• Size

    0.77 acres

  • Housing

    15 Primary Units, 8 ADUs ranging from 525 to 1,375 net square feet

  • Building Types

    Townhouses, Townhouses with attached ADU, and Townhouse over an ADU

  • Biking Facilities

    25 spaces

  • Community Gathering Spaces

    Inviting shared open space created by aggregating parking

Urban Architecture Missing Middle Housing

Cloverdale Cottages

Seattle, WA

Combining small footprint townhouses and single story flats, the Cloverdale Cottages located in Ranier Beach Overlay include a range of house-scale buildings. The townhouse design accommodates modular construction. Integrated ADUs will sell separate from the primary units to achieve a higher level of attainability.

 

Innovating with Small Footprint Townhouses and For Sale ADUs

In 2019, the City of Seattle adopted a new zoning classification for urban village areas that encourages smaller residential units, including accessory dwelling units with the intent of delivering more affordable housing. The project site, 20 minutes south of Seattle’s City Center in the Rainier Beach Overlay, is located in a frequent transit zone where no parking is required. Rudd Development challenged Opticos to design a unique product that opens more paths to home ownership, discreetly builds housing density, and stands out as a precedent for diverse housing choices on an under-utilized corner lot on an important corridor.  

Giving sensitive consideration to the surrounding homes, Opticos designed multiple building types that borrow from the neighborhood character and scale. Each structure was sited organically around existing trees and a common courtyard. As a corner lot, it was particularly important that the houses did not turn their back on the street. The unit entries are configured so that some face the street while others front the courtyard providing active frontages for both conditions.