Arthur Erickson

What is a Heritage Register?

by Eve Lazarus on August 6, 2011

For more tips on researching your home’s history see At Home with History: the secrets of Greater Vancouver’s heritage homes

The District of North Vancouver has two heritage inventories—Modern Architecture (1930-1965) published in 1997, and one with houses that date prior to 1930 published in 1993. Both are hopelessly out of date, many houses no longer exist, and others that should have been included, were not.

And, because neither of the books is online, new home owners looking to renovate, update or rip down are often unpleasantly surprised to be hauled in front of the Heritage Commission because their modest post and beam was designed by Fred Thornton Hollingsworth, Arthur Erickson or Ron Thom.

Built in 1911 by Thomas E. Christie — Christie House, 267 West Queens Road, North Vancouver

Several years ago the District hired heritage expert Donald Luxton to update the heritage inventory in preparation for a heritage register. He recommended that of the 354 sites in the inventory, 152 should be on the register. It’s something the Heritage Commission has been trying to get into public record for the more than three years I’ve been a member, and it finally went before Council at the end of January.

The first question Mayor Walton asked was why it’s taken so long.

Why indeed. There are tons of benefits for homeowners and it gives district staff some teeth when it comes to saving our heritage. It’s hard to see a downside.

Councilors Lisa Muri and Mike Little were both involved with heritage over the years and I liked their responses. “We owe it to the history of our community,” said Muri. “I don’t think in any way we’re impeding an owner’s rights to anything, we’re just giving them an option.”

Little was blunt. “Yes, we are intentionally adding red tape,” he said. “We’re doing it out of what we believe to be the interests of the broader community.”

Heritage Registry versus Heritage Inventory:

An inventory is simply a listing of houses and buildings deemed to have heritage value. If an owner wants to rip it down, there’s little that the district can do. A register would give staff the power to slap a temporary protection order on any of the 152 identified buildings and offer the owners some incentives to save them. It doesn’t restrict what an owner can do with their property, it doesn’t restrict the sale of the property, it won’t devalue the property—in fact it may even increase it.

Heritage Register versus Heritage Designation:

Councilors who argued against bringing in the heritage register seemed to be confused by its purpose. Having your house on a register is not the same as a heritage designation. In fact, there are only a handful of designated buildings in North Vancouver and the only way a building can become designated is if the homeowner requests it or if council compensates the owner for any monies lost due to the designation.

A house that is protected through a designation cannot be demolished and cannot be altered without council approval. But even slapped with a temporary protection order, if the owners want to add to, change or demolish a house on a register after the order expires, there’s nothing the district can do about it.

How does a House get on a Heritage Register?

Architecture is important, but it’s not everything. The Statement of Significance used to compile the listings has three sections: historic place, heritage value and character-defining elements. The idea is to explain why a historic place is important to the community from a social and cultural, as well as an architectural perspective. As Andre Kroeger, an architect and chair of the Heritage Commission notes, considerations for heritage value are typically historical value—the story; rarity or uniqueness; aesthetic value; cultural and scientific value—i.e. archeological.

Benefits of a Heritage Register listing:

Once a house is listed on a heritage registry its owners are eligible for foundation grants, municipal, provincial and federal incentives, tax credits and deferrals. The City of Vancouver, for instance, will sometimes relax zoning and development by-laws allowing owners of heritage buildings to do a variety of things that would otherwise not be allowed.

So, what’s the hold up?

It’s been eight months since Council gave district the go ahead and still no action. Apparently we have to wait until there’s a public information meeting for owners, even though it’s not legally required. Now with Council elections in November it’s unlikely anything will happen before then. But even if a meeting ever does eventuate, district staff will insist on churning out a report to Council and Council will likely have to meet again. Since Council will have a new face after the election, I’m betting we’ll be starting the whole process all over again….

Tags Andre Kroeger, Arthur Erickson, District of North Vancouver, Donald Luxton, Fred Thornton Hollingsworth, Heritage Commission, Heritage Inventory, Historic Places, Lisa Muri, Mike Little, Modern Architecture, Ron Thom, Statement of Significance, temporary protection order

The Shannon Estate: Fourth most endangered heritage site

by Eve Lazarus on February 27, 2011

Last week Heritage Vancouver released its annual top ten list of endangered heritage sites in Vancouver. Three schools topped the list, but the residence considered most in danger is the four-hectare Shannon Estate at the corner of Granville and 57^th. Note that it’s not the 40-room mansion that’s under threat, it’s Shannon Mews, the infill townhouse development designed by Arthur Erickson, that’s on the block.

The Shannon Estate is valued at $43 million and because the estate is a huge chunk of land in a sought after area, it’s not going to stay the way it is now. It’s also under the allowable density and that’s a problem because loading up the density on the site with glass and steel towers will most definitely impact the context of the estate, which at the moment, still feels like an estate.

Shannon Mews–Erickson Massey designed townhouse development, 2011

The City of Vancouver gives developers density bonuses to preserve and maintain heritage in Vancouver. In other words, instead of levelling an old mansion for a 20-storey skyscraper, a developer would incorporate the mansion into the development in exchange for a 22-storey skyscraper. The 1899 mansion at the corner of Georgia and Jervis Streets that sits next to two 37-storey towers is an example. For saving the house and turning it into five condos, Wall Financial Corp (which also owns Shannon) got two extra floors on each tower as their heritage density bonus.

The problem, says Donald Luxton, president of Heritage Vancouver, is that the City has stopped using density bonuses strictly for heritage, but is now using them for everything from daycare to social housing. “What we are asking,” Luxton told the Vancouver Historical Society, “is how much is too much?”

