Downtown Seattle condo offers urban chic with the space of the suburbs

DAVE BURMAN wanted to move downtown. DeeAnn Burman did not.

"I said, 'Oh, no, I couldn't live in a condo. I'd feel claustrophobic,' " she says. "We have to be able to barbecue, and the animals have to be able to go outside."

But their daughters had grown up and out, and the Burmans had this huge yard, in Shoreline, "which we were not only not taking care of ourselves, we weren't enjoying it."

So, to appease Dave, DeeAnn went looking.

"I have a real-estate-agent friend who sent me to seven condos during a brokers' open. She didn't go with me because she said, 'I know you're not going to buy one.' "

But that's just where DeeAnn Burman found her perfect home, a condo.

"This we do every couple weeks, maybe for an hour, tops," says DeeAnn, talking about the weeding chores on the Burmans' practically forested 2,400-square-foot terrace. Gardens designed by Barbara Engram blow in the breezes between the Space Needle and Puget Sound just off the north end of Pike Place Market. As if on cue, Cleo, the cat, heads off into the brush. Asian grasses, substantial Japanese maples, a pot of bamboo, bay laurels, olive trees. These surround (and muffle the Alaskan Way Viaduct din below) an elegant custom dining table from Glenn Richards, an entire outdoor living room, hot tub and barbecue.

There are lots of wide-open spaces, both outside and in. With 3,200 square feet indoors, the condo has the same amount of space as the Shoreline home. The public is invited to see the condo as part of the Pike Place Market Foundation's annual tour of homes Sept. 20. DeeAnn is opening hers as a member of the foundation.

"I'll take you upstairs," she says.

Upstairs? Yep, arrived at by way of the winding staircase.

"The owner before us, a bachelor, had combined two condos into one," DeeAnn says. "When we bought it, it had that country-wood-spindle look."

Not anymore.

A major remodel finished two years ago with Mike Pirie of All-Ways Building of Edmonds gave the Burmans a sleek blank slate. DeeAnn then chose toasty, cozy beiges and creams to gently harness the expansive main room: A living room over here, game table there, den over there, dining room near the kitchen. Fat, fossilized limestone anchors counters. Dark anagray cabinetry is serious and contemporary. Large windows flank the wood-burning fireplace.

Tucked away upstairs are three bedrooms and an office. The master bath features travertine tiles warmed from the skylight above. Views from the Space Needle to the cruise ships, to the working waterfront, depending where you are. Windows do their heavy duty blocking out the noise from the freeway below, and the cars roll by like colorful toys.

"All the spaces just turned out perfectly," DeeAnn says. "And after 25 years in the 'burbs I finally have a walk-in closet and a laundry room."

Throw open the doors to the terrace, and indoor/outdoor entertaining goes with the flow of the crowd. Something the Burmans do quite regularly for Dave's job at Perkins Coie.

DeeAnn wanted not only a real home, but real neighbors to go with. She got them.

"I loved meeting the women downtown. Have you heard of the Thursday Walkers?" she says. "They leave Pioneer Square at 6:30 in the morning every Thursday and walk to the top of Queen Anne. Then we have coffee at Cherry Street Coffee. We even have T-shirts.

"And from the Thursday Walkers there's a knitting group, a golf group, a mah-jongg group, a bridge group. And you can always find a tennis game."

Rebecca Teagarden is assistant editor of Pacific Northwest magazine. Benjamin Benschneider is a magazine staff photographer.