Arthur Erickson

Arthur Erickson’s Pad

by Eve Lazarus on June 22, 2024

Arthur Erickson is featured in an exhibition at the West Vancouver Art Museum with photos by Selwyn Pullan

I dropped by the West Vancouver Art Museum Wednesday and joined a tour led by curator, Hilary Letwin. If you haven’t been there before, the Museum is by the Municipal Hall on 17^th Street, just off Marine Drive, and housed in a funky stone house built by Gertrude Lawson in 1939.

The Art Museum currently has an exhibition about architect Arthur Erickson (1924-2009). Arthur, is of course, known for buildings such as the Simon Fraser University on Burnaby Mountain, Robson Square and the Museum of Anthropology at UBC.

He also designed residential masterpieces like the Eppich House and the Graham House. What I’ve always found fascinating is that he chose not to design his own house but bought a large corner lot with a small cottage and a garage in Point Grey in 1957 and lived there for the next 52 years.

Selwyn Pullan:

The focus of the exhibition is on some fabulous photos taken by Selwyn Pullan, a well-known architectural photographer in the 1950s and ‘60s. I got to know Selwyn Pullan, a few years before he died and spent some time in his North Vancouver home-studio, designed by Fred Hollingsworth, another North Shore superstar in the world of mid-century modern.

Selwyn kindly let me use several of his photos in my book Sensational Vancouver, but it was a different kind of experience seeing them blown up and mounted on the walls.

If you look closely, you can see the imperfections—dings in a corner, peeling wallpaper above a door, and some of the unusual materials that Arthur used to decorate his digs.

West Coast Modern:

Gold wall paint eventually replaced with suede paneling, leather tiles on the bathroom wall, a ceiling made out of cedar shavings pressed between two pieces of plexi-glass.

Arthur was also big on repurposing materials.

The table he is leaning on in the photo below, is an old door. Its legs are made from concrete core.

Many of the objects he displayed have an eastern flair—a Buddha’s head, books, a garden statue. Hilary tells us that Arthur served in the second world war in the intelligence corps and spoke fluent Japanese.

A huge Gordon Smith painting that hung in Arthur’s living room is part of the exhibition. He designed two houses for the Smiths’ in West Vancouver. The second near Lighthouse Park still stands. Gordon died in 2020 at 102–one of the last of the modernist painters in Canada.

The exhibit runs until July 20 and is open Tuesday to Saturday from 11:00 to 5:00.

Arthur Erickson’s former house is owned and maintained by the Arthur Erickson Foundation.

With thanks to the Vancouver Historical Society for organizing the tour. Definitely worth the price of membership!

Tags 4195 West 14th Avenue, Arthur Erickson, Gordon Smith, Selwyn Pullan, Sensational Vancouver

Vancouver’s Peace House and the Grateful Dead

by Eve Lazarus on July 15, 2023

I was riding my bike along Point Grey Road this week and snapped a few photos of the Peace House. It’s an interesting looking place, and as it turns out, has quite the past.

3148 Point Grey Road:

It was built in 1908 by R.D. Rorison who was an early real estate agent and developer. His company bought the English Bay Cannery in 1905, tore it down and used the wood to build part of the house.

Peace House — Vancouver Daily World, July 28, 1908

In 1965, the house attracted an anti-nuclear group who were protesting the storage of nuclear weapons at the Comox RCAF Base. The leader was a 22-year-old UBC student named Peter Light, who spent most of his time organizing a protest march from Victoria to Comox. The house became widely known as the Peace House and freaked out its more conservative neighbours.

From a May 21, 1965 Province article: “The city has lost patience with the Peace House. The zoning appeal board has rejected a presentation that a group of bearded, sandal-wearing peace demonstrators who occupy the house at 3148 Point Grey Road should be classed as a philanthrophic organization.”

And on that same day in the Vancouver Sun: “The house is run down, dirty shirts hang in the window, fires have been started in the middle of the front room floor using chairs for fuel, and that newspaper reports of free love in upstairs rooms are true because they could look in and watch. They are degenerating the outlook and spirit of young Canadians.”

