhood to bring some of these ideas into action. 

Stay for a beverage or the entire event—all ages and expertise are welcome. More info here.

Register here. 

The Bullitt Center is ADA accessible. Baby changing stations are available in both male and female restrooms. The program content will be designed to be accessible for all ages and abilities. 

A significant source for inequity in our community is the zoning map. Very present in the news with recent code changes and corresponding debate, zoning is a complex subject. This exhibition illuminates the relationship between zoning and inequity and provide an opportunity to envision zoning as equitable and enhancing. 

This installation in the b9 Architects storefront in Pioneer Square poses the questions: What does zoning look like now? What would Seattle look like if the zoning map changed and building types intermixed? How would that impact community? How would such changes affect neighborhood character, demographics, property values? How could zoning actively improve equity in Seattle? 

A series of maps shows information about height, bulk, transit, race, cost, and more. In concert with the mapping studies are sculptural sections of a case study neighborhood. These sections, through color and scale, represent zoning and related size requirements. They show what an existing neighborhood looks like, and provide the opportunity to rearrange elements and explore what this neighborhood could look like. 

An open house on Tuesday, September 22 invites the community into our office to view the project and join us in this conversation. 

• WHAT IS DESIGN REVIEW
• STAGES OF SEATTLE’S DESIGN REVIEW PROCESS
• ABOUT SEATTLE’S DESIGN GUIDELINES
• ABOUT SEATTLE’S NEIGHBORHOOD GUIDELINES
• HOW TO UNDERSTAND A NOTICE & GET INVOLVED

Hack the CD, Umoja PEACE Center, Heart Haven Artist Cooperative, and Africatown Preservation and Development Association will be opening a pop-up space at 23rd and Union.

For the past two months, this group of community stakeholders has been collecting feedback from a black board mural at the location, which was launched during the 2015 Umoja Fest and sponsored by Seattle Office of Arts and Culture. The response has been revealing, and our community has confirmed that they’d like to see a sense  of Black pride, empowerment, and business.

We’d like to create an art gallery, retail space, and tech lounge in this pop-up space and we need your help!

For Work Party 2, after setting the stage with paint and ideas, this is the time to put the finishing touches on the space. Bring your hands, tools, and hearts. 

On September 24th, the AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE) is hosting a “Design for Equity Sustainability Slam”: an assembly of short slide presentations giving people a chance to stand and share work with the sustainable design community in Seattle. The format is meant to quickly disperse information and encourage conversation. The theme of equity adds an interesting dimension to our thinking about sustainability. For instance, the building industry in North America can play a critical role in slowing the impacts of human induced global warming, as our carbon emissions have unequitable impacts on the most vulnerable citizens of the world. 

Doors open at 5:30pm, light food and drink will be provided.  Presentations start at 6:00pm and go till 7:15pm.

Speakers

We’re currently accepting submissions for the opportunity to speak at the slam. If you’re interesting in presenting, please submit your ideas in the following format:

• Name:
• Project or idea title:
• Narrative explaining why the project (or concept) have innovative sustainable ideas on equity.
• Slides of project or concept work as 21 slides in PDF format (you will have 20 seconds per slide when presenting).

Please email submissions to aia.cote.seattle@gmail.com by September 4th.  Individuals selected to present at the Sustainability Slam will be notified by September 7th.  A schedule of speakers will be sent out once confirmed.

Location:
At Friends of Waterfront Seattle, 1400 Western Ave. Seattle, WA 98111