About Us & Contact Info
We started the BUILD blog with the intention of providing a communication hub for modern design in the northwest as well as an information trading ground for The Modern List.
BUILD llc is a small design-build firm in Seattle specializing in modern residential, commercial and mixed use projects. Kevin Eckert is the founding principal of BUILD llc and Andrew van Leeuwen is partner and architect. Bart Gibson is out in the field whipping our projects into shape and our longstanding intern, Duff Bangs, is wrapping up a graduate degree at Washington State University. We’ve stepped into developing our own projects and even get our hands dirty from time to time. We strive for authenticity and a modernism that makes sense here in the northwest and find that project constraints provide the greatest of all design opportunities. Our gurus in the design world are Cecil Balmond, the late Peter Rice, Peter Zumthor, Glen Murcutt, the northwest’s very own Eric Cobb, and the Scandinavians (pretty much everything they be and do).
The Modern List is a modernist guide to several cities around the country, primarily on the west coast. It’s a guide intended for the design conscious interested in experiencing modern architecture, design, art, food and culture. With the guiding principal that every traveling experience should be exciting or at least enjoyable, we originally started compiling these lists of places and spaces out of a desire for fun and effective travel. Nothing pisses us off more than settling for a mediocre cup of coffee at some fill-in-the-blank large coffee chain when you know that there must be a great little well-designed coffee shop with great beans just around the corner – like Grey Dog Coffee in Manhattan. If only you had a list of such places… We’re constantly updating the guide so if you’ve got recommendations, opinions or scathing criticisms, send them our way.
With the BUILD blog we intend to toss-out the holy veil of the design culture that seems to make architecture so snooty and uninteresting to discuss. We’d like to get fun, sensible, genuine information out on the table. Let us know how we’re doing.
Contact Information:
BUILD llc Architecture and Construction Management
5611 University Way NE #100-B
Seattle WA 98105
www.buildllc.com
206.382.0401
Andrew van Leeuwen avl@buildllc.com
Kevin Eckert ke@buildllc.com
By GAILE GUEVARA, September 21, 2007 @ 8:27 pm
Thanks so much for the plug – it’s so exciting to see your blog transform. I was excited to look at the INI-ANI expresso bar link, something new I haven’t seen yet, then to find out that they have closed, oh well … one coffee shop you will have to go to, beautiful design – JUAN VALDEZ, 140 East 57th Street, designed by Hariri & Hariri – A MUST SEE!
By Duff Bangs, September 25, 2007 @ 8:20 pm
Hey guys, the blog looks great. This will be a great way for us as designers to keep an ongoing dialogue.
By Andrew, September 26, 2007 @ 12:28 am
Duff-
Good to see that you’re kicking the tires on the blog. Let us know if we’re missing anything out there and keep a pulse on the W.S.U. department of architecture for us.
By marc, October 2, 2007 @ 10:13 pm
i am very glad to have noticed the small red print near the bottom of the most recent e-mail received from BUILD.
very informative; and fun to see what the architectural world is up to. i am fascinated by your passion and will be exploring further.
thanks!
By Andrew, October 3, 2007 @ 10:08 am
Marc – thanks for taking a look, the blog has been a labor of love for us. We’ll do our best to keep the information fresh and give people a good reason to check in often.
-Andrew
By Mark Fowler, March 8, 2008 @ 7:28 am
Hey….Love your work! If I could go back and do it all again I would study architecture. Anyways, enough about me,… very informative blog and website…I will be checking back often…
Mark F