Posts in Office News

While we've been a bit quiet here on the blogosphere, our team has been incredibly active in and out of the office!

This past May was Bike Everywhere Month - "a month-long celebration of pedal powered movement" - hosted by Cascade Bicycle Club, whose mission is to improve human lives and the environment through bicycling.

As part of Bike Everywhere Month, our formidable b9 team, consisting of Brad, Brian, Manuel, Tom, Josh, and Lisa, participated in the Washington Bikes Bike Everywhere Challenge. We are proud to share that we recorded 836 miles, reduced our carbon footprint by 736 lbs, and ranked 299 out of 1739 teams!

As community-builders, we constantly strive to improve our environment with an awareness of the impact we make in both the field of design and construction and our personal lives, and bicycling (and public transportation for the rest of our team..!) is just one of the multiple ways we address that impact. The Washington Bikes Bike Everywhere Challenge was a wonderful way to engage with our community with a greater vision, and we can't wait to participate in the next challenge!

Office NewsAngela YangJune 13, 2016bike everywhere month, b9 teamComment

Happy New Year from b9 !

A big happy new year from us to you. 2015 has been a particularly exciting year for us as we continue to grow both our practice and our breadth of work. A number of our apartment projects are in permitting stages and a slew of new projects are underway. We will update you on the progress of our projects throughout the year.

In the meantime, we'd like to introduce you to three new (and one returning) additions to our team :

Minjae Kim, Designer

Minjae graduated from University of Washington in 2011 with a Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies and Painting. He is currently pursuing a Masters in Architecture degree at Columbia University GSAPP in New York. Minjae’s interest is in self-guiding nature of design within the appropriate context and challenge.

Along with his architectural pursuit, Minjae also enjoys working on small scaled projects such as designing and building chairs.

Saghar Behinaeen, Designer

Saghar received a Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies at the University of Washington in 2015 as well as a Bachelor of Computer Science at the University of BIHE in Iran in 2010. Saghar is interested in the connection between art and science and the way it affects people’s life.

Saghar also likes to travel to different countries and get familiar with their cultures. In her free time, she likes to go hiking and do outdoor activities.

David Aleman, Designer

David was born in Venezuela, and growing up, he was raised between Venezuela and Puerto Rico. He received his Bachelors degree in Architecture from the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico. Prior to joining b9, David worked as a freelance designer in a number of architecture studios in Puerto Rico and as well as a manager in the hospitality industry with Marriott international. Over the past year, Davis has been interested in Latin American architecture and its development, mainly in the sense of enhancing the city and the community.

Because David is new to Seattle, he will dedicate himself to exploring the city and meeting new people.

Josh Carel, Designer

Josh received his Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Oklahoma and his Master of Architecture from the University of Washington. He has over four years of experience working in architecture firms in Oklahoma, New Mexico and Washington State. His architectural interests include investigating the future sustainability of cities and regions at the scales of policy, zoning and infrastructure. Josh believes that are positive potentials for architecture in the utilization of digital design tools and hopes to explore those on future projects.

Outside of work, Josh enjoys trail running, Ultimate Frisbee and weekend camping trips.

We also had our holiday party fashionably late this past Thursday due to the temporary return of Lisa and Angela from New York while they were home for the holidays. This past week was filled to the brim with sweets, booze, and games thanks to cookies from "Mother Teresa" (Lisa's mom), cupcakes from Yellow Leaf Cupcake Co. in Belltown, doughnuts from Top Pot, craft beers from Optimism Brewing, and competitive bocce at Rhein Haus (what new years resolution..?). To top it all off, we introduced the latest b9 t-shirts, decorated with abstract versions of everyone on our team. Very little documentation of this little event was made as.. well... no need for explaining. So, prost to 2016 !

Jeff, Brad, Saghar, Lisa, and Brian in uniform

Office NewsAngela YangJanuary 8, 2016office outing, team growthComment

Launching our new website!

Last summer, we moved into our new office space, and this summer, we're proud to launch our new website!

Our practice is constantly and happily always in progress, so stay tuned for more exciting news!

Office NewsAngela YangJuly 23, 2015Comment

Starting the new year in Fremont and Capitol Hill

Happy New Year from b9 !

2014 has been very good to us as we have steadily expanded both our office and our breadth of work. (Be on the lookout for posts on our first apartment designs !) With a new spacious office, an exciting set of new projects, a number of projects finishing up, and new additions to the team, 2015 is shaping up to be a great year !

To start off the new year, our whole team visited two projects that are close to completion. The first site we visited were the Fremont Townhomes – a project that exemplifies what b9 is all about. With a focus on community and interior and exterior buffers, the design aimed to create a dynamic internal, open courtyard, surrounded by the 10 townhomes. The modulation in material, decks, balconies, and landscape creates a variety of indoor and outdoor spaces, and the variation of open air levels encourages interaction between each home. When we visited the site, it was almost like a playground, where we all scattered and explored each unit (which are all different from one another) and came back together with a favorite one.

The second site we visited were the Olive Townhomes on Capitol Hill. Thanks to Seattle’s lovely 4:30pm sunsets, we arrived at the townhomes at dusk, which made photo-taking more difficult. Nevertheless, the project is near completion and it was fun to explore the spaces in and out of the units. The design approach to this project was informed by three primary concepts: create a vernacular style architecture that provides a base “mass”, carve out a centralized open courtyard and insert an armature at the center of the courtyard that expresses itself on all façades.