The North Star

Located in Seattle’s Bitter Lake neighborhood, The North Star features 100 studio units of permanent supportive housing with supportive services and indoor/outdoor community spaces for single adults who are disabled and formerly homeless.

Client

DESC

Location

Seattle, WA

Program

Located in Seattle’s Bitter Lake neighborhood, The North Star features 100 studio units of permanent supportive housing with supportive services and indoor/outdoor community spaces for single adults who are disabled and formerly homeless. DESC partnered with Bellwether Housing to buy the property and develop the building, and DESC owns and operates it. With a focus on sustainability and universal design, the building was constructed to meet the Evergreen Sustainability Development Standards. Permanent supportive housing at The North Star provides each resident with a studio apartment that includes a private bathroom and full kitchen. Administrative spaces include staff offices, a conference room, and consult rooms for DESC’s 24-hour staff and residential counselors. Resident amenities include a communal dining room, computer area, large landscaped courtyard, small lounges, and an activity room. Amenity spaces were designed with trauma-informed principles that allow residents to passively participate in building life, encourage interaction with support staff, use calming colors for wayfinding, and provide visual connections between different interior spaces as well as the exterior courtyard. The expansive courtyard serves as a peaceful reprieve for residences by incorporating trees, vegetation, and private seating opportunities. Different types of hardscaping define pedestrian walkways and gathering areas while a landscaping buffer provides privacy from adjacent parcels. The wall of windows along the common spaces provides a view of nature even when residents are indoors. The bright colors on the exterior aim to bring life and visual interest to an industrial part of town. The development’s goals are to enhance the residential feel of the neighborhood through additional development of sustainable multifamily housing, foster an inclusive community among building residents, establish a safe and accessible environment for building residents, and create a feeling of home using intimate indoor and outdoor amenity spaces with vegetated buffers for resident and neighbor privacy.