At Studio Pacifica, we believe everyone deserves to live their best, barrier-free life. As architects and accessibility consultants, we collaborate with built environment teams to make sure people of all abilities and ages have integrated access to beautifully designed spaces. We consult with architectural design teams, developers, civic planners, educators, and others in the greater community. Our goal is to help create “anything but institutional” inclusive designs that meet—or exceed—code requirements that serve to give people with disabilities access to the world. Our team brings architectural expertise as well as first-person experience (in some cases) to the table—a fact that enhances our credibility and effectiveness when it comes to consulting on universal design, building codes, ADA and FHA as well as ways of thinking about difference. Studio Pacifica collaborates with many highly respected Pacific Northwest architectural design firms to improve access in civic, commercial, education, hospitality, retail, health, multi-family residential projects. Project collaborations include Amazon Spheres, Bill + Melinda Gates Foundation, Center for Wooden Boats, and the recent renovation of Seattle’s historic Space Needle. Included in the firm’s project portfolio are hundreds of accessible multi-family residential projects. The firm was founded by Karen L, Braitmayer, FAIA. Under her leadership over 30-plus years, the accessibility consulting firm has been recognized regionally and nationally for its focus on universal design and social sustainability. As a life-long wheelchair user, Braitmayer has made a unique contribution to the built environment—and to the growth of the national disability civil rights movement—by pairing her professional architectural expertise with personal disability experience.
