Community-Minded Design
Batik, Vulcan’s first multi-family apartment project in Yesler, opened in March 2018 and offers 195 apartments including 39 homes affordable to households earning 65 percent to 80 percent of AMI. While leasing is just getting started, Batik is already home to a diverse group of residents that reflects the neighborhood make up, including students, healthcare and tech employees, and 13 children ranging from infant to pre-teen.
In addition to providing housing and economic opportunities for people from multi-cultural and multi-income backgrounds, Yesler prioritized creating an inclusive community where people of different languages (more than 15 languages are spoken by residents in Yesler), incomes, cultures and ages feel welcome, respected and valued.
One of the ways we hope to achieve this goal is through the building design and amenities Vulcan has built into Batik including ground level apartments that have neighborhood stoops, retail that spills out onto a generous plaza, and a community kitchen that connects to a pedestrian pathway. The community kitchen will be an ideal space for residents to share pot-luck meals and pop-up dinners with neighbors, or learn how to partake in a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony.