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.

Hemingway Residence

Brian Hemingway's own 1977 residence is on the market. 

Located on a steep hillside in West Vancouver, the house is a virtual treehouse and shares many qualities with the contemporaneous and nearby Merrick house.

Copious use of timbers and glass, an intimate relationship to a precipitous site and and the tangible influence of Ron Thom are all part of this wonderful late-modern West Coast work.

Photos: Pixilink

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.

Romer Residence

Following are a few photos taken last year of The Romer Residence in West Vancouver.

It was designed in the 1950's by Ron Thom and was recently torn down and the lot razed. The place was a modest, subtle home, but displayed many characteristics of Thom's work: large brick hearth in the living room, glass meeting glass at window corners, strip ribbon windows along the south wall and a thoughtful relationship to the landscape.