Pretty Special
Updating a Vancouver Special into a $2m home
Everyone knows Vancouver house prices are sky high. Still, here's one that really ups the ante: a Vancouver Special at 4070 West 18th that is for sale for $2,098,000.
But this is no ordinary Vancouver Special. In fact, you'd never know it was a Vancouver Special, because it has been transformed into an ultra-contemporary home.
For the uninitiated, a Vancouver Special is a two-storey box that is popular among some people, but totally reviled by others. Architecturally they're usually distinguished by a red brick facade on the first floor, white stucco up top and a wrought iron railing on a second-storey balcony.
This is an older Special from the late 1960s, with brown wood siding up top and stucco on the bottom.
The house before renovation.
Photograph by : Steve Bosch, Vancouver Sun
Vancouver Special at West 18th has been rebuilt into a contemporary home.
Photograph by : Steve Bosch, Vancouver Sun
The lower kitchen cabinets are stained oak and the counter is a quartz composite.
Photograph by : Steve Bosch, Vancouver Sun
But it is virtually unrecognizable from when renovations started a year ago.
The exterior is now a cool mix of cedar siding and floor-to-ceiling windows, along with a second-storey balcony that juts out at a rakish angle.
The inside has been flipped around. In the standard Special, the bedrooms are on the main floor, the living quarters on the second floor. Here it's back to the more traditional living down, bedrooms up.
But there is very little else that's traditional about the interior, which is sleek and modern.
"We deprogrammed it," says Chris Doray, who designed the house with Arno Matis. "And then we reprogrammed it."
Indeed. Doray, Matis and developer Alan Askew basically stripped the building down to the basic box, then reimagined it as a contemporary structure.
Why bother?
It makes economic sense. Many Vancouver Specials are "existing non-conforming," which is zoning-speak for an older building that breaks modern rules. The house has 2,500 square feet of space over two floors, with no basement. If you tore the house down and built new, the current RS5 zoning would only allow you to build 1,800 sq. ft. above ground, and a 700-sq.-ft. basement.
Moreover, you couldn't build a contemporary design under the RS5 guidelines, which are designed to try to retain the historic character of neighbourhoods. This means that if you were to build new, you'd have to build something that fits in with the other houses in the 'hood, such as a new-old arts and crafts home or a Tudor.
By renovating, Doray and Matis could let their imaginations run wild. They tore off the old roof and replaced it with a new structure that zig-zags in the opposite direction, making for much taller ceilings and all sorts of interesting angles. They strategically installed skylights which brought light down two storeys in the stairwell. They dug down in the front of the house and installed big floor-to-ceiling windows.
The changes begin with the front entrance, which is quite dramatic. The front door is massive; four feet, six inches wide.
"There's just something about manoeuvring something that large and heavy," says Askew.
"The way it moves and feels in your hand, it's just a real feeling of comfort and security. Proportionately it works really well."
The drama of the door is matched by the drama of the staircase, which seems to be steps floating in space (they're cantilevered off a concrete spine). To show them off, the stairwell wall is glass, rather than drywall.
"The first impression lasts longest," says Doray, who worked with architect Bing Thom before branching off into his own company with Matis.
"It's part of that reinterpretation of scale between what is a traditional Vancouver Special, and a more contemporary vision of what that can be once you open up the space," adds Matis, who also worked with Thom.
"You're trying to scale elements that relate to that. The stair, the door, they're all part of that conversion process."
On the main floor, what had been bedrooms on the eastern side of the home was altered into 44 feet of continuous space, with a living and dining area linking up with the kitchen. The feeling of continuity is enhanced by horizontal windows on the side which bring more light in.
"The idea was to bleed from the street, so you're bleeding right through," says Doray.
"In the evenings when you come by, the house is X-rayed to the back."
Initially they were worried the ceiling on the main floor might be too low, but keeping everything open, and painting the walls white, makes it seem quite high.
"We did not even lift the floor one inch," says Doray.
"Because of the lightness of the space, the way we configured the space, the ceiling actually doesn't bother anyone. This is a pretty deep home, but you've got light flooding in from both [front and back]."
The white walls are in stark contrast to the floor, which is oak stained dark brown, like a wenge or walnut colour. The existing fireplace was given a new oversized concrete mantle and shelf, adding to the contemporary vibe.
The architects opened up the lower floor from front to back.
Photograph by : Steve Bosch, Vancouver Sun
Vancouver Special owned by Alan Askew (with daughter Isabelle, 5) has been redesigned by architects Chris Doray (left) and Arno Matis.
Photograph by : Steve Bosch, Vancouver Sun
Staircase is cantilevered off a concrete spine.
Photograph by : Steve Bosch, Vancouver Sun
Media room is in the middle of the lower floor.
Photograph by : Steve Bosch, Vancouver Sun
The western side of the main floor has a family room and den, but both are flexible spaces that can be converted into whatever the homeowner wants -- a TV room, formal dining area, whatever.
One subtle trick was to have everything on the main floor flow horizontally.
"There's a certain marriage of lines," says Doray.
"The proportions of the top [kitchen] cabinets, the way the windows are spaced, the way the drawers are lined, the way the floorboards are going, there is this horizontal grainial quality that is quite harmonious. Your zen thing inside you is not criss-crossing, it's flowing in one direction, and we like that. "
Upstairs has four bedrooms. The master runs the length of the eastern side of the home, and includes the angled balcony, a large walk-in closet and a large bathroom with a sunken bathtub. The front features floor to ceiling windows that are 12 feet six inches high, and a ceiling that slopes.
"Before we even got into the house they said 'We're going to change the roof, so that when you're in the sitting room of the master bedroom you can see the top of the cherry blossom tree in the front," says Askew.
"You've got this incredible cherry blossom that's 25 feet tall, and then you've got blue sky beyond," says Doray.
"What you had [originally] was a window that was eight feet high. You saw nothing ... you saw bits of the cherry blossom and zero sky. So we picture-framed the cherry blossom and a bit of the blue sky."
The wildest bedroom is in the southwest corner. The pitch of the roof was a bit wacky, so they enhanced it by tilting the wall, giving it a bit of an Alice in Wonderland look.
"Here you can see we lost the sense of gravity in the room," laughs Doray.
"The walls and the pitch of the roof raced by each other by six inches, so we tilted the wall to pick up the ridge line."
The master bedroom has 12-foot, six-inch windows.
Photograph by : Steve Bosch, Vancouver Sun
His-and-her sinks are another master-bedroom feature.
Photograph by : Steve Bosch, Vancouver Sun
Main-floor dining room could also be used as a family room.
Photograph by : Steve Bosch, Vancouver Sun
The living room incorporates the original fireplace.
Photograph by : Steve Bosch, Vancouver Sun
A large walk-in closet graces the master bedroom.
Photograph by : Steve Bosch, Vancouver Sun
It's quite unlike anything you've ever seen in a Vancouver Special. Or any Vancouver home, for that matter. Which is one of the things Askew likes about the project -- it was unique.
The cost? Askew would rather not say, but a guess of $300 per sq. ft. "is in the right ballpark."
"I set out to be competitive with what else is being built new on the west side, and I've achieved that," he says.
"So I was able to build this for a very similar amount [compared] to other similar new product."
He says this bodes well for future Vancouver Special conversions.
"This is a pure prototype," Askew says.
"We worked it out as we went through it, to a large degree. [But] the goal is to save these things. They're here, they're in good shape, they're well built, and they're very efficiently built. They don't need to be thrown away. You can do something that's going to take us through another 50 years, and improve the neighbourhoods that they're in."
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/n...b-c4632186e675
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