Odlum Residence

The Odlum residence was designed by RJ Thom in 1963 while at Thompson, Berwick + Pratt, replacing an earlier TB+P residence from 1954 that was destroyed by fire.

It sits on a large property on a main road in West Vancouver - a site which was recently sold and is slated for imminent demolition, to be replaced by a Senior Living Residence.

The house is listed as a Secondary Building in the West Vancouver Survey of Significant Architecture and possesses many features typical of Thom's other residential work.

The design is clear and unfussy but is now hampered by neglect and aesthetic choices (eg.exterior paint) that distract from the overall design. Nonetheless, the house still embodies the ethos of the era through modest, human scale, deference to the site and the importance of natural light.

The roof forms in the carport dominate the entrance area and echo the sweeping intersecting planar shapes of the grander Forrest Residence. It's a theme that runs throughout the house: wall planes project past usual corner points into the landscape, creating a dynamic structure and intimate garden corners.

Currently, the property is overgrown and in the process of reverting back to its natural state; a state that will soon be razed and completely transformed.

Architecture of Religion: Chapel at Redrooffs

The Church of His Presence is a tiny chapel near Sechelt commissioned by sea-going Missionary Canon Alan Greene. It was designed by Ron Thom in 1961 with Dick Mann while both were at Thompson Berwick and Pratt.

Still in use by a few old-timers, the chapel is perched on a rock bluff that looks out onto Welcome Pass. Greene built it as a memorial to his wife and the scattered congregation he ministered over many years by ship up and down the Sunshine Coast as part of the Columbia Coast Mission.

The simple A-frame structure is flooded with light from the largely glass enclosed end walls and a central skylight. The original solid wood doors (second photo) were replaced with plate glass ones as further funds became available to Greene after construction. Side windows at floor level provide sheltered views of ground cover from the pews, peeking out from underneath a flared roof edge. 

A relatively spacious deck leads to the front entrance and also serves as a gathering area during warmer months. 

The chapel was built by local tradespeople, with many of the materials acquired by donation. Greene himself donated the land. After construction, it was discovered that the chapel broached the neighbouring property slightly. As a suitable agreement could not be reached, it was moved so as to sit wholly on Greene's lot.

It remains a classic West Coast structure and a graceful if rough-hewn reminder of B.C.'s architectural and maritime history.

Historical Images: Anglican Archives of the Diocese of New Westminster

Ron Thom Exhibit

This is the final week to view the West Vancouver Museum's excellent Ron Thom exhibit, guest curated by Adele Weder. 

It comes down after September 21 and will then travel East to Toronto and Peterborough in the coming year.

See also the exhibition-related website that explores Thom's work.

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

Thom's Sauder Display House

On the market for the first time in nearly 45 years, Ron Thom's Sauder Display house was designed at the height of West Coast Modernism for the Sauder Lumber company to showcase its extensive line of plywood.

But that commercial origin belies a design that has generously accommodated family life over the years and continues to resonate with grace and beauty.

Many of the qualities found in Thom's best work are here. Sensitive siting, material integrity and human scale are brought together with features like butt-joint glass, impeccable finishing and spaced beams that draw the eye out as they pass through the building envelope and into the landscape. 

A Japanese influence shows in decorative roof crests, a koi pond at the entry path and a spareness and purposefulness of attributes like gutters held back to reveal a thin, delicate roof edge. Inside, on what would ordinarily be a ninety degree turn, one wall plane extends outward, meeting the other through a recessed section as edges pull back to underscore the transition. 

Though the approach varies from the freeform spatial inventiveness of something like the Case Residence, the connection between structure and site remains elemental and the house is grounded in a calm confidence. As the split-level plan pivots, views double back through layers of glazing, framed by structure and landscaping. 

The result is a sort of architectural fugue that cascades from one room to the next, culminating in the living room amongst unexpected turns and quiet corners. Open framing acts like tensioned webbing to define the space and provide unexpected depth and height.

Thom's colleague Dick Mann worked closely with him on the house, at a time when Thom was immersed in the construction of Massey College in Toronto; many of the details are the result of Mann's careful eye.
                                         

Mid-century houses are an endangered species in Vancouver. The Sauder Display house particularly so, given its location on a major urban artery. In a city like Los Angeles there is an understanding that houses by Schindler, Neutra and Wright are civic, even national, treasures. Not so in Vancouver where we tend to bulldoze our heritage before it gets too old.

Not every building or house should be saved, of course. But the city can only benefit from the best exemplars of their place and time being protected for the record, even as we move forward. 

The house has a history of public viewings, beginning in 1962 when Vancouverites toured it throughout the summer. It was profiled in the August 1962 issue of Western Homes + Living and more recently featured on the Vancouver Heritage Foundation's house tour–the first modernist property to be included. 

As the Sauder Display house transitions again, here's hoping it will find a new custodian to carry it through the next mid-century as a reminder of a particularly fertile moment in the city's history.

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.

Boyd/McPhedran Relist

Ron Thom's Boyd/McPhedran house has been relisted in West Vancouver, well below its assessed value.

See the website for photos and information on this little gem of a house with a notable history. 

It's an opportunity to pick up a significant piece of West Coast modernism and carry on its tradition as a writer's hideaway, or artist's studio, or salon and gathering spot or...

Carmichael Renovation

An update on Thom's recently renovated Carmichael house.

Boyd/McPhedran Update

Here's the link to Kerry McPhedran's comprehensive site on the Boyd/McPhedran house. Photos are from Architecture Wanted.

Above and below, photos by John Bland of the living room (looking toward the kitchen showing original open shelving and pass through) and exterior.

Thom's Boyd/McPhedran

 

Add one more to the list of Ron Thom-designed houses currently for sale: the Boyd/McPhedran house in West Vancouver has just been listed.  

It's an earlier design (from 1954) that shows his evolving approach and increasing mastery of the rocky terrain of the North Shore: hipped roof, deep overhangs, limited palette of natural materials and integration to site. 

It was originally built for art school friends of Thom who only lived there for a short time. The house has been sensitively maintained and expanded over the years and retains a graceful sense of proportion and scale.

See Kerry McPhedran's Western Living article that explores Thom's Vancouver work and her relationship with the house.

It's a notable piece in Thom's oeuvre, mostly for it's muted architectural beauty but also because of its influence: it had a profound impression on a young Paul Merrick as well as the numerous clients Thom showed the house to as an example of his work.

It joins the Forrest (for sale, again), the Work/Baker and the Norman houses on the market– a group that spans not only the geography of Vancouver but also Thom's architectural output in the city.

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.