Blake Bethards Blake Bethards

Designing Haerfest: A Seattle Restaurant Built Around the Chef’s Counter

A contemporary restaurant in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood, designed around a client brief that was unusually clear — the food is the thing people should notice, not the room. Explore how an open kitchen, full-height white oak screens, and a restrained material palette work together to create a space that functions as both a neighborhood dining room and a venue for private events.

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Blake Bethards Blake Bethards

Against Type: A Walla Walla Tasting Room For an Italian Varietals Producer

A 2,300 sq ft agricultural structure north of downtown Walla Walla, converted into a tasting room for a winemaker working with Italian varietals in a region better known for Bordeaux and Rhône-style wines. The design draws on the building's honest utilitarian origins and a material palette rooted in traditional Italian agrarian architecture.

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Blake Bethards Blake Bethards

The Woodinville Tasting Room

A 1,300 sq ft tasting room at The Yard at Harvest in Woodinville, designed around a brief that was harder than it sounds - welcoming to the first-time visitor and credible to the serious collector, without defaulting to the formality that serious wine environments often reach for.

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Blake Bethards Blake Bethards

Rethinking the Winery: Adaptive Reuse for Boutique Producers in Walla Walla

An adaptive reuse project transforming a 24,000 sq ft industrial building outside downtown Walla Walla into a collaborative production facility for multiple boutique winemakers. The project deliberately departs from the traditional estate winery model - no chateau, no hilltop, no pretense of a single proprietor's domain.

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Blake Bethards Blake Bethards

1,000 Square Feet on Orcas Island: A Chef's Home in the San Juan Islands

A 1,000 sq ft ranch-style home on Orcas Island, comprehensively redesigned for a professional chef and a young family. The design relocates the kitchen to the center of the plan, converts an 8-foot wraparound porch into the main living connection between inside and outside, and introduces three skylights and exposed roof trusses to a room that had neither.

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