WEST VANCOUVER: An Architect’s Dream

West Vancouver is a unique community, created as Canada’s first suburban retreat. When the municipality was designed and registered in 1912, it was specifically created without the influence of industry. As such, it became a destination for real estate from its inception, as a beautiful, land-rich conclave for those who could imagine a new life on the North Shore.

As local West Vancouver historian Isaac Vanderhorst states, the are was home to a new architectural movement called West Coast Modernism, one of Canada's most prominent artistic building endeavours. Influenced in part by European modernism, Japanese design and the work of American architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright and Richard Neutra, Canadian architects and designers embraced West Vancouver's spectacular and rugged coastal landscape to produce a legacy of unique and award-winning residences. In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, many of these homes were brought to the public’s attention through magazines, such as Western Homes and Living, which promoted modern trends in architecture, interiors and design. Beginning in the early 1940s and continuing after the Second World War, architects, artists and designers actively explored relationships between their disciplines. Artist and educator B.C. Binning, an early proponent of the modern movement, designed his seminal flat-roofed house in 1941 and incorporated his painted murals into its design. Boundaries between the applied and fine arts were blurring and merging; in 1949, the Vancouver Art Gallery presented Design for Living, a Community Arts Council exhibition of modern room settings featuring locally designed furnishings, architectural plans and art.

West Vancouver’s rocky and precipitous topography and a comparatively mild climate inspired architects to use new construction techniques in their house designs. A flat or inclined roof, an open floor plan and extensive use of glazing, skylights and