“Steps to Edgemont Village – exceptional location! This three-bedroom Hollingsworth designed rancher has incredible potential to renovate or build new on this 8050 sq. ft. lot. Classic post and beam style w/open living areas including incredible gardens, a large private rear patio off the family room featuring a built in BBQ and a pond. $1,299,000.” Realtor’s ad September 2012.
Fred Thornton Hollingsworth designed this house in 1950. The house was on the Heritage Register because of its post and beam construction and because it was a fine example of West Coast modern architecture in a brief time when it was thought that it was more important to blend a house into its surroundings then impose itself on it.
The house sold, the new owner applied for a demolition permit and within a month the beautiful mid-century house and garden were gone. A couple of months later a For Sale went up again. The new real estate agent waxed on about what a “spectacular opportunity” it was to buy this empty lot.
Architect Mark Thompson has pre-drawn plans approved for someone’s “dream home” – a 5,000 sq.ft. five-bedroom six-and-a-half bathroom mega house. Seriously can someone explain to me the appeal of so many bathrooms? The lot which was raped of its garden setting and house was immediately put back up for sale for $1,369,000, sending a clear message to developers that a lot is worth $70,000 more if it doesn’t have a heritage house on it.
Fred Thornton Hollingsworth was born in England in 1917. He pioneered West Coast Architecture on the North Shore and died in 2015 at the age of 98.
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.
Fred Hollingsworth in the Trethewey Residence he designed in 1961. Photo courtesy of Selwyn Pullan.
West Coast Architecture:
Lee Atwell grew up in a Hollingsworth house.
Her parents bought the “Watt’s Residence” from the original owners in 1965. It was built for $15,000 in 1951.
3635 Sunnycrest Drive, North Vancouver
Lee’s dad died this year, and she and her sister Bev, who both live out of province, put the house on the market – only the third time in the sixty years since it was built.
“It was my Dad’s wish to live in the house until the time he passed at the age of 87—he loved the house so much,” Lee said. “I feel not only was it my parents who influenced our aesthetic tastes and deep connection to the natural world, but also the house itself. The house helped to define who we are today.”
Lee and Bev’s fear was that new owners would want to raze the place and put up something new. So they were immensely relieved when they found buyers who also love the house. Instead of tearing it down, they’ve hired Fred’s son Russell Hollingsworth, to design an addition in keeping with his father’s philosophy.
The Neoteric House:
I’ve written about Hollingsworth before, but Lee’s comments made me want to revisit some of his architecture, because when it comes to post-war architecture, Fred Hollingsworth is a rock star. He invented the Neoteric style where Lee, Bev and their older brother grew up—affordable family housing with a small footprint, open plan and simple post and beam construction. As early as 1946, Hollingsworth was including radiant floor heating, clerestory windows and skylights to let in lots of light and old growth wood paneling.
As Lee will tell you, a Hollingsworth house is part design, part art and part architecture.
2576 Edgemont Boulevard, North Vancouver
Reconnecting with Nature:
The Moon Residence was built for $11,000 in 1950. It came onto the market for $1.38 million this summer. Like Lee’s house, it is set in a private park-like setting and looks like part of nature rather than something imposed upon it. It’s the type of house that the environmentally friendly should aspire to, and fortunately there are still many Hollingsworth houses in existence–I counted 22 in the District of North Vancouver’s inventory of modern architecture.
“I’ve always said a home is an escape from the world; a place to which you escape to reconnect with nature,” Hollingsworth told writer and urban designer Bob Ransford.
“My clients were all individuals. Many people had different interests. I tried to get into their lives. I tried to find out how they used their space.”
In fact, Hollingsworth, who will turn 95 in January, still lives in the house he designed for his family in 1946 at 1205 Ridgewood Drive in Edgemont Village.
While his name stands for West Coast Modernism and small residential homes, Hollingsworth’s architectural range is astounding. He designed the building that houses UBC’s Faculty of Law in 1971, and in 1993, he designed Nat Bosa’s West Vancouver waterfront mansion at 130 South Oxley Street. In 2005, Vancouver Magazine ranked it as the second most expensive property in BC; assessed at $24 million, with a market value of more than $30 million.
Wondering what happened to the neon “DRUGS” sign that once sat on top of the Pharmasave building in Edgemont Village?The building is long gone. Pharmasave moved across the street and didn’t want to move the sign with them. The new building, now an HSBC bank, didn’t want a sign that has no bearing on its business.
Robert Watt, a historian, archivist and former Chief Herald of Canada, wants the sign returned to the Village. As the curator of history at the Vancouver Museum, he was instrumental in starting a neon collection in the late 1970s and has lived in Edgemont since 1990.
The sign, he says is “iconic” in Edgemont Village, connects residents to the streetscape and should be an integral part of the area’s heritage. The RX stands for Rexall, the original pharmacy at that location, while the mortar and pestle at the top of the sign represents the tool that pharmacists once used to crush, grind and mix substances.
Helen’s turned into Heights
Many of Metro Vancouver’s neon signs wound up on the scrap heap, but the 1957 girl on the swing was recently restored and relocated. The letters changed from “Helen’s” to “Heights” as a way to continue its significance to the Burnaby Heights district.
While no one wants to rob the sign of its heritage importance, maybe we need to make some compromises. Let’s face it, not a lot of businesses want the word “drugs” above their logo, there isn’t a lot of district-owned land available in the area, and if the sign is turned on, then it needs to be away from a residential neighbourhood.
The sign now belongs to the District of North Vancouver and is presently crated up in the operations centre.
Architect Mark Thompson has pre-drawn plans approved for someone’s “dream home” – a 5,000 sq.ft. five-bedroom six-and-a-half bathroom mega house. Seriously can someone explain to me the appeal of so many bathrooms? The lot which was raped of its garden setting and house was immediately put back up for sale for $1,369,000, sending a clear message to developers that a lot is worth $70,000 more if it doesn’t have a heritage house on it.
