hinoki

HEWITT and PYATOK designed the main body of Hinoki, which consists of three separate structures, each addressing the unique condition it faces with visual and physical connections. PYATOK brings unit design expertise to the partnership, while HEWITT delivers an extensive mid-rise experience. Hinoki is the fifth low-income building in the Seattle Housing Authority’s redevelopment of the Yesler Terrace Master Planned Community – the oldest public housing community in the nation.

Location

110 10th Ave S, Seattle, WA

typology

Affordable Housing

Client

Seattle Housing Authority

status

Completed 2021

Services

Architecture, Landscape Architecture

AFFORDABLE HOUSING

Hinoki is a 139-unit affordable housing project that is part of the redevelopment of Seattle’s Yesler Terrace public housing community. Yesler Terrace was originally completed in 1941. It was Washington’s first public housing development and the first racially integrated public housing development in the United States. In 2013, guided by a community master plan, redevelopment began on the 22-acre site. A major focus of the development was to convert the neighborhood from primarily low-density garden apartment blocks to larger, denser, mid-rise residential and mixed-use structures with mixed-income residents.

neighborhood connection

The project is a three-building arrangement surrounding a courtyard for residents. The neighborhood context informed HEWITT’s design of the three “houses.” The site has direct proximity to the civic center and commercial heart of Yesler Terrace to the west, and is located along East Yesler Way, a primary street to the neighborhood.

L02 floor plan

community courtyard

A courtyard is at the center of the site, surrounded by the three houses. The courtyard is activated by residential units, childcare sites and a play structure. The south end of the courtyard is open and slightly elevated, overlooking a community p-patch garden and a pocket park. The visual link of the three green spaces provides a connection to the larger concepts of the neighborhood.

garden street house

As part of the Yesler Terrace neighborhood master plan, the Green Street Loop is a pedestrian-friendly path that circumnavigates the neighborhood to connect the community’s pocket parks and open spaces. The Green Street Loop was the design driver for the “Garden Street House,” which fronts the western edge of the site. The Garden Street house is situated directly behind an existing sycamore tree, classified by the City of Seattle as exceptional so therefore, it needed to remain on the site. The House is clad in aluminum shake shingles to reflect the greenery of the loop and the sycamore tree, and to provide a memorable node within the neighborhood. The Garden Street House inflects around the tree to create the presence for the entry into the three-building structure and through it, to the central residential courtyard.