B.T. Rogers

I wrote the story of Shannon in At Home with History, and it’s a fascinating one. B.T. Rogers, Vancouver’s first millionaire industrialist and founder of BC Sugar, built the Samuel Maclure-designed Gabriola on Davie Street in 1900. A decade later, Rogers bought 10 acres in the country and had Somervell & Putnam architects design a house that would be the largest west of Toronto. Unfortunately, the economy tanked in 1913 and war broke out the following year, delaying construction until 1915. Three years later, Rogers, 52, died from a cerebral haemorrhage leaving his widow Mary to raise seven children at Gabriola. Mary finished Shannon in 1925 and lived there for 11 years until selling Shannon to Austin C Taylor, president of Bralorne gold mine for $105,600. Taylor stayed until his death in 1965. Developer Peter Wall bought Shannon and hired architect Arthur Erickson to turn the property into a housing development.

Wall Financial Corp's proposal to replace Shannon Mews — The proposed development at 57th and Granville

The 14-storey Tower Proposal

At present there are 162 suites in the two-storey buildings designed by Erickson Massey in 1974. The current proposal leaves the mansion, coach and gate house intact, retains some of the landscaping, but razes the entire townhouse development and most of the surrounding trees. In place of the townhouses are two towers of 13 and 14-stories and several smaller ones scattered about that bring the total count of suites to 891 and increase the number of residents from 340 to 1,600.

Tags 7255 Granville Street, Arthur Erickson, Austin C. Taylor, Benjamin Tingley Rogers, City of Vancouver, Donald Luxton, Erickson Massey, Gabriola, Heritage density bonuses, Heritage Vancouver Society, Mary Rogers, Peter Wall, Samuel Maclure, Shannon Mews, Somervell & Putnam, Wall Financial Corp

Fred Thornton Hollingsworth

by Eve Lazarus on October 24, 2010

Fred Hollingsworth in the Trethewey Residence he designed in 1961. Photo courtesy of Selwyn Pullan.

The story of Fred Hollingsworth and his house appears in Sensational Vancouver:

While Arthur Erickson, Ned Pratt and Ron Thom have imprinted their West Coast style of architecture all over Vancouver, Fred Thornton Hollingsworth is the architect most responsible for the look of post war North Vancouver. Inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright, Hollingsworth met the legend in 1951 and turned down a job offer to work with him, opting instead to develop his own style.

2800 Colwood Drive, North Vancouver

Dominica Babicki grew up in a Hollingsworth house and when the opportunity to buy another came up, she and partner Alastair Moore, a green building consultant, got out their cheque book.

Hollingsworth called their Colwood Drive house Neoteric—an economical house with a simple post and beam construction and a flat roof with a clerestory to bring in light to the interior spaces. Hollingsworth set this house at the rise of a slope and terraced the front yard with a series of rock retaining walls. He contracted E.A. Peck to build the house in 1950 for Leslie McNicol a salesman at the Mann Litho Company at a cost of $10,000.

Babicki and Moore have since transformed their home into a smart eco-residence in keeping with the spirit and character of the original house.

Modern Heritage Renovation

The owners found much of the design’s clarity and materials buried under layers of drywall, laminate flooring and paint. Gradually, they stripped away the materials to expose the original design. At the same time they improved upon the overall health, energy efficiency and environmental performance of the house with green materials, solar hot water heating, FSC-certified cedar siding and LED lighting.

Hollingsworth, now 93, still lives in the house he designed in 1946 on Ridgewood Drive. Twenty years later he told Canadian Architect why he wanted to stay in a small architectural practice: “Because we’re romantics and it is to me exciting to see a family raised in a fine building they have lived in since the day they were born.”

Tags Arthur Erickson, Frank Lloyd Wright, Fred Thornton Hollingsworth, Ned Pratt, Neoteric, Ron Thom

BC Binning and the Heritage Inventory

by Eve Lazarus on September 28, 2010

The full story of B.C. Binning’s house is in Sensational Vancouver

Most municipalities have a heritage inventory that includes houses built before 1940. Makes sense doesn’t it? When you think heritage you think old. But actually heritage can be 20 years old, and that can surprise a new home owner wanting to renovate or demolish who is suddenly hauled in front of a heritage commission.

When the City of Vancouver introduced the Heritage Register in 1986, the foremost concern was saving buildings deemed architecturally important. The register identified prominent Shaughnessy houses such as Glen Brae and Hycroft, Roedde House in the West End, as well as various churches, schools, and public buildings. Recently, the city added 22 modern buildings to the register. Five of these are protected through designation: the former BC Hydro building, the former Vancouver Public Library, the Gardner House in Southlands, the Dodek House in Oakridge and the Evergreen Building.

In 1997, the District of North Vancouver published a modern inventory for houses built between 1930 and 1965. Many are modest looking post and beams designed by local legends Arthur Erickson, Ron Thom, Fred T. Hollingsworth and Ned Pratt.

Designed by Ned Pratt in 1941 — BC Binning House

The Binning Residence at 2968 Mathers Crescent, in West Vancouver and built by Ned Pratt, is maintained by The Land Conservancy and it’s well worth checking out on one of the public tours.

Built in 1941 for $5,000, the house is credited with launching the West Coast modernism movement. Unlike the massive multi-million dollar mansions that surround it, Binning responded to the social and economic condition of the time by using local materials and efficient construction materials to create an affordable house that harmonizes art and architecture, form and function.

A prominent artist who studied under Frederick Varley and Henry Moore, Binning founded the University of B.C.’s department of fine arts. His interest in architecture led him to design large mosaic murals for public buildings such as the B.C. Electric Substation and the series of murals which he painted directly onto the walls of his house.

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