On The Level

Inside a 'sculpture,' living happens in layers

ARCHITECT MARK Millett probably is best known for his work as principal in Millett Associates, which created a number of Seattle's distinctive gathering places. He designed the remodel for the Richard Hugo House and Habitat Espresso, both on Capitol Hill. The futuristic, metallic sheen of the Gravity Bars? Those were Millett designs, as were both versions of Szmania's in Magnolia, the last remodel of the Deluxe Bar & Grill, and Pagliacci Pizza's headquarters. He also created houses for a number of artists and for people active in the art scene, including Carolyn Law; the late Linda Ferris; his brother, the sculptor and painter Peter Millett, and Peter's wife, artist Sherry Markovitz.

In 2004, Millett became a staff architect with Otak, where his focus has been transit-oriented development and, recently, housing and hotel projects in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. He also lectures on design at the University of Washington Department of Architecture. He and his wife, Susan Pratt, have two children, Adam, 16, and Alexis, 19. We talked with him recently in their three-bedroom, three-bath house in Seattle's Mount Baker neighborhood.

Q: From the street, your house looks like a piece of sculpture.

A: I think of it as living in a piece of sculpture. This nontraditional space is similar to what you get with adaptive reuse. I believe you wind up with a more interesting environment than you would with spaces typical in an iconic house. Modernists often design to that old saw, form follows function, and that tends to produce the same kinds of spaces for the same kinds of uses. I'm more interested in exploring space, though I'm known for the materials I use. You might say I try to design from the inside of the sculpture; I try not to design from the outside.

Q: What do you mean by adaptive reuse?

A: It's where one takes a barn or a warehouse and adapts it for living. Rather than tear buildings down, you modify interiors for another use — especially when buildings have great bones. It's a way to preserve history, a way to be more material-efficient, generally, a way that produces unique kinds of spaces and, often, relationships of spaces, one to another.

Q: Looking at your metal siding and unconventional use of steel mesh, I'd guess this embodies the spirit of green architecture.

A: It does, in the sense that most steel we buy nowadays has lots of recycled content. I'd say it's ecologically friendly but not really particularly sustainable. This house probably burns more energy than it should, as well. It is a good thing not to have to regularly paint parts of it, though I do stain wood siding every few years.

Q: Anything unusual in the construction technique?

A: Because of the openness, there's a diagonal steel piece in the living room that works as a shear strut, and plywood functioning as a shear wall. It was rather problematic to figure out what to do with shear, given the volume — a 22-foot ceiling and a lot of open space.

Q: Why configure it that way?

A: The openness was certainly one of the prime motivators for the layout. And I wanted to cup the outside back-patio space as well as have a covered front porch. I also wanted a place to hang my hammock both inside and outside, which actually had quite a bit to do with the way the porch and dining area turned out.

Q: What do you see from that hammock?

A: Outside, there's a garden view now, but it used to be more of the street. Inside, I can see through the entire lower level. We keep furniture to a minimum. I have to say one of the overall influences on the house has been my brother's art, and the idea of layering.

Q: Can you explain layering?

A: As you look the length of the house you see through the stairway. Each stairwell side has surfaces — one is stainless wire mesh and the other, on the living-room side, is perforated, cold-rolled steel. I see layers and diagonals, and my brother's large-scale paintings on the south wall that are layers of lines and color.

Q: How would you change the house on the next go-around?

A: I'd probably improve materials, in some ways. For example, I like the plywood floors, but I think many people find them a little too crude. They're actually the structural subfloor as a finish floor and are pretty beat up from construction and so on. The original intention was to cover them; I've grown to really like them as plywood floors. If I were to cover them I'd probably do it with clean plywood so it would look less like an artist-studio floor. Over the years I've done more enclosure in the master bedroom. There's still no door into the bathroom and dressing area, but there is a level change, and everything's tucked around the corner.

Q: What makes this a good place to live?

A: I like the openness and having space for a piano and large paintings. The kids seem to enjoy it. And for some reason I always wanted an outdoor shower, so the master bath has a slider that opens onto a terrace. I can stand in the shower, see out and feel a breeze. I like that. We have a lot of daylight, thanks to the clerestory and other windows. The light's sometimes very interesting, the way it reflects off the stairwell screens and picks up tones from the living-room walls or, sometimes, from a sunset. It can surprise you.

Dean Stahl is a Seattle freelance writer. Benjamin Benschneider is a Pacific Northwest magazine staff photographer.