Aia 1993 Home Of The Year -- Artful Rebirth -- The Union Art Artists Cooperative Wins Top Honors In Annual Residential Design Competition

The Union Art Artists Cooperative, a recycled three-story building that is now filled with a dozen live-in studio spaces for the artists who own it, was named 1993 Home of the Year last week.

The annual event, held at the University of Washington, also marked the 40th anniversary of The Seattle Times/American Institute of Architects Home of the Month program.

The cooperative, at 1100 E. Union St., began life in 1916 as an auto showroom. Over the years the building served many other uses, until it was renovated last year.

The jurors were attracted to the large, light-filled spaces, the careful attention to restoring the building's strong wood beams, decorative brick exterior and its relationship to the neighborhood.

"The whole project had great respect for the existing industrial structure," said Ed Weinstein, an architect and one of this year's jurors. "The renovations and additions - the roof garden, the public and private spaces - really enhanced the building."

Professor Thomas Bosworth, of the University of Washington School of Architecture, who also served as a a juror, agreed. "Union Art is the type of project we hope to see repeated in other areas, in other old but worthy buildings.

"It was designed with elegance and restraint. The spaces are ample and strong, as good for work as they are for living."

The award-winning project was designed by architect Patricia Brennan and renovated by Roland Smith for Lois Graham, a premier Northwest abstractionist, her husband Gene Graham, a retired physician, and artist Karen Guzak. The trio had developed the Sunny Arms artists' co-op in the Georgetown neighborhood in 1989.

As Union Art became reality, the Grahams and Guzak were joined by other artists who bought into the co-op. Each artist became part of a design process that resulted in an eclectic array of studios for, among others, a woodworker, an architect and several painters.

"It really became a collaboration of people," said Brennan. "We all did it together."

Other jurists for the 1993 awards included architect Ralph Anderson, UW architecture Professor Grant Hildebrand, and Polly Lane, business reporter and former real estate editor of The Seattle Times.

Since the Seattle Times/AIA Home of the Month program began in 1954, more than 400 homes have been open for public tour. Each house regularly attracts up to 2,000 people, according to Gary Tabasinske, Home of the Month committee co-chair. "We estimate perhaps 4 million people have toured Times/AIA Homes of the Month since the program began."

Tuesday night's program also included a videotaped discussion by some of the area's leading architects of four decades of regional

architecture as seen through the program.

Kristen Scott, who with Tabasinske co-chairs the selection committee, said, "There is no one Northwest style, there is a broad range of styles that have been done in this region in the last 40 years. The houses chosen reflect an evolving Northwest style that is a response to our climate and culture here."

The AIA bestowed honorary membership on Margery Phillips, a former Seattle Times writer who helped establish the program and who wrote about the houses from 1954-1974.

There are several changes in the Home of the Month program starting this year. First, all licensed architects, not just AIA members, are now eligible to submit their residential work for consideration for home of the month. And, the selection committee now includes non-architects.

More information

A photo exhibit of the 1993 houses open for tour plus a retrospective exhibit of houses featured since 1954 will be on display at the AIA Seattle Gallery, 1911 First Ave., 9 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, March 1-31.

The video, "Home in Seattle, 1954-1994," shown at Tuesday's event, will be available for purchase at the exhibit, or can be ordered ($16.72, includes tax and shipping) by calling the AIA, 448-4938.

-- The other houses the jury considered for Home of the Year honors are on Page F 2.