Meet Our Community Members

Grace, Mike & Ella
As an architect, urban designer, business owner, citizen, Mike is committed to elevating the livability of the communities where he lives, works and plays. He values time with family and friends, and especially introducing his 4-year old daughter Ella to the wonders of the world around us. When outside his current home located between the Pike Place Market & Olympic Sculpture Park, Mike can be found at his Capitol Hill architecture studio, extensively walking the sidewalks of our city, or enjoying a cup of coffee at one of our great local roasters. Bicycling, snowboarding, hiking and time spent on the Coast provide him with an appreciation for the great outdoors of the Pacific Northwest. Mike’s obligation to CHUC stems from deeply held aspirations for quality of life, sense of place, and sense of purpose and the belief that these are best achieved in community. Grace is an architect and cofounder of Schemata Workshop. She served on the national board of the Cohousing Association of the US for 4 years, holding positions of secretary and conference chair. She also led the advocacy efforts for bringing affordability to cohousing movement and continues her work in that capacity. Grace was born in Korea and moved to Seattle at the age of 3. She attended architecture school at Washington State University and University of Washington. She lived in Chicago for 7 years after between degrees and has also lived briefly in London and Copenhagen. She has visited over 50 cohousing communities in North America and Denmark. She has many interests including cooking, downhill skiing, cycling, hiking, and camping. Ella is an inquisitive urban child, exploring all that the City of Seattle has to offer. She is enrolled in kindergarten at Lowell Elementary School. Her many interests include dancing, singing, music, coloring, and skiing.

The Eriksens
Doug and Kate have lived on Capitol Hill since 2004. They enjoy walking through the city (and other cities, too) with their son Leaf. Walking in the woods is a newer past-time for the family, as they’ve recently become owners of a car. Local music and great vegetarian food are passions that they enjoy together as often as possible. Kate is a mathematics teacher with Seattle Public School’s Interagency Academy. This is challenging work that she loves doing; bringing kindness, humor, and ideas and practices from secular mindfulness to her work with the youth that she serves. Kate enjoys yoga and spending time with her son Leaf and high school sweetheart and husband Doug. Doug is a librarian at Seattle University and is an avid reader, now happily sharing his favorite stories from his own childhood with his son Leaf. He is famous (in his circle of friends and family) for remembering nearly everything he reads and consequently knowing something about most things and a great deal about a few things. Doug prefers to get where he’s going by walking and is a generous and patient listener. Leaf is a third-grader at a nearby Waldorf school. He enjoys his friends, reading, dancing, performing, and getting dirty out-of-doors.

Audrey
After raising her kids in Winslow Cohousing, Audrey believes cohousing is a great way to live. Creating community is one of her passions, and she is looking forward to helping create a sustainable urban cohousing experience. She is the director of finance and operations at YES! magazine. She loves the beaches of Puget Sound, enjoys walking, kayaking biking, has season tickets to 3 Seattle theaters, and takes arts and craft classes for fun (jewelry, book-making, fiber art and more).

The Granites
We are a family of 4 who enjoy living in an urban context. We live, work and play in Capitol Hill. A typical Saturday often includes: Jerry playing tennis in the park, Jack kicking a soccer ball with anyone who’s willing to join him, and Katelyn taking a hip-hop dance class. We enjoy making and eating meals together, listening to music and playing board games (especially Settlers of Catan, Dixit and chess). Another family interest is reading. At any given time, you’ll find a pile of books near our fireplace, or several ‘tabs’ open to various articles to be read on our digital readers. We love visiting Ms. Carol (the children’s librarian) at the Capitol Hill Library. Katelyn and Jack run a book club at Jack’s school, their favorite read so far this year is Jack and the Seven Deadly Giants by, Sam Swope. Jerry always has the most recent cookbooks and tech books in his queue. Jerry works as a web developer and just released a cookbook app and works with a variety of technologies. Katelyn is on maternity leave from the public school system. Jack is a student, builder of Legos, maker of art, and lover of music. We have lived in community in the past, and are looking forward to sharing life more intentionally with an intergenerational group in the near future!

Paula, Gordon & Julia
Paula and Gordon are both physicists and professors at the UW. Julia loves being a student at Alexander Hamilton International Middle School. We enjoy traveling together, especially to visit family in Vancouver, Ottawa and New Jersey or to explore our favorite places in Europe. We love living in an urban environment with great restaurants, museums, the market, the Olympic Sculpture Park and movie theatres in easy walking distance. We also enjoy skiing and spending time on the water, swimming, sailing, canoeing, and kayaking. CHUC is attractive to us because of its urban orientation and its multigenerational character.

Ciela & Violet (back), Michael & Mikey (L), Kuma, Bambi & Bella (front)
Michael and Bambi keep busy with their four children, who range in age from preschool to high school. They love being a part of the CHUC community, and greater Capitol Hill community, and all the urban goodness that entails. Michael is an architect who works as a Research Associate for the University of Washington’s Integrated Design Lab, and Bambi is an Interior Designer who works as a Design Associate for Room & Board. This fun-loving family loves to travel and explore new cultures and cuisines, and is always ready to break into spontaneous dance when inspired by the right song at the right volume..

Spencer & Sheila
Spencer retired after 25 years teaching in Seattle Public Schools. He served at Stevens Elementary, mostly in the classroom and eventually as a PE teacher. He comes from a large family and is hoping to establish a greater connection with others through life at CHUC. I’m still deliriously in love with Sheila after 30+ years. We love riding our tandem bike. Check out our cross-country bicycle trip. Sheila is originally from Newport, RI, She settled on Seattle’s Capitol Hill 30+ years ago after working in Korea & Germany in the ‘70s. She loves the walkability, diversity and density of this neighborhood. Over the years she has provided founding energy for EarthSave Seattle and The Evergreen Tandem Club and served as the first HOA President of our condo after we downsized in ‘06. When not riding our tandem, doing yoga or fixing vegan meals she does website design in WordPress.

Luke, Ira, Paulina & Osip
We are computer scientists who love Seattle urban life. Paulina is an avid climber and skier originally from Leningrad, while Luke in a US Army brat who typically spends his free time indoors. We enjoy traveling, cooking, and community life. After an amazing 5 year stint in a cooperative house during graduate school, we are super excited to help build a more “grown up” version on Capitol Hill. Ira was the second baby born in our community. Ira is 2 years older than his baby brother Osip who was born as we moved in, 2016.

Bennie & Julie
Bennie and Julie have lived in Seattle proper since 2013 and within the Pacific Northwest since the early 90s. Now empty-nesters, they collectively have two daughters, Tristen and Brianna, and two sons, Ryan and Andrew. Which leads to one of their favorite activities, hosting their kids, family and friends in festive gatherings—which includes their love of cooking, eating, and entertaining. Together, Bennie and Julie are big Seattle sports fans (and LA Dodgers), lovers of a wide variety of music (except country), both city and nature exploring, and exercising—especially yoga. Julie is passionate about equity issues—especially related to access and quality within education impacting youth. Her day job is working in elementary education as a literacy specialist. Beyond the above, she plays on an USTA tennis team, tears through books, and skis. Bennie is a marketing entrepreneur helping business optimize their customer experiences. Beyond sports and music, he often spends his time feeding his thirst for learning—whether about history, a new way to do something better, recipes, or simply how to solve the problem that is currently before him. They’re drawn to CHUC because it’s both an intentional and social community—and within the heart of our vibrant city.