The Afterthought:

A couple of years back when I was chatting to Jerry Kruz about his exploits as a 17-year-old promoter, he told me he lived in a room at the Peace House while he was bringing acts to the Afterthought. He brought in Country Joe and the Fish, the Steve Miller Band, and in 1966, paid the Grateful Dead $500 to play there. The band also crashed at the Peace House. According to Heritage Vancouver Society, so did other cultural icons of the day such as Timothy Leary, Baba Ram Dass and Allen Ginsberg.

In 1968, the house played a role in Robert Altman’s thriller That Cold Day in the Park. Grant Lawrence has a great story about Ginger Baker, the legendary drummer from Cream staying there. “It was essentially a crash pad for local and wandering hippies and touring bands,” writes Grant.

Michael Kluckner tells me that Jeannette and her husband, renowned artist Jeff Wall, lived at the Peace House around 1970. “The house came up for sale then for $17,000, but had no takers partly because it had a huge sawdust-burning furnace that needed replacing,” says Michael. A woman from Toronto bought it, and according to rumour, hired architect Arthur Erickson to do some remodelling.”

The six-bedroom house is currently assessed at $4.4 million.

BC Binning’s Missing Murals

by Eve Lazarus on February 5, 2022

BC Binning wasn’t just an important artist; as a teacher, he influenced architects such as Arthur Erickson, Ron Thom and Fred Hollingsworth. Where are his missing murals?

From Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History

BC Binning’s mural still decorates the old BC Hydro Building, which was converted into condos in the early 1990s. Doris Fiedrich photo, 2017.

Artist and teacher:

BC Binning wasn’t just an important artist; as a teacher, he influenced architects such as Arthur Erickson, Ron Thom and Fred Hollingsworth. His tiled murals are still outside the BC Hydro building (now the Electra Building) on Burrard Street, as well as in and outside his West Vancouver house which was designated a heritage building in 1999 and a National Historic Site in 2001.

BC Binning’s home, interior mural. Parks Canada photo

Murals:

What you can’t see are the murals that he created for the old Vancouver Public Library on Robson Street, or the 76.2 metre-long mural he created in 1956 to wrap around the CKWX building on Burrard Street. That building was replaced by a 20-storey condo tower just 33 years later.

BC Binning’s mural decorated this building from 1956 until it was demolished in 1989. Selwyn Pullen photo, 1956

The University of British Columbia came up with most of the $8,000 needed to rescue a 7.3 metre section of the CKWX mural, while Andrew Todd, a Vancouver conservator was charged with prying Binning’s blue, green and yellow mosaic off the wall, tile by tile, and placing it on a rolled canvas for storage at UBC. “Oh my god it was tough to save,” Todd told me. “It was an abstract arrangement of one-inch glass tiles from Venice, much like his mural on the BC Hydro Building. And it was huge, maybe 20 feet by 10 feet (six by three metres) in sections.”

The old Vancouver Public Library on Robson. Vancouver Archives photo ca.1972

The saved section of the mural was to be installed on a proposed studio-resources building, which was to house the university’s fine arts program. The building was never built, and the mural has apparently disappeared.

Tags Andrew Todd, Arthur Erickson, BC Binning, BC Hydro building, Electra, Fred Hollingsworth, Ron Thom, Selwyn Pullen; CKWX, Vancouver Exposed

West Coast Modern: Selling Architecture as Art

by Eve Lazarus on January 25, 2020

For the last year or so I’ve been receiving emails from a realtor named Trent Rodney at West Coast Modern. They come with an invitation to drop by one of the dwindling stock of West Coast Modern houses on the North Shore, sip a cocktail, eat catered food and listen to jazz. The houses are all designed by well-known mid-century architects such as Fred Hollingsworth, Arthur Erickson, Ned Pratt, Peter Kafka, Barry Griblin, and Henry Yorke Mann.

One of around 15 invite-only preview events. This one for a West Coast Modern house designed by Bob Lewis on Greenbriar way in 1954

When he first started as a realtor, Trent says he’d see a post-modern house come on the market and wish that he was the agent. “I would drive by two months later and it would be torn down. It was a slap in the face.”

Trent says he sees himself as an art dealer, representing the work of architects.

