"Before tech companies and boutique shops moved into Seattle's Capitol Hill, the area's Chophouse building was a warren of practice studios for prominent bands such as Presidents of the United States of America.  Two decades later, creative spirit still hums in the recently opened Chophouse Row, a mixed-use building from developer Liz Dunn of Dunn + Hobbes.  A collaboration among SKL Architects, Graham Baba Architects, and Ma Wright Structural Engineers..."

Source : Gray Magazine

Photo : SKL Architects

"Looking out on 11th Ave, the big front window of Chop Shop remains wide open these warm summer days. The front section of the restaurant near the open kitchen is filled with a long communal table and densely surrounded by sets of smaller tables and chairs. Things open up behind the central bar with another cove of more loosely spaced tables and the Chop Shop Juice and Provisions counter that will serve fresh juice, espresso, pastries, and “grab-and-go-lunches” when it opens later this summer. Exit out a back-alley breezeway that leads to the other food and drink players open and opening soon in theSundberg, Kennedy and Ly-Au Young, and Graham Baba designed Chophouse Row project or climb the stairs to what will eventually be a loft dining area above the bustle."

Source : Capitol Hill Seattle Blog

Photo : Alex Garland

"Honestly, in a year of stunning restaurant design—Good Bar, Stateside, Lark—Shaker and Spear may trump them all on unlikeliness alone: a hotel restaurant that conveys a genuine sense of the local and the intimate. Woods warm and cool and smooth and rough conspire with steely sharp edges and glassy tall windows and exposed brick and a vibrant open kitchen to create surroundings as texturally satisfying as a rain forest. The room is on the small side, which may be why middle-of-the-room tables feel private. It’s as cozy by abundant daylight as it is after dark. There’s nothing touristy about it. A girl could get engaged in here."

Source : Seattle Met

Photo : Sara Marie D'Eugenio

"Chophouse Row will inject some 27,000 square feet of commercial space into Pike/Pine and utilized the neighborhood’s preservation incentives to build to five stories on 11th Ave. The old auto row-era structure integrated into the Chophouse development was once home to Chophouse music studios. The project was designed by Sundberg, Kennedy and Ly-Au Young and Graham Baba."

Source : Capitol Hill Seattle Blog

Photo : Alex Garland

"Tray Kitchen’s concept is unique but its look is familiar. Graham Baba Architects (RockCreek, Revel, Walrus and the Carpenter, and many more) designed the spare interior using natural wood, white tile and filament bulbs. The kitchen, fronted by a butcher-block prep counter, is a stage visible from every table".

Source : Seattle Times

Photo : Seattle Times

"Recently unveiled at the MadArt space in Seattle, Middle Fork is the latest sculptural work by artist John Grade who worked with countless volunteers to realize this enormous scale mold of a 140-year-old tree."

Source : Colossal

Photo : John Grade

"Seattle-based firms headed by two people who grew up in Yakima and are heavyweights in their field — Kathryn Gustafson of Gustafson Guthrie Nichol and Brett Baba of Graham Baba Architects — did the conceptual design. Magnusson Klemencic Associates is the civil engineer."

Source : Daily Journal of Commerce

Photo : Graham Baba Architects & GGN

“People don’t go out to eat to get sustenance,” Graham says. “They’re there for the experience, for the entertainment, the socialization, the human need for other people.” A restaurant, he says, “is where you can go and feel like you’re part of something bigger than yourself. And that’s what’s fun.”

Source: Seattle Times

Image: Seattle Times