Mixed-Use Buildings

At Graphite, we believe in density. Density can be delivered at different scales, from buildings, to neighborhoods, to cities both urban and suburban. Density delivers sustainability. The closer things are, the less energy is used, the more resources are saved, and the fewer emissions it takes to get from one place to another.

In an urban setting, density maximizes the ability to house people, jobs, and businesses on valuable land. Sustainability can be met with mid-rise developments in suburban, commute-focused areas that rely on mass transit to deliver people to jobs and entertainment throughout the greater region. In both methods, Graphite delivers on the mixed-use mindset inherent in sustainable development practices.

Shortening travel times and reducing dependence on vehicles lowers emissions, restores downtowns, and provides a robust economic opportunity for owners, residents, and tenants. Mixed-Use projects are holistically sustainable, equitable, and provide opportunity for all.

Graphite’s Strength is in Mixed -Use
Our core strength is designing flexible buildings within the context of density of varying character. Varying across integrated uses, scale of development, and complexity of housing, retail, offices and amenity mixes, Graphite excels at solving the fundamental challenges of making mixed-use projects successful:

Project: Block V

Location: Denny Triangle, Seattle, Washington

Size: 1,040,000 ft²

Homes: 670 Apartments

Office: 308,000 ft²

Retail: 9,000 ft²

On less than one acre, Block V offers hundreds of homes, multiple levels of commercial space, and provides retail opportunity at the base to activate the street. The building occupants will reduce their energy use, water use, and lower their carbon emissions by occupying this dense, vertical mixed-use community. Centrally located to maximize access to the city’s public transit, the project will also provide an economic boost for the city, contributing to the Denny Triangle neighborhood’s 24/7/365 activation.

Understanding the variety of mixed-use, Graphite can calibrate building layouts and infrastructure to support a wide range of uses. Whether it’s an office environment capable of absorbing housing, or shifting the space to hospitality in the event markets change, our core belief is that the most sustainable building is the one most flexible to last.

A variety of uses also diversifies the real estate investment. When vertical mixed use leverages housing, commercial and retail uses simultaneously, these uses not only support one another economically, they provide the building owner with a diversified investment portfolio with the asset of a mixed-use building. With Graphite’s fundamental understanding of how these uses come together, we can streamline structures, patterns of circulation, and maintain flexibility within the building. The result is a building that uses less material, less energy, and has more flexibility, characteristics that ensure building performance over the long term.

Mixed-use buildings reduce building footprints, reduce resource needs, and reduce our emissions. As populations continue to urbanize and downtowns begin to diversify, Graphite is equipped to deliver a sustainable solution at any scale.