The second annual Housing Week concluded last week, an event-filled four days that left us feeling optimistically realistic. But before we get to that, please join us in congratulating Lexie Costic, AIA, who became a licensed architect in Washington state earlier this year; now 70 percent of RMC’s design professionals are registered architects. Lexie joined RMC…
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Are you as excited as we are about the possibility of transforming the old JCPenney building on Cornwall—which has sat more or less empty since 1988 — into a mix of stores, offices and apartments that will bring new activity and life to this key block? After a public hearing September 24, the council is…
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Habitat for Humanity and The Kulshan Community Land Trust broke ground in more ways than one last month when they began Phase 1 of their collaborative effort to bring 54 permanently affordable townhomes to Bellingham. Telegraph Townhomes marks the launch of the Threshold Fund, an innovative financing tool that reduces the cost of building affordable…
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If you’ve driven down State Street recently and wondered what the construction project across from the Herald Building is all about, wonder no more: 22 North will offer 40 studio apartments to adults experiencing homelessness, thanks to of a collaboration between Northwest Youth Services (NWYS) and Opportunity Council. As our community continues to grapple with…
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RMC recently finished work on the expansion of Social Fabric, which is living up to its brilliant name with an engaging mashup of sewing groups and classes, textile art, shopping and creative window displays to a key downtown corner. Located on Commercial Street in the Parkade building, it’s just one of several Bellingham venues designed…
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Enter Unity Care Northwest. Part of a national network of community health centers established in 1965 with bipartisan support, it has provided healthcare to anyone in Whatcom County who needs it, regardless of income or insurance, for more than 30 years. Since 2008, its patient population has increased by 74%. Last year, amid the uncertainty…
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Friday afternoon design challenge: Make you vanish. Banish the ugly, tame the tangle! Show the world what’s possible, architects; do that problem-solving thing! Judges focus, scrutinize, discerning daring acts of innovation and technical perfection. Attention to detail counts. Zip ties allowed. Extra points for overcoming adverse conditions. Everyone gets a ribbon for participating, just like soccer.…
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The answer lies in the question itself: they’re neighborhoods, which by definition holds both spatial and social qualities. While physical boundaries define it on a map, we would argue that a neighborhood’s degree of social capital — its networks of relationships that foster “neighboring behavior”— is what makes it relatively stronger or weaker. (While this…
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In 2014 RMC, along with environmental consulting firm Maul, Foster, Alongi, was engaged by the Port of Skagit County to analyze the campus of the Northern State Hospital in Sedro Woolley, WA for redevelopment. Built in the Cascade foothills starting in 1911 on more than 1,000 acres, the campus is one of the largest single…
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Campus buildings come with tall orders: they must support teaching and inspire learning, attract faculty and invite students, meet or beat operational and sustainability goals, satisfy public budget constraints, gratify private donor desires. They must speak to the future, and stand the test of time. Meanwhile, technology marches on, instructional models evolve, and students educators…
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