This house is another one of our design build projects, meaning that we built this house on our own account, acting as the architect, owner and contractor.
This site was classified by the City of Mercer Island as unbuildable because of the steepness of the slope, and it was mainly consisting of sand. This lot was part of a larger lot that traversed from the road down to Lake Washington. Dividing the property into 2 parcels, and providing a shared dock on the lake was the first phase. We built a house, on our own account, on the lower lot before utilizing the upper lot. The lower house was built on suitable soils and slope.
The house shown, on the upper lot, required a Geotechnical Engineer to demonstrate to the City that with certain techniques, a house could be built safely. This was accomplished by excavating by hand ( no equipment allowed). We were also fortunate to find heavy timbers purchased from a pier being torn down on Elliot Bay. The large timbers provided the pilings and under frame for the house, which does not touch the site except for the pilings.
This house is 3 stories with the garage at the top of the house at the road. Providing a dumb-waiter from the garage allows items to be lowered to any floor and especially the kitchen. Living in the trees, ( we saved as many as possible) with some of the trees penetrating the decks..... makes the occupant feel like you are living in the trees, with views to the lake and east.
We provided view corridors through the house so that to roof would not obstruct views for the upper levels.