Does the kitchen need to be accessible to someone with mobility problems?

There are several problems with the layout. Have you read the NKBA planning guidelines?

Yes, I think the placement of the wall ovens is just the tip of the iceberg. Read the NKBA planning guidelines and go back to the design with a fresh eye. Do you have a NKBA certified kitchen designer involved yet? Some cabinet store salespeople aren't real kitchen designers, neither are architects.

aaple_pie_order.... no, the elevator may have given you the idea that mobility is a concern. There's an underground garage, so 2 floors down. It's a resale thing.

kandrewespa... no kitchen designer, just a well-respected architect (I recognize they aren't kitchen designers).

Re: the NKBA guidelines... yes! I have read them. I think many of those guidelines are incorporated (for example the walkway/aisle widths, location of sink across from cooktop, landing area widths, etc.). Others aren't, like that kind of stranded fridge.

We've had a few kitchens in our days, good and bad, designed by NKBA pros, others apparently designed by a random location generator. Mostly, we adapted to whatever got. :-)

I don’t think it’s necessary to hide a kitchen appliance, but yes, ovens and pantry can switch places.

Thanks, emilyam. I like the way appliances look -- and we'd all better like them given the prices these days! -- it's more that they could draw your eyes too much. Maybe.

I suppose I could switch from a cooktop + wall ovens to a range with two ovens (and I would then want a wall convection/micro somewhere in there).

I reviewed the NKBA guidelines again (I may start a different thread on the theory of kitchen design). We're really not far from the key guidelines. Yes, our work triangle has a leg longer than 9', between cooktop and fridge. I think we get close enough by sliding the fridge up in the drawing (away from the elevator), which narrows the pantry by about 15", and then we'd put a tall cabinet between fridge and elevator.

Then there are the ovens, as currently drawn. They are far away. But is that really a bad thing? They are rarely used compared to everything else in the kitchen. At least in our house. When I picture the kitchen's most intensive uses, people are raiding the fridge, going to the sink, grabbing plates of food off of the island. The worst place for the ovens would be between fridge and sink. Similarly, we wouldn't want the cooktop to go where the pantry/fridge are now, right smack in the flow of traffic. So that means cooktop (or range) goes on that back wall, and my symmetry-loving brain insists it be centered. :-)

I would move the range to the right (as you face it) and center it between the upper cabinets. Move the ovens to the fridge wall, with the pantry to the right of the fridge. Moving the range to the right and the fridge to the left closes the gap by a step or two.

It would be better to off-set the sink to range, although I personally don't mind a sink being centered on a range, since prep is done to one side or the other. With the DW to the right of the sink, dishes can be stored across the aisle, making it easy for helpers to unload the DW, or gather dishes to set the table, without entering the primary prep space.

I realize this will reduce the pantry space, but you can use base drawers to store many pantry items.

Mama... Thank you SO much for taking the time to draw that up. It all makes sense to me. The asymmetry of the cooktop (not centered with the island) might be solved if I can get the hood to disappear. It will be a contemporary style, so maybe all the uppers can be of the same depth and run in a smooth line across. But I think hood code will require it to go all the way to the cooktop edge, and we wouldn't want uppers to be that far out (obviously). I think about that more.

I've been concerned about putting ovens in a corner like that. But...I found tons of pics with ovens like that, as see one of them in the examples you posted. I guess just don't have the adjacent cabinet doors open when opening the oven! Duh.

Rapp, yes, for sure aisle width is on our radar. Our last house had 4-6", which felt a bit far. I'm thinking 4' to 4-3" clear might be right.

As for windows, excellent observation. The windowless wall faces north (+/-). A (really unattractive, and likely to stay that way) house is about 15' away. We are happy to have no windows there. We have lots of glass on the west wall (15' glass door + 10' glass door) and multiple windows on the south and southeast side. I wish we had room for a window on that east kitchen wall, but there's just no way.