Mike Eliason
Mike is the founder of Larch Lab, an architecture and urbanism think and do tank focusing on prefabricated, decarbonized, climate-adaptive, low-energy urban buildings; sustainable mobility; livable ecodistricts. He is also a dad, writer, and researcher with a passion for passivhaus buildings, baugruppen, social housing, livable cities, and car-free streets. After living in Freiburg, Mike spent 15 years raising his family - nearly car-free, in Fremont. After a brief sojourn to study mass timber buildings in Bayern, he has returned to jumpstart a baugruppe movement and help build a more sustainable, equitable, and livable Seattle. Ohne autos.
This summer saw two published pieces that are at the center of the struggle over housing in the United States--entrenched, well-off homeowners averse to new neighbors, versus seemingly everyone else.
Michael Hobbes' Huffington Post article Progressive Boomers Are Making It Impossible For Cities To Fix The Housing Crisis resonated...
Last week, The Seattle Times ran an article headlined, ‘Study questions ‘best use’ of golf courses Seattle operates’. The article stems from a report that the City commissioned in 2017. The report was apparently due a year ago, but was only recently released, as reported by Erica C. Barnett...
The last year in Seattle has been pathetic for safe streets, equitable mobility, and climate action. Mayor Durkan has been killing safe streets projects left and right—including 35th Avenue NE, with an associated bike lane. The bike lane was going to provide direct and safe access to schools, a...
On Tuesday, My Ballard published that the state was looking for input on a nearly 25 acre parcel of land that it owns, adjacent to the BNSF railyard in Interbay. The site is presently utilized by the Washington National Guard, who will likely be relocating their armory out of the city...
Last September, I led a 30-person deep bike ride from Ballard to Wallingford for The Urbanist. Ages ranged from four to mid-70s, we had family bikers, cargo bikers, and my wife hauled a friend who couldn’t ride because they had recently been hit on their own bike. It was...
This week, the S-Campus was given the green light for construction. The 1.2 million square foot project sits just off the southern edge of the International District, within a few blocks of light rail, commuter rail, bus, and streetcar service. The campus features buildings ranging from eight to 11...
Randy Shaw, whose new book 'Generation Priced Out' is getting notable press, claimed that 2018 was: "The year of the YIMBY (Yes in My Backyard). Or if you feel that term is too constraining, 2018 was the year of the grassroots pro-housing activist." Kriston Capps said pretty much the...
One of the more, ummm, interesting complaints about new buildings is that they are "too boxy"--as if their form is somehow foreign and boxy buildings are nonexistent in the history of the city. I find this complaint interesting because the urban morphology of this city, as with most other...