NORTHWEST LIVING
By Rebecca Teagarden | Photographed by Benjamin Benschneider
All For One, One For All
Where everything is open, involvement happens
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 BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES The family room, just off the kitchen, is Howard Behar’s favorite spot. “It’s a cozy area. I like the wood and the ceiling” of clear cedar. Holly McKinley designed the soft chenille couch, L-shaped for snuggle-ability: The breakfast area behind the sofa can accommodate up to six people with a table that pulls out from the bookcase wall.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES Architect Lane Williams credits the home’s warm feeling to McKinley. “Every stain, paint color, every piece of fabric, that’s all her. Although we do make jokes about Howard Behar beige,” he says, referring to the owner’s preference for it. A movable wall separates kitchen and dining room.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES A burnished antique Tibetan monk’s chest adds interest to the living room. Near the piano hang two mixed-media panels by artist Judith Kindler. “What I appreciate about Lane’s design is the wonderful flow of the house. It brings the outside into almost every room, yet it is serene,” McKinley says.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES Howard loves how the house feels “like you’re outside all the time.” McKinley used Howard’s subdued palette but punched it up with the finishes and the art “so the whole house would have this very serene flow to it.” The furniture was chosen to complement Williams’ clean, modern lines.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES The Behars hosted a brunch for every person who had a hand in creating their home. The glass curtain on the right separates the dining room from the home’s entrance, yet brings in and diffuses light. It was created by architectural glass artist Peter David. This is his biggest continuous wall in a residence. “The idea is to look like water,” Howard says. “We didn’t want a typical wall, but we wanted separation.” |
IT'S A CRISP, sunny day. The purple mountains behind Lynn Behar look like a triple-scoop blueberry sundae. Lake Washington laps against the edge of the Mercer Island property. Wilson, the neighbor's fuzzy gray cat, fiddles around at the edge of the still pond just outside the floor-to-ceiling living-room windows.
Lynn is tucked into the couch in the living room, one of her favorite places in her favorite house.
"I moved every three years as a child," she says. "But this is the first time that if the house burned down, I would be devastated."
Her husband, Howard, retired president of Starbucks who still serves on the company's board, feels the same way about architect Lane Williams' rambler remodel into a modern beach house.
"I didn't want just a view. I wanted involvement," Howard says. "At first we thought we were empty nesters, but not with the grandkids. We wanted comfort, no spaces off-limits to the grandkids. We wanted to use every room, and have our own spaces and shared spaces."
"And we wanted the living room to be big enough for the piano," Lynn says.
Now they've got it all — and all because Lynn went skiing.
Lynn knows her husband, the chronic house hunter. Before leaving for the trip she warned him, "Don't even look."
The team:
How Howard Behar chose his architect: "About 140 people work in (Starbucks') real-estate design group. I went to one of them and said, 'Give me the top five architects.' I got the usual five. I interviewed three, and I knew right out of the gate it was Lane Williams. There are no rules — that's Lane. (The team also included interior designer Holly McKinley, contractor Joe McKinstry and Schoenfeld Interiors.)"There was tension. I didn't want peace. I wanted conflict. I wanted creative conflict. I love it in my world."
The goal: The Behars are wild about their kids' kids. The house, a remodeled 1960s rambler, was designed with them all very much in mind. The kids' room sits right next to Grandpa and Grandma's master suite. Other visitors have privacy in the guest wing over the garage, which also holds his and hers offices and an exercise pavilion.
But she went skiing, and he went looking.
Howard found what he'd always been searching for just down the road from where they lived, a spot at water's edge that reminded him of San Juan Island's Roche Harbor. It was the property that moved him, not the old rambler. Lynn couldn't argue with the location.
"I grew up in Alaska. I love the water," she says. "We said, we can live in it the way it is."
"We were looking for just a little remodel," Howard says. "Then it came to a point where we had to tear it down. At the end of the day we had one wall left standing."
They left the original foundation and added a second story over the garage. The result is a home that comes in at 4,880 square feet: three bedrooms, two offices, an exercise pavilion, media room, kitchen-family room, living-dining room and four bathrooms.
Lynn is thrilled to have her own office, where she spends much of her time. Sharing a work space with her husband was, um, special. "Howard loves to use the speaker phone," she shudders.
The Behars are so thrilled with their family-friendly home that one sunny Sunday morning last November they threw open their new doors to thank every person who had a hand in building it. About 100 people were invited.
Gardeners, carpenters, electricians, cement layers, architects, decorators, craftspeople, each wearing a sticker stating name and title, came by for brunch. "Bob, the contractor" and "Lane, architect" and "Lynn, I live here" and "Howard, I live here, too," were among the crowd. The Behars welcomed them all with Moët mimosas, Starbucks coffee, piles of sweet rolls, fruit and a steaming egg-cheese-asparagus dish.
The Starbucks flowed freely in regular and decaf, and one-pound gift bags lined a counter. But Lynn took a minute to head off down the hall for a beverage of her own.
"I can't live without a Diet Pepsi. It's my coffee," she said. "I know, I'll go put it in a coffee cup!"
Rebecca Teagarden is assistant editor of Pacific Northwest magazine. Benjamin Benschneider is a magazine staff photographer.
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