CONTEMPORARY & COMPLEMENTARY
In saving a mid-century West Vancouver home by renowned architect Ron Thom, Livingspace might be creating a blueprint for preserving region’s architectural history
A few months ago, Ross Bonetti was looking around West Vancouver for “interesting projects to do,” when he found just what he’d been dreaming of: a simple West Coast modern house designed by the renowned architect Ron Thom.
“It was a cool little house, and we thought, ‘Wow, this is beautiful,’ ” says the founder of the retail and design company Livingspace.
But at less than 1,900 square feet on a 9,000-square-foot lot, the circa-1952 house was also vulnerable to a developer’s bulldozer.
“The community wants to save these houses, but it’s never a good move financially for whoever wants to develop them,” Bonetti says. “We could have ripped down the Ron Thom house and built a new 6,500-square-foot house and financially made more money.”
Instead, it became a perfect project for Livingspace Homes, the company’s new residential construction and renovation service. They worked with the District of West Vancouver to subdivide the lot, preserve the original home, and build a second one in a contemporary but complementary style.
Turns out, this kind of co-operation might just be the best way to save Vancouver’s rapidly vanishing design history.
THE DISAPPEARING CITY
Already so much has been lost to the pressures of a growing population and inevitable progress.
The Edwardian Birks Building, built in 1913, demolished in 1974. Art Deco masterpieces like the 1927 Georgia Medical-dental building, fallen to the wrecking ball in 1989. Countless Victorian cottages, craftsman houses, mid-century bungalows and entire city blocks of Vancouver Specials, replaced by glass-and-steel condos and shiny new office towers.
It’s not just historic buildings that are disappearing.
It’s the story of a city written in stucco and pre-treated lumber, in the Edwardian ornamentation of the boom years before the First World War, in the muscular Brutalism of the revolutionary 1970s, and most of all, in the clean lines of West Coast modernism, the 1950s and ’60s architectural style that defines Vancouver more than any other.
West Coast modernism is the rain-soaked regional expression of mid-century modernism, the optimistic design movement that swept postwar North America in a wave of post-and-beam construction and kidney-shaped coffee tables.
Influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright, the Bauhaus and Japanese residential architecture, it reached its heyday in the 1950s, when war-weary artists and architects sought respite in the coast’s natural beauty.
“West Vancouver was attractive to them because they liked the rocky lots rather than flat ones. And that was inspiration for a bunch of architects to come to West Vancouver and design houses,” Bonetti says.
Among them was Ronald Thom (1923-1986), who apprenticed at the Vancouver firm of Thompson, Berwick & Pratt, the incubator for such notable architects as Arthur Erickson and Barry Downs. Known as a gifted draughtsman, Thom designed Massey College in Toronto, Trent University in Peterborough, Ont, and numerous award-winning houses in Vancouver.
They were typically of modest size, constructed of humble materials like stucco or wood, and built on cliffs or surrounded by trees and lush gardens, with flat or low-pitched roofs, clerestory windows, deep eaves, big windows and exposed post-and-beam structure.
“They were definitely done on a budget, but the simplicity and beauty of them is the open spaces,” Bonetti says. “And the use of windows, to enjoy nature, and having good overhang for the rain or the sun.”
But although many of these are now designated heritage homes, they have few legal protections. That’s how a masterpiece of West Coast modernism — the 1962 Forrest-baker House designed by Thom — was nearly lost, and still could be.
In 2012, the Eyremont Drive property was purchased by a man who intended to knock down the 3,000-square-foot structure and build a 15,000-square-foot mansion in its place.
It has reportedly been sold since then, and in late 2019 its most recent owner filed an application for demolition.
In a bid to save it, the District of West Vancouver issued two 60day temporary protection orders before a North Vancouver developer agreed to purchase it, subject to negotiations with council. That could mean a Heritage Revitalization Agreement that involves some sort of subdivision, similar to the one Bonetti arranged for his project.
“These are important pieces of architecture,” Bonetti says. “Even this house, it’s lucky Livingspace purchased it, because it could have been torn down.”
WORKING WITH THE DISTRICT
After Bonetti found the Ron Thom house on Duchess Avenue, he worked with the District of West Vancouver on an agreement that would permit them to subdivide the lot and build a second house on it. Part of the agreement also allows the original home to be used as an Airbnb, the only legal one on the North Shore.
“Our intention is to keep it as a nightly rental so other people can see it,” Bonetti says.
Livingspace is making minor upgrades to the house and furnishing it with mid-century-inspired pieces like the Ligne Roset “Togo” sofa designed in 1971. “The only thing we’re going to do is clean it up a little bit and modernize the bathrooms,” Bonetti says.
As for the new house, Livingspace worked with architect Howard Airey to design it in a contemporary style “in keeping with the Ron Thom house,” and expects construction to be complete by fall 2021.
It will be built below the original one, with a grass roof that helps it blend into the landscape. “Luckily, the property is on a slope, so we are able to build the house without obstructing the view,” Bonetti says.
At 3,800 square feet, including the garage, it will be smaller than many new builds, but Bonetti believes there is a market for “that smaller, new house that’s well built.”
“If the house is really designed well, you don’t need as much space. There’s a lot to be said for good spatial planning.”
In any case, he points out, “Our desire was to save this piece of architecture.
“It’s been a fun project. It’s taken longer than we thought to get the approvals, but we’d like to work on more projects like this with West Vancouver, or even the City of Vancouver,” he says.
“You have to find the right property to do a subdivision like this. But I think there is opportunity to do more of these, and you can do it, so it’s worth it financially for the developer.”
And besides, he says, just to be involved in a project connected to Thom, “for a design junky like me, it was a real thrill.”