Peoples Choice Category

Danielson Grove - MERIT AWARD
Triad Associates

Jury Comments:
Danielson Grove is recognized for its innovation in an urban infill, residential community design, an exemplary project that builds on the familiar model of the common green.

The integrity of the project is it spatial organization; it provides sixteen, modestly scaled homes on a 2.25 acre site. Danielson Grove addresses and cleverly resolves many of the shortcomings of single-family suburban development and planned communities and it presents a model of sustainability. Nothing is extraordinary about the architecture, its vernacular is rather traditional or new urbanist in its expression, but the project’s spatial organization and the site development could be applied to any architectural direction and still remain innovative, smart and model for residential developers and planners.

The retention of the mature coniferous forest scales the project and the shared Commons or Green gives the residents, what would otherwise be minimal private garden allotments, a sense of expansiveness and greater site usability. The Commons and Community Building also anchors the development, providing not only a focal point but also a community nexus.

The jury appreciated the overall composition in which the separation of parking resulted in “out-back” ganged garages, limiting the vehicular circulation and providing an unimpeded pedestrian environment and stronger residential core. As a model of innovative housing it achieves this on a number of fronts, its use of energy star appliances, its direction in stormwater management, vegetated swales, water detention and pervious surfaces, and it basic premise that “small is beautiful”, one does not need a 3500 sq. ft home with an attached three-car garage.

Danielson Grove provides a new sustainable model utilizing traditional methods to achieve that goal, resulting in a handsome and what appears to be a very livable community. The jury would also like to applaud the City of Kirkland for its Innovative Housing Demonstration Project Ordinance and sees this as a model for other communities.