Lake Samammish State Park Bathhouse

2008 AIA What Makes it Green Award

Lake Sammamish State Park Redevelopment is organized around the fundamental principal of integrating the buildings with the landscape and the landscape with the buildings, blurring the distinctions between the two disciplines. Patano Studio Architecture’s competition winning entry in 2003 centered on this concept as an opportunity and methodology for unifying the 512 acre park with a consistent and understandable language involving built and landscaped elements.

Located at the southern end of the lake, Lake Sammamish State Park is a unique state park located in the center of a rapidly growing urban and sub-urban population. The master plan looked at addressing the issue of the park use declining while the surrounding population grew. The wide-ranging master plan that was accepted in 2007 involves wetland restoration and rehabilitation, shoreline restoration, replanting of native species and elimination of invasive plant species. In addition to improving the overall health of the park the charge from Washington State Parks was to create an iconic, sustainable vision for the park that can help organize the 512 acres and provide a unique identity and experience for the park users.

“Create a park for the 21st Century that will be an innovative model for the State’s diverse system of recreational, cultural, historical, and natural sites. Lake Sammamish State Park will be Washington’s signature park for protecting and celebrating urban natural areas, showcasing regionally significant wetlands and wildlife habitat, while enriching the lives of visitors and providing a valued legacy to future generations.”

Washington State Parks Vision Statement

The architectural and landscape elements of the master plan create paths and markers that weave the park together utilizing a variety of structures, defined landscape elements and plantings, rain gardens that catch storm water runoff, wetlands, walking paths and boardwalks. The structures are topped with green roofs to blend into the site, catch rain water and to feed the rain gardens on site. The cladding on the structures is reclaimed cedar siding that will weather and blend into the site as the years pass. As the project matures the buildings will become more like the site and the landscape will grow and create spaces and experiences linking the structures and the varied environments of the park.

The Lake Sammamish State Park Beach House utilizes a repetitive concrete structure that houses the building program. The concrete consists of recycled content and provides a durable structural system that is integrated into the green roof assembly and provides thermal mass for the interior spaces. The green roofs are planted with local, drought-resistant plants that reduce the heat island effect within the delicate footprint of the park. The wood cladding system is reclaimed cedar siding salvaged from dismantled buildings in western Washington, some of the source building are over 80 years old. The stone paving at the Picnic Shelters and along the landscape paths that weave the park together is found within the drainage basin of Issaquah Creek which runs through the center of the park. All plantings and landscape are native and restorative in nature as part of Lake Sammamish State Park’s goal to be Washington’s signature park for protecting and celebrating urban natural areas, showcasing regionally significant wetlands and wildlife habitat, while enriching the lives of visitors and providing a valued legacy to future generations.

The project was awarded a ‘What Makes it Green?” 2008 Regional Top Ten Green Award by the Seattle Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). The competition featured built and unbuilt projects throughout the Northwest and Pacific region.