Seattle design is just fine

As we call the meeting to order this quarter we have both new business and old business to discuss, assuming we have a quorum. And we do. Assume.

So, as Henry Martyn Robert set down in Robert's Rules of Order, we shall address new business first. (We are all about parliamentary procedure here at Goddess World Headquarters.)

NEW BUSINESS

• The Seattle chapter of the American Institute of Architects has gussied up its Web site (finally!). It's bigger and brighter and now easier to choose an architect, set a project budget, check the schedule for the recurring Saturday Seminar: "How to Select and Work With an Architect"; and the Young Architects Happy Hour. And more.

Our fair city is laden with architects, as evidenced by the fact that AIA Seattle is the seventh-largest urban component of the American Institute of Architects. As of July there were 1,961 individual members and 252 member firms. And those are just the joiners.

There's also a new bold logo, designed by Kurt Wolken. Check it all out at www.aiaseattle.org.

Just out is "3 x 3," a book featuring case studies of three recent residences by Suyama Peterson Deguchi. The homes featured are architect George Suyama's own, on the beach in West Seattle; George and Laurie Schuchart's, on the golf course in Broadmoor; and a home on Decatur Island in the San Juan Islands. (Two of which have been profiled in Pacific Northwest magazine and viewable at www.seattletimes.com).

The three homes share architectural characteristics and similar design philosophies but they're used on three very different sites: rocky bluff; long, narrow beach; golf-course fairway surrounded by more traditional homes.

"3 x 3" (Oro editions, $35) includes a foreword by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, who in 2002 won the World Architecture Award: Best House in the World, among other honors. "3 x 3" also has drawings and photographs for each home, documenting the goal of timeless, elegant design using Japanese and contemporary Northwest architectural principles.

Suyama founded the Seattle-based practice in 1971. It was renamed Suyama Peterson Deguchi in 2003 and is located in the Belltown studio that houses offices, the nonprofit installation art gallery Suyama Space and the retail shop known as 3 X 10. Find the book at 3 X 10, Peter Miller Books, and all the other usual suspects.

Oh, Santa . . .

• Coffee, wine and fine kitchen design. Seems like the Northwest is a hotbed of all three.

SieMatic, maker of luxury kitchens, opened a 2,500-square-foot Belltown showroom featuring five kitchens in May. The release said it gives the company "exposure in an economically expansive region of the country." It also points out that more than 80 million homes in this country are older than 40, most with the original kitchens.

And now here comes Henrybuilt, also seeking a piece of the high-end kitchen-remodel pie. The Seattle company opened its new 4,500-square-foot flagship showroom at the corner of Western and Madison in September. Henrybuilt sells kitchen systems and also offers a whole-house line of storage and panel systems.

Henrybuilt is at 997 Western Ave. Hours are noon-5:45 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and by appointment. Call 206-624-9270.

OLD BUSINESS

• Buy yourself one of those trendy little yupcakes and stick a candle in it for the 10th anniversary of "The Not So Big House," architect Sarah Susanka's book that made small big in 1998. Her best-selling treatise on living better by living small is credited with beginning the movement among homeowners, architects and builders. Susanka gave homeowners a language for a conversation that continues today.

And now Susanka is a "Not So Big" writing machine and "Not So Big" is, uh, big. There's a www.notsobig.com Web site to prove it. And now out: a 10th-anniversary edition of her famous first book, featuring a new cover and introduction, and a new chapter with three new "Not So Big" houses from Minnesota, North Carolina and Washington (Taunton, $32).

In spring look for "Not So Big Remodeling," a Susanka collaboration with Marc Vassallo, the architecture writer who has recently moved with his family to Seattle from Connecticut to become manager of business development at Schultz Miller. (Welcome to the neighborhood, Marc!)

Susanka's still big. It's the houses that got small.

• When the Goddess featured the life-size black polyester Horse Lamp by Moooi and suggested that readers buy it online, she got a right quick call from Hillary Rielly at Inform Interiors in our own downtown at 1220 Western Ave.

Seems the Horse Lamp is just one of a three-piece collection of animal furniture by Moooi. (Yes, really.) And, don't you know, the whole menagerie can be had at the local Inform.

As straight as I can write this: Along with Horse Lamp there is also Pig Table, a black pig with a tray on its back. It is called, in some circles, "the perfect partner for your Horse Lamp." The existential question has also been asked: "Who wouldn't want to impress their guests with a pig to serve the drinks?"

Last, but not least, is Rabbit Lamp: Black rabbit, life size, black shade, on head, like the horse.

The whole herd is described as "furniture to fall in love with at first sight or hate forever." The high-fashion barnyard fills the front window at Inform. Fun to see from the street and even more fun to watch startled window shoppers from inside the store.

Horse Lamp is $7,400, Pig Table, $2,668, and Rabbit Lamp, $539 at Inform.

• Ya know, the day the Goddess writes about critters as high-end furniture is the day Meat Loaf's house will be featured in Architectural Digest.

Well! Today's! The! Day!

Yes, folks, in case your copy got lost in the mail, page 134 of the April issue screamed with this simple yet direct headline: "At Home with Meat Loaf."

Mr. and Mrs. Loaf have this Mission-style spread in Calabasas, Calif., and it turns out Meat's been collecting antiques since the 1970s. And in case you bumped your head or were born after, his mega, gigantasaurus best-selling rock album "Bat Out of Hell" was released in 1977, guaranteeing the Loaves years of gigs and antiquing.

Mr. Loaf started with shawls and spoons and worked his way up to Biedermeier tables. (Hey, I'm just summarizing here.)

Anyway, Mr. Loaf (Michael Lee Aday, by day) seems quite the nice, refined fellow. Sniff him out at www.architecturaldigest.com.

Deep research on this topic turned up this phrase: "This article is about the singer. For the meat dish, see meatloaf."

Old Business P.S.: If you don't know how many homes you own, immediately, right off the top of your head, you've got too many, even if you are running for president.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming:

Let there be pine lights

Cool as a 1960s cucumber and such a deal (around a hundred bucks) are the pine-light fixtures of Hennig Dyes, who lives in Costa Rica. The lamps are made of plantation pine grown specifically for harvest in the Costa Rican highlands.

We here would not ever know about Dyes or his lights that cast that warm, happy, cocktail-hour glow without shopping-traveling couple extraordinaire Kris and Michael Barker. They found the lamps and other goodies on their travels and are the only importers of them in this country. This they do from La Vida Verde, their place in Freeland, Whidbey Island.

Kris loves the lamp (of course). Has them all over her house. "But when you own a business where you sell stuff, the stuff in your house is the stuff that's dinged up."

Natch.

The Barkers are wholesalers with a small retail store, and twice a year there's a huge (huge, she assures me) warehouse sale: one in summer, the other around Thanksgiving. Check the Web site for sale dates: www.lavidaverde.com. Find La Vida Verde at 1715 E. Main St. The store is called Vida Store, and its hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Kris says give her a call if you get lost (360-331-4078).

Locally you can find the lights at Click! Design That Fits, 2210 California Ave. S.W., and at Greener Lifestyles, 5317 Ballard Ave. N.W.

Got a question for The Goddess? Drop her a line at pacificnw@seattletimes.com. She'd love to hear from you and will exhaust all avenues available to answer your query.

Information in this article, originally published October 12, 2008, was corrected October 23, 2008. A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that one of the homes featured was located in Magnolia. This text was replaced with the correct location of the home on Decatur Island in the San Juan Islands.