Last Thursday, more than 300 people turned up to an Arthur Erickson-designed house in West Vancouver. Built in 1981, it’s now listed at almost $3.3 million. There’s a public open house this Sunday.

5323 Montiverdi Place, West Vancouver. Courtesy West Coast Modern

“I’m a big believer in emotion. When people come to one of our events, they are excited about the house,” he says.

Trent sends out around 15,000 invitations to a carefully curated database of people in the creative community who already live in, or are most likely to love these West Coast Modern houses. They include designers, artists, architects, musicians, and for the higher end stuff, people working in the tech industry.

Realtors are not welcome.

Ned Pratt House, West Van. Eve Lazarus photo 2013 from Sensational Vancouver

It’s a unique and costly marketing strategy, but seems to be working. “I’m able to command a 10 to 15 percent design premium for a West Coast Modern house,” he says. “A renovated house in Edgemont Village, for instance will sell for around $2.2 million. I’m able to achieve close to $2.5 million for the same size house because I’m able to attract the design community and get multiple offers.”

Trent says his goal is to keep these houses out of the hands of the developers. He spends a chunk of his day pouring through the more than 500 listings on the North Shore and highlighting the houses that he believes should be saved and making sure buyers are aware of them.

Peter Kafka Forest House, built 1961 West Vancouver, Courtesy West Coast Modern

The problem is, these houses are often on big lots zoned for much larger houses, and realtors pitch them as lot value where you can “build your dream home” ignoring for most of us, that like this long-gone Fred Hollingsworth house on Newmarket Drive, these are our dream homes.

When I asked Trent, which house he thought was the greatest loss, I was expecting him to say the Graham house or one of the expensive cliff hugging West Vancouver homes. Instead, he told me it was the Watts Residence, a fairly modest house designed by Fred Hollingsworth.

Watts Residence 3635 Sunnycrest, North Van *(1951-2019)*

The Watts Residence was recently replaced with the kind of cookie cutter house that is homogenizing our neighbourhoods. Hollingsworth’s own North Van house which he designed and lived in for more than six decades, came up for sale in October 2018. His son, starchitect Russell Hollingsworth hired Trent’s firm to sell the house to someone who would save it.

The Graham House, designed by Arthur Erickson in 1962, demolished 2007

“People say the city should do more, but if you keep it in the hands of the people who live in the houses, they are the custodians. They like the architecture, they pay more, and they are not going to tear it down,” he says.

Former owner Kerry McPhedran at Boyd House in 2012. Eve Lazarus photo

Some good news. It looks like Ron Thom’s Boyd House will live to see another day, after West Van voted to allow subdivision of the lot and short term rentals of the house.

Forrest-Baker house built in 1962 and currently under a temporary protection order by the District of West Van. Selwyn Pullan photo

Unfortunately, the fabulous Ron Thom-designed Forrest-Baker house may not be so lucky. There is currently a temporary protection order in place to try and stop its demolition.

Tags 3635 Sunnycrest, 5323 Montiverdi Place, Arthur Erickson, Barry Griblin, Bob Lewis, Boyd House, Fred Thornton Hollingworth, Henry Yorke Mann, Ned Pratt, Peter Kafka, Watt's Residence, West Coast modern

West Coast Modern Architecture

by Eve Lazarus on June 15, 2018

There is a chapter in Sensational Vancouver called West Coast Modern which explains the connections between artists and architects and the West Coast Modern movement in Vancouver.

Last week I wrote about Selwyn Pullan’s photography exhibition currently on display at the West Vancouver Museum. I focused on his shots of West Coast Modern houses now almost all obliterated from the landscape.

But Selwyn also did a lot of commercial photography and one of his largest clients was Thompson Berwick Pratt, the architecture firm headed up by Ned Pratt who hired and mentored some of our most influential West Coast Modern architects. Arthur Erickson, Ron Thom, Paul Merrick, Barry Downs and Fred Hollingsworth all cut their teeth at TBP, and BC Binning consulted on much of the art that went along with the buildings.

Ned Pratt:

Ned Pratt’s crowning achievement was winning the commission to design the BC Electric building on Burrard Street—a game changer in the early 1950s. While the building is still there, now dwarfed by glass towers and repurposed into the Electra—a few of the firm’s other creations are long gone.

