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.

Moon Residence

See this weekend's Globe & Mail for Adele Weder's article on Fred Hollingsworth's Moon/Miller residence in North Vancouver.

Hollingsworth in North Vancouver

In what is already proving to be an active month for architecturally significant listings, add Fred Hollingsworth's 1950 Moon Residence to the list.

It is one of his Wright-influenced Neoteric designs that features a taut post and beam structure, cedar board and batten siding, copious interior plywood and red brick that defines the central living space. The house is actually two linked structures set on a 45 degree angle, giving a dynamic sense of space.

The Moon Residence is listed as a Primary Building in North Vancouver's Heritage Building Inventory and remains in stunningly pristine condition.

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.

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.