“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.
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.
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 registerwould 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….
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.”
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.