There was the Clarke Simpkins car dealership built in 1963 on West Georgia that demonstrated Vancouver’s growing fascination with neon.

CKWX

Our love for neon also showed up in the former CKWX headquarters at 1275 Burrard Street. According to the Modern Movement Architecture in BC (MOMO) the building won the Massey Silver Medal in 1958. “This skylit concrete bunker was home to one of Vancouver’s major radio stations until the late 1980s. The glassed-in entrance showcased wall mosaics by BC Binning, their blue-gray tile patterns symbolizing the electronic gathering and transmission of information.”

The building is long gone, replaced by a 20-storey condo building called The Ellington in 1990.

The Ritz Hotel at 1040 West Georgia was originally a 1912 apartment building. It was remodeled into a hotel when this photo was taken in 1956 and demolished in 1982. It was replaced by the 22-storey hideous gold Grosvenor building. Selwyn Pullan photo

I wonder what happened to the murals?

Top photo: Clarke Simpkins Dealership, 1345 West Georgia. Built 1963, demolished 1993. Selwyn Pullan photo, 1963.

Tags Arthur Erickson, Barry Downs, BC Binning, BC Electric Building, CKWX, Clarke Simpkins, Electra, Fred Hollingsworth, Ned Pratt, Paul Merrick, Ron Thom, Selwyn Pullan, Thompson Berwick Pratt, West Vancouver Museum

Selwyn Pullan Photography: What’s Lost

by Eve Lazarus on June 9, 2018

I finally got a chance to drop by the West Vancouver Museum yesterday to check out the latest exhibition on the photography of Selwyn Pullan. Assistant curator Kiriko Watanabe has done an amazing job, not only pulling out some of Selwyn’s most interesting work, but also displaying the cameras that he used to shoot them with.

After serving in the Canadian Navy during the Second World War, Selwyn moved to Los Angeles to study photography at the Art Center School in Los Angeles where Ansel Adams taught. He worked as a news photographer at the Halifax Chronicle, and when he moved back to Vancouver in 1950 he found a new movement of artists and architects who were reinventing the house.

Selwyn reinvented architectural photography.

When he found that the Speed Graphic was inadequate for the movement needed for photographing West Coast Modern architecture, Selwyn built his own camera. Eve Lazarus photo

Several years ago, I asked him how he went about taking these photos. “I just look at the house and photograph it,” he said. “It’s a journalistic assignment not a photographic one.”

Many of his photos were taken in the 1950s and ‘60s. They evoke a sense of time, optimism for the future, and perhaps even a new way of thinking. He intuitively understood the work of the architects he photographed, emphasizing light and space and often pulling in the homeowners and their children to show how the architectural and interior design fit with family life.

His pictures show Gordon Smith painting in the studio designed by Arthur Erickson; there’s a young Erickson lounging in his own adapted garage; and Jack Shadbolt is photographed painting in his Burnaby studio. His stunning portraits of artists and sculptors include E.J. Hughes, George Norris, Bill Reid and Roy Kiyooka.

While the photos in the exhibition showcase Selwyn’s work, they are also carefully selected to show our missing heritage—building after building both residential and commercial that no longer exist. The loss is particularly apparent in West Coast Modern.

Go see this exhibition—it runs until July 14. There’s a guest talk by Donald Luxton on Saturday June 30 at 2:00 p.m. which will be well worth your time.

Selwyn died last September, after spending 65 years in his North Vancouver house, where he worked in his Fred Hollingsworth-designed studio, and where he parked his jaguar under a Hollingsworth-designed carport.

Fred Hollingsworth designed Selwyn’s North Vancouver home/studio in 1960.

Top photo caption: Birks Building. Architect Somervell and Putnam. Built 1912, demolished 1974.

