When it comes to residential development, few cities have the opportunity to reinvent 120 acres from the ground up, implement the most enlightened thinking about the environment, and plan ahead for sustainable energy consumption, and foster neighborhood connections all at the same time.

That's what makes Seattle's High Point so exciting. Seattle has reached about 99 percent build-out so there are few areas where large scale change is possible. High Point is a residential community being redeveloped by the SeattleHousing Authority. Mithun will construct some 1600 single and multiple residences(including senior housing) at High Point, none more than three stories high. Developers are thinking sustainable by preserving resources, optimizing density, including parksand non-motorized paths, utilizing mass transit, and minimizing environmental impact.

Sound like a job for Edens Lost & Found? That's what we thought, too.

The Sea Street model for natural drainage will be used throughout High Point's 34-block area, which comprises 10 percent of the Longfellow Creek Watershed. SeaStreets call for swales and check dams to be shaped into the land alongside the streets,replacing traditional curb and gutter. This practice slows the runoff of stormwater so ithas a chance to be absorbed into the soil on its way downhill. Any excess water is routedto a detention pond so the stormwater facility also becomes an open space park. The result is that stormwater filters naturally and retains its temperature, returning with higherquality to Longfellow Creek and its salmon population.

"Environmental sustainability is high on the list of cultural values in Seattle," saysTom Phillips with Senior Housing Development in the Seattle Housing Authority. "People want to move to a green community. As we build, we're saving over a hundredexisting trees. We're putting signs around the tree that say the value of this tree is.well,that one there is actually $71,000. That's the tallest one. If a contractor messes with theroot system at all, they're subject to actually paying that amount.

"The quality of the building contributes to sustainability as well. The paint we usegives off fewer emissions. We're building some houses for people who have asthmabecause it's a very high incidence with our population. That will make it easier for themto live here over the long run.

"We also did some reconstruction rather than tearing old buildings down and puttingall the waste into the landfill. We actually took the buildings down one board at a timeand were able to recycle a lot of the material.

We're also working on little things like using electric battery charged lawn mowersand leaf blowers rather than the two cycle engines.

Density is also part of the High Point package, which calls for 16 units per acre. Thestreets will be narrow. Density enriches peoples' lives by creating a growth boundary line,according to Phillips. The boundary keeps forests and farms functioning beyond the line .Density within the line makes it cost-effective to provide services. Living in the city isactually richer because we're able to preserve what's beyond from urbanization, hesays.

"Seattle's a great city," says Miranda Maupin, a landscape architect with the City of Seattle. "It's the icon of the Northwest, with the Cascades to the east, the Olympics to thewest, the water, the salmon. I think you can really bring out your community culturethrough the way your houses and streets are built.

High Point aims to foster community by placing homes in relation to streets andpocket parks. Mithun hopes its development becomes a community in much the sameway that a house becomes a home.

"The street out in front of our house should be perceived as the circulatory system ofour neighborhood that connects us; and the water we drink should be perceived as part ofthe stream down the block, she says, advocating that citizens begin to expand their ideaof a living community to embrace all of the elements and organisms that share aspace.

Mithun and the Seattle Housing Authority are looking at High Point as a prototypethat can be replicated in other urban redevelopments.

We're pushing the envelope, Phillips says, by designing with low-maintenancebuilding materials, optimizing the cost savings of density, working with nature topreserve the ecosystem, and preserving neighborhood values. In the long run it will be a better place for people to live, he says. What's going on hereis much bigger than just some new housing that's been built."

THE FOUR CITIES OF EDENS LOST & FOUND:
Chicago
Los Angeles
Philadelphia
Seattle