Seattle Housing Authority Headquarters
Seattle, WA
When the Seattle Housing Authority (SHA) consolidated offices and relocated to a 1960’s era mid-rise at the edge of Seattle’s downtown, Michael Courtney Design (MCD) was retained to develop an Experiential Graphics program for the project.
The street level lobby leads to three destinations: a conference room for public meetings, the Housing Service Center for applicants and elevators to the upper floor offices. We needed to direct people to these locations in a friendly, professional and budget conscious manner.
Both Conference Room and the Housing Service Center have large glass entry walls, which we wrapped with a colorful vinyl message band. To welcome all visitors to the Center, we added greetings in many of the sixteen languages spoken by applicants.
On the upper floors, we repurposed signs left by the previous tenant, giving our attention on the seventeen Conference Rooms located on multiple floors. In wayfinding, color and type are the designer’s friends. Each level has a family of colors, and the vinyl acts as a privacy band using a distinctive typeface, and reversing the room number from the color.