Tags Arthur Erickson, Bill Reid, E.J. Hughes, Fred Hollingsworth, Geoffrey Massey, George Norris, Gordon Smith, Jack Shadbolt, Kiriko Watanabe, Roy Kiyooka Birks building, Selwyn Pullan, West Vancouver Museum

Our Missing Heritage: 18 Lost Buildings of Vancouver

by Eve Lazarus on April 14, 2018

Originally from Edmonton, Raymond Biesinger is a Montreal-based illustrator whose work regularly appears in the New Yorker, Le Monde and the Guardian. In his spare time, he likes to draw lost buildings.

In his down-time, Biesinger is drawing his way through nine of Canada’s largest cities. He’s just finished Vancouver, the sixth city in his Lost Buildings series, and his print depicts 18 important heritage buildings that we’ve either bulldozed, burned down or neglected out of existence.

Biesinger uses geometric shapes to ‘build’ his building illustrations

Vancouver’s Lost Buildings:

The lost buildings include iconic ones such as the Georgia Medical-Dental building, the second Hotel Vancouver, and the Birks Building. It also includes the Stuart Building, the Orillia, Electric House, the Mandarin Garden and Little Mountain–described as “British Columbia’s first and most successful social housing project” (there’s a full list below).

#16 Vancouver Art Gallery (1931-1965) Courtesy CVA 99-4061

Biesinger spent loads of hours researching photos from different online archival sources, as well as local journalists and blogs such as mine.

The Short List:

Unfortunately, there is no shortage of amazing buildings missing from our landscape for Biesinger to choose from. Narrowing down his list was a challenge. He looked for buildings that were socially, architecturally or historically important.

Union Station designed by Fred Townley in 1916. and demolished in 1965. Illustration by Raymond Biesinger

“I tried to get a selection of buildings that had a variety of social purposes—so residences, towers, commercial spaces, athletic spaces, transportation spaces, entertainment and that kind of thing,” he says. “At one point my Vancouver list had mostly theatres on it, because there were so many gorgeous old Vancouver theatres.”

Two of the biggest losses for Vancouver, in Biesinger’s opinion, was the Vancouver Art Gallery’s art deco building on West Georgia and the David Graham House in West Vancouver designed by Arthur Erickson in 1963.

West Coast Modern:

“It just blew my mind that this west coast modern house was demolished in 2007. Someone bought it for the lot and knocked it down so they could put up a McMansion,” he says. “The VAG building from 1931 is incredible. When I found that it was love at first sight. The supreme irony that it was knocked down and is currently a Trump Tower is insane.”

Biesinger has a degree in history from the University of Alberta, and between 2012 and 2016 was at work on a series that showed 10 different Canadian cities during specific points in their history—for example—Montreal at the opening of Expo ’67 and Vancouver during the opening of the Trans-Canada Highway in 1962.

Vancouver in 1962. Courtesy Raymond Biesinger

“What really fascinated me was the buildings that weren’t standing any more, and that people were surprised that existed,” he says.

So how does Vancouver stack up against heritage losses in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Edmonton and Calgary?

”The worse a city’s record for preserving old buildings, the more enthusiastic people are about these prints,” he said. “Vancouver has done a poor job. I think the economic currents running through Vancouver are just insane and not in favour of preserving the old.”

The Stuart Building sat at the entrance to Stanley Park. It was demolished in 1982. Photo Courtesy Angus McIntyre

The 18 Lost Buildings:

1. Georgia Medical-Dental building (1928-1989)

2. Electric House (1922-2017)

3. The Vancouver courthouse (1888-1912)

4. Little Mountain (1954-2009)

5. Birks Building (1913-1974)

6. Mandarin Garden (1918-1952)

7. The Stuart Building (1909-1982)

8. Vancouver Athletic Club (1906-1946)

9. Pantages Theatre (1907-2011)

10. Union Station (1916-1965)

11. The Orillia (1903-1985)

12. Market Hall (1890-1958)

13. Vancouver Opera House (1891-1969)

14. The second Hotel Vancouver (1916-1949)

15. Ridge Theatre (1950-2013)

16. the Vancouver Art Gallery (1931-1985)

17. Majestic Theatre (1918-1967)

18. David Graham House (1963-2007)

For more posts on Vancouver’s missing heritage: Our Missing Heritage

Missing Heritage

Tags Arthur Erickson, Birks Building, David Graham House, Georgia Medical-Dental Building, Orillia, Pantages, Raymond Biesinger, Second Hotel Vancouver, Stuart Building, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver Opera House

The House that Chip Built

by Eve Lazarus on January 7, 2017

The four lots on the right of photo are now 3085 Point Grey Road

It’s the first week of January, 2017 and if you own a house you’ve received your BC Assessment notice. If you’re like us you’re not popping open the champagne quite yet because your house has smashed through the ceiling of the home owner grant and you’re on the hook for a lot more taxes, all without putting out one lick of paint.

