point-grey-townhouses: Point Grey Townhouses, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Designed 1963
These townhouses were organized from six properties for five individual clients, each with entirely different tastes and requirements. The houses are diverse in both size and price, and vary widely in interior arrangement and furnishings. The architectural problem was to discover a structural module that would unify these diverse elements. This was accomplished by using clusters of brick columns to form hallways, bathrooms, closets, storage areas, etc., and spanning the larger spaces between with wood beams and joists.
The result is an extremely flexible system of building which can be adapted to whatever requirements are specified in height or plan size and which, at the same time, presents a consistent and unified composition to the exterior.
The materials chosen were brick or plaster for walls and structural bays and pressure treated fir for the wood spans. These materials, along with brick or quarry tile floors, provide a relatively neutral background for the various furnishings of the owners. The resulting expression is directly that of the sturdy but graceful nature of the masonry against the more tenuous and taut nature of the wood.
The site commands a magnificent view of English Bay, the North Shore mountains of West Vancouver and the downtown Vancouver skyline to the east. Private south facing courtyards trap the sun and serve as entry courts from the streets. One outdoor and one indoor swimming pool were incorporated for individual owners as well as several roof gardens.
Photo by Geoffrey Erickson
