Merit

Merit is a garden-style apartment development that combines city-scale and neighborhood-scale design elements to fit neighborhood context in Sumner. Facing a site with a high water table, the team needed to integrate mixed-use readiness, accommodate in-ground stormwater facilities, and provide a public bike and pedestrian path that will connect to a future neighborhood network. The resulting design organizes eight three-story garden-style apartment buildings, plus an amenity and maintenance building, across the 7.18-acre site in a campus-like arrangement with varied outdoor community spaces and walking paths.

The buildings use three distinct but cohesive types to break up massing, with integrated exterior stairwells providing both screening and semi-private circulation. Durable, context-appropriate materials and façades that engage 160th Street support the neighborhood character while maintaining privacy. The project includes 208 residential units, 349 parking spaces, flexible street-facing units designed for future commercial conversion, and community outdoor areas of varying size and function.