Community based Design
Rainier Beach Action Coalition
Food Innovation Center.
The concept of the RBAC Food Innovation Center clusters manufacturing, technology, and food sectors in close proximity to the light rail station, in order to provide access to career-path, living-wage jobs — strengthening the local economy through production rather than consumption.
The Rainier Beach Action Coalition, or RBAC, is a non-profit in Seattle’s Rainier Beach neighborhood focused on implementing the Rainier Beach Neighborhood Plan; a community-powered initiative that articulates priorities and strategies to enable the community, City, and developers to work together to realize transformative positive change in the neighborhood. Their programming is wide ranging, and focuses on education, safety, food justice, and housing.
RBAC has a long-term vision is to build a multi-story building that will house the Food Hub and Growth Center, offices and affordable housing, but in the medium-term, their need was for the existing building to be responsive and supportive to their programming, and to be made highly accessible to the community. This is where we came in — our focus is on creating space to house RBAC’s Food Hub and Growth Center, which clusters initiatives in manufacturing, technology, and food to provide access to career-path living-wage jobs, and strengthening the local economy through local production.
Contractor: Abbott Construction
Mechanical and Electrical Engineer: PAE
Structural Engineer: KPFF