NATURAL HOME Earth Mover

Image Gallery Photo by Jim Bryant

Carolyn Geise thinks the City of Seattle could use a good dictionary.

Nearly a decade ago, the architect discovered city planners had designated Vine Street, an eight-block stretch of Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood, a “Green Street.” Only problem? No one could tell Geise exactly what that meant.

Geise’s firm, Geise Architects, had already renovated a 1914 factory at 81 Vine into a thriving structure that houses condominiums along with retail and office space. So she decided to serve as catalyst, pitchwoman, and mother hen, defining just what “Green Street” should mean. Through her organization, Growing Vine Street, she’s engaged the community in dialogue, conferences, fundraising ($2.7 million to date), open houses, and more. “Vine Street ends at Elliott Bay, so it seems logical to treat it as a watershed,” she explains. “Our community wants to collect rainwater in cisterns for fountains and use it to water plants. Why send precious water into storm drains? Instead, we want to connect all of Vine into a runnel with water filtered before it goes back into the bay.” Neighbors, local artists, designers, and architects have all gotten caught up in the project.

Their goal is to develop a design concept for the street, a series of guidelines that allow individual property owners to tap into their creativity. One of the main objectives is recycling rainwater, and Giese’s roof is a prime example. Rain is channeled through an artificial rooftop wetland contained in large, galvanized half-pipes. Other plans include a cascade of concrete cisterns down the street to direct water toward Elliott Bay, a series of steps and landings installed in the sidewalks to help people navigate a steep 15 percent slope, expansion of the P-Patch (a Seattle term for community garden), and integrated artwork including four water spouts.