9 hours ago
Why Does This House Have a Skybridge?
A peculiar architectural feature has spread throughout Seattle. On a single lot, you'll see three houses, one somewhat bigger than the others, and between the big one and a smaller one is a walkway. Sometimes it's on the ground floor, and sometimes it's through the air — in other words, a skybridge.
On paper, what you're looking at is a single-family home and two accessory dwelling units, an arrangement locally known as a 3-pack. These compounds popped up after Seattle eased building restrictions on A.D.U.s in 2019, as part of the city's efforts to increase housing density and drive down prices. A.D.U.s are built on land that would not otherwise be developed — often, what would be a house's backyard — and tend to cost less than conventional single-family homes.
Before 2019, Seattle allowed only one A.D.U. per lot, and the owner of the main house had to live on site and provide an off-street parking spot for any new unit. Under those restrictions, most A.D.U.s were built by homeowners on their existing lots, for use as guesthouses, studios or offices.
In 2019, the city removed the owner-occupancy and parking requirements and raised the number of A.D.U.s allowed per lot to two — but on lots containing two A.D.U.s, one had to be attached to the primary house. Developers, rather than individual homeowners, drove the next phase of A.D.U. construction, creating three-unit compounds to make the most of these unusual rules.
Alice Ji and her fiancé bought the main house in an A.D.U. compound in March. She said the skybridge connecting it to another unit is her laundry room, just big enough for two machines. 'The developers did a really good job with soundproofing everything, so we don't ever hear noise from our neighbors,' she said.
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