BELLEVUE, WASHINGTON

While being located high above Bellevue, Washington on a hillside gives this substantial home amazing views of Bellevue, Lake Washington, Seattle, and the region beyond, it also presented a formidable challenge of integrating a new sport court and lawn area into a steeply sloped yard. Another challenge was getting materials into the yard since the only access was from a street located in front of the house.

The solution incorporated a sport court terraced into the lowest level of the yard and a long winding stair that connects to a lower lawn area, and then winds up the hillside to connect to the upper lawn area and home. The long stair is broken by a series of landings into manageable portions that either provides a resting point or access to a lawn area. The stair is made of standard precast concrete blocks that were brought down the hillside in carts. To keep the project within budget, the use of landscape walls was avoided. Instead, the land was regraded to incorporate the level areas necessary for the sport court and the lawn.