Update: January 2023 – Valued at just over $74 million, Chip Wilson’s house is still #1, but it’s assessed at less that the 2017 level of $75.8 million.

You can thank all those houses that have flipped and flapped over the past 12 months and likely sit empty on your street. The irony is, if you decide to sell because you can’t afford the taxes, good luck trying to get your assessment value.

Be sure to thank Christy Clark in the coming election.

3085 Point Grey Road:

But no use feeling sorry for ourselves, let’s feel sorry for Chip. Now I don’t know Chip Wilson personally, but I do wear his pants, and he has once again come in first for the most expensive house in B.C. To achieve this, all he had to do was mow down four single-family homes, send their parts off to the landfill, and build himself a 30,000+ sq.ft. Kitsilano bunker (imagine half a football field).

You have to love a man who lives his manifesto, note “live near the ocean and inhale the pure salt air that flows over the water.” Lululemon

There have been a few changes in order, but the top 10 houses that I wrote about in 2015, are still the top 10 houses in 2017. The most prestigious address is Belmont Avenue which claims half the spots.

James Island:

The house that comes with its own island, private docks and six guest cottages—James Island—has dropped to the third spot, trailing 4707 Belmont by $16 million.

4707 Belmont claims the #2 spot at $69.2 million. It was designed by Russell Hollingsworth and comes in at 25,000 sq.ft. Vancouver Sun photo

Two years ago, 2815 Point Grey had the 10^th spot, this year it’s moved to number five and a 23% increase in value. Can anyone spell b.i.k.e. l.a.n.e?

The Hollies:

The only heritage house on the top 10, and the only one from Shaughnessy to make the list, bumped up a spot to #6 with a $39.2 million price tag. Built in 1912, the Hollies is a rambling Neoclassical Revival, and less than half the size of Chip’s digs. The house also has an indoor pool, tennis courts, a playground and a coach house. At one point the owners paid their property taxes by renting out the mansion as a wedding reception hall.

Now there’s a thought!

Arthur Erickson designed the indoor swimming pool for the Hollies in the '80s — Arthur Erickson designed the indoor swimming pool for the Hollies in the ’80s

If you’re wondering what your neighbour’s house is going for you can check it out here at: https://evaluebc.bcassessment.ca/ You have until the end of January to appeal your assessment.

Tags 1388 The Crescent, 2815 Point Grey Road, 3085 Point Grey Road, 4707 Belmont, Arthur Erickson, Chip Wilson, James Island, Lululemon, Russell Hollingsworth, The Hollies

Arthur Erickson’s Pad

Selwyn Pullan:

West Coast Modern:

Related:

Vancouver’s Peace House and the Grateful Dead

3148 Point Grey Road:

The Afterthought:

Further Reading:

BC Binning’s Missing Murals

Artist and teacher:

Murals:

West Coast Modern: Selling Architecture as Art

West Coast Modern Architecture

Ned Pratt:

CKWX

Selwyn Pullan Photography: What’s Lost

Our Missing Heritage: 18 Lost Buildings of Vancouver

Vancouver’s Lost Buildings:

The Short List:

West Coast Modern:

The 18 Lost Buildings:

Related:

The House that Chip Built

3085 Point Grey Road:

James Island:

The Hollies:

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Selwyn Pullan:

West Coast Modern:

Related:

3148 Point Grey Road:

The Afterthought:

Further Reading:

Artist and teacher:

Murals:

Ned Pratt:

CKWX

Vancouver’s Lost Buildings:

The Short List:

West Coast Modern:

The 18 Lost Buildings:

Related:

3085 Point Grey Road:

James Island:

The Hollies:

Support

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