Downs Named to Order of Canada

Barry Downs, perhaps the quintessential West Coast architect, has been named to the Order of Canada. 

It's a fitting and well-deserved distinction for an architect whose work over six decades embodies the Governor General's criteria of outstanding achievement, dedication to community and service to the nation.

Congratulations, Barry!

West Coast Modern Home Tour

There are still a few tickets left for the self-drive option on the West Vancouver Museum's West Coast Modern Home Tour.

It's a strong group, including Ron Thom's Carmichael (shown above) and Grinnell houses, Barry Downs' own stunning 1979 residence, a recently renovated Bob Lewis design and a contemporary residence by Greg Dowling of DGBK.

The tour takes place on Saturday July 13th.

Photo: Kenneth James Dyck, urbanpictures.com, 2013

Downs + Pullan Interview

A recent North Shore Outlook article on Barry Downs and Selwyn Pullan features the two reminiscing and discussing their respective professions. A photo of them outside Pullan's studio is a nice touch.

Kim Smith and Bo Helliwell, featured as well, talk about their renovation and sympathetic addition to Downs' 1963 Rayer residence.

Melding Architecture with Landscape

Barry Downs' exhibition runs at the West Vancouver Museum from May 8-June 15th, 2013. The opening reception happens on May 14th.

It's part of a strong West Coast Modern line-up the museum is mounting through the summer and into the fall, including West Coast Points East: Ron Thom and the Allied Arts, guest curated by Adele Weder.

Both will be essential viewing for anyone interested in a deeper understanding of two of Vancouver's finest practitioners.

Barry Downs: Architecture and Landscape

This summer the West Vancouver Museum is mounting an exhibition of Barry Downs' work. The title of the show, Melding Architecture with Landscape: A Collaboration in Design speaks to Downs' intimate connection to the West Coast landscape as well as his proclivity for inspired collaboration.

In the meantime, the museum has organized an evening in support of the publication of an exhibition catalogue. Held at the home studio of Blue Sky Architecture – housed in Downs' Rayer residence pictured above – the evening features Leslie Van Duzer, Director of SALA at UBC, in addition to Downs in attendance.

It's an opportunity to support an essential West Coast architectural record.

The event takes place on Thursday April 11, from 6-9pm. More information can be obtained through Kiriko Watanabe at the West Vancouver Museum.

Image: Rayer Residence, Barry Downs c. 1964

Cornelia Hahn Oberlander

Follow the link for a great profile on Cornelia Hahn Oberlander via CBC's Ideas.

Oberlander is also speaking at her own home with Barry Downs on Wednesday November 21st as part of the series celebrating Selwyn Pullan: Photographing Mid-Century Modernism.

Photo: www.corneliaoberlander.ca

Vancouver Curio: Pratt by Archer

A recent find: a portrait of Ned Pratt by Vancouver photographer Tony Archer.

Judging by Pratt's clothes and age, it likely dates from the early-mid 1960's.

Tony Archer was a Vancouver photographer active from the late 1940's until the early 1970's. During that time he photographed many business and political leaders, as well as the city's architecture. As it turns out, he also photographed Barry Downs' parents CBK Van Norman-designed home.

Archer retired in 1972, sold the business to Stephen Miller and David Olds and donated his pre-1960 negatives to Archives Canada. His post-1960's negatives were later donated there as well.

This particular print measures roughly 12"x18" and has been unfortunately laminated. It is signed by Archer on the print and by Pratt on the matte. 

Downs + Pullan

Read Canadian Architect's excerpt of Barry Downs' insightful essay on Selwyn Pullan. 

Selwyn's Work

Mark your calendars for a night of celebration: the launch party for Selwyn Pullan: Photographing Mid-Century West Coast Modernism on October 9, 2012. 

Published by D+M and beautifully produced by the fine folks at the West Vancouver Museum + Archives, the book features texts by Barry Downs, Adele Weder and Kiriko Watanabe. 

It's the culmination of a great deal of work (and the previous exhibition) that gives one of our richest visual archives its due.

UEL Residential

The University Endowment Lands continues its evolution from a sleepy, professorial enclave spotted with pre-1940's colonial and modest mid-century housing stock, to one increasingly populated by new structures that maximize square footage and cost per square foot.

It's the now classic Vancouver paradigm of small houses on large lots that encourage demolition and rebuilding.

The list of architects who built in the area is a who's who of Vancouver's early progressive designers: Sharp + Thompson, Berwick, Pratt, Thom, Hollingsworth, Downs, McNab, Lasserre, Porter, Van Norman, Erickson, McCarter + Nairne, Semmens + Simpson and McKee.

It's a significant concentration of housing and one that is slowly being lost. Recently the Muir Residence (see below) was razed. Designed by Sharp + Thompson, Berwick, Pratt in 1951, it displayed early modernist characteristics such as strip windows, a pitched shed roof and a red brick chimney on cross axis. Other houses that have been demolished include Maslow (S+TBP), Miller (J.L. Miller), O'Connor (McNab), Mackay (Cullerne) and Mitchell (Semmens + Simpson).

There are those that remain, in varying states: S+TBP's Freeman house sits in disrepair and for sale. McKee's Ellett house is wasting away, utterly engulfed in overgrown landscaping, boarded up and awaiting eventual demolition. 

The Jones house, by RJ Thom (at S+TBP) has been sympathetically renovated and remains intact. Porter, Chard + Wisnicki's Nemetz house sits as it always has, virtually unchanged. The Gladstone (Hollingsworth) and Narod (Thom) houses still nestle on their lots, for who knows how long. Barry Downs' late modern Oberlander house still looks serenely out onto the adjacent ravine.

It's not all bad news, however, as there is good work being built by more recent generations of Vancouver architects. Bing Thom, Nick Milkovich and D'Arcy Jones are now represented in the area, providing a welcome foil to the faux heritage that predominates, and a continuation of the dialogue that was started over half a century ago.

Below: Narod, Ellett and Oberlander houses.

John Fulker: Images of Architecture

John Fulker's career flourished alongside the Canadian architects whose work he captured: Barry Downs, Arthur Erickson and Clifford Wiens among others. In the process he created an invaluable visual record of architecture on the West Coast and beyond.

For the first time in thirty years his work will be exhibited at the West Vancouver Museum. Following the 2009 exhibition of Selwyn Pullan's work, "Images of Architecture" is another opportunity to reacquaint with a local legacy.

The exhibition opens on November 15th with a reception with the photographer and runs until January 14th, 2010. There is also a photographer's talk on December 3, 2011 at 1:30pm.

Photo: Graham Residence, John Fulker, 1967

Barry Downs' North Vancouver Civic Centre

Downs/Archambault's 1975 North Vancouver Civic Centre has been in transition for some time and the recent redesign by Mcfarlane Green Biggar is close to completion.

The original complex of City Hall and the library, designed by Barry Downs, was a remarkable if under-recognized work of West Coast Modernism that was diluted through incremental change and evolving civic priorities.

Downs conceived the Civic Centre as an unassuming, functional pair of buildings that inspired a more inclusive idea of politics and civic interaction.

Material choices spoke to this: raw cedar, concrete and an emphasis on landscaping of native plantings. Downs designed a pronounced planted berm and water feature that softened the connection between buildings and the urban surroundings.

It was a vision of politics that embraced integration and subtlety - hallmarks of Downs' work. The civic centre was so deeply connected to place, it felt as if it literally rose out of the fecund North Shore landscape.

Sadly this vision has largely been dismantled. The berm and water feature are long gone. The library building was demolished last year. Across the street is Diamond & Schmitt's new library – a sign of a changing urban mandate that is now transforming North Vancouver's Civic Centre and community buildings in general.

Meanwhile, Downs' lone remaining City Hall structure sits as a testament to the ingenuity, understatement and priorities of a different time and a master of the site.

B+W Photos: John Fulker

Barry Downs at UVic

In the already lush and leafy environs of the University of Victoria campus, the Sedgewick building stands out through its sheer sensitivity and integration with the landscape.

Designed by Barry Downs in 1968-69, it houses humanities and administration departments and sits at the western edge of the circular campus, surrounded now by newer buildings and increasingly dense foliage.

Quintessentially west coast, Sedgewick was designed with a deep connection to the site, strengthened by a compact massing and a material continuity through the stained cedar cladding. Comprised of three one-story structures, with windows set back under eaves looking out onto salal and cedars, the layout has a dynamism due to shifting planar forms and walls that shoot past normal termination points.

Sedgewick embodies qualities which Downs has explored his whole career: human scale, deep connection to the west coast and a sense of understatement and restraint. Echoes of these buildings can be seen in his residential work and in the later Pearson College (1974) which he worked on with Ron Thom in nearby Pedder Bay.

The Modern House on Tour

The West Vancouver Museum and Archives is hosting its annual West Coast Modern House Tour tomorrow (Saturday July 10, 2010).

There's a nice crop of houses: RJ Thom's 1957 Southworth Residence (profiled earlier on Vancouver Lights); a 1964 Barry Downs and Fred Hollingsworth house (purchased by the Helliwell/Smith and subsequently renovated); Russell Hollingsworth's own home; the 1954 Erickson-designed Stegeman Residence, renovated by Brian Hemingway; and Erickson's iconic Smith Residence II (pictured above).

See today's Globe + Mail for a tour profile by Adele Weder.

Photo: Ezra Stoller/Esto www.esto.com

The Lantern Goes Out

See Frances Bula's blog for a post about the recently kiboshed Lantern Residence that was part of West Vancouver's pilot project for infill housing.

A sensitive piece of architecture designed by Barry Downs, it would have been an ideal starting point for density in the municipality and a fitting testament to Downs' mastery of site. If council can't work up the courage to move ahead confidently on a proposal this strong, it begs asking what they are waiting for.

Bula's blog has the full text of Rick Gruneau's letter explaining their decision to withdraw from the project.

Disappointing all around: for the clients, Barry Downs and West Vancouver.

Woyat-Bowie Building

This Medical-Dental building was designed by Fred Thornton Hollingsworth in 1966. It has a small, economical layout with four office spaces, one of which was originally used by the Hollingsworth & Barry Downs partnership (1964-1967).

The most striking feature- apart from the building being relatively intact and unscathed by renovations- is the raised roof that floats above the central waiting area, connected to the structure below by slender posts and rows of clerestory windows.

Offices are organized in two blocks on either side of the building and face onto inner courtyards. Materially, the Woyat-Bowie is classic Hollingsworth: natural cedar, white stucco and attention to detail. Both Wright and the Japanese tradition are apparent in the spatial relationships, humanist scale and use of light.

The Vancouver vs. Seattle Debate

Via Architecture is presenting "The Great Urban Debate", pitting the urban vision of cross-border neighbors Vancouver and Seattle. 

Moderated by local writer/historian Lance Berelowitz, the case for Vancouver will be made by Peter Steinbrueck and the case for Seattle will be made by Gordon Price. It's a reversal that should yield some worthwhile insights into the differing character of each city- a long gestating comparison most often associated with the presence of the I-5 freeway through downtown Seattle and Vancouver's rejection of a similar proposal in the 1960's.

Peter Steinbrueck has been involved in Seattle's civic politics and urban issues for many years and is the son of late Seattle architect and University of Washington faculty member Victor Steinbrueck. The elder Steinbrueck studied under Lionel Pries at U of W in the 1930's and later taught alongside him. Pries was also a seminal influence on Vancouver's own Barry Downs.

Gordon Price is currently heading up the City Program at SFU after serving on city council for many years. See his blog for more information and a post about the debate.

The event takes place in Vancouver on Tuesday, June 16th at 7pm at SFU Harbour Centre (515 West Hastings Street). The Seattle evening takes place two days later at the Seattle Public Library, recently designed by Rem Koolhaas.

West Coast Blogging

Two new blogs have been added to the blogroll: Coast Modern and Architecture Wanted. Both focus on architecture of the West Coast.

Coast Modern is based around an upcoming film that Gavin Froome and Michael Bernard have been quietly putting together over the last year or so. They've amassed what promises to be a treasure trove of footage chronicling the modern movement along the West Coast– from California to British Columbia. 

The film, currently being edited, is based around interviews with a broad range of subjects (this writer included), from local luminaries like Barry Downs and Fred Hollingsworth to California sons Dion Neutra and photographer Julius Shulman. Froome and Bernard have also filmed an inspired range of the architecture itself, mostly houses related to the interviewees, to round out the film.

Architecture Wanted is a blog focusing on matters a little closer at hand, chronicling architecture and civic issues in Vancouver. With a solid appreciation for our urban environment, it's an excellent source of happenings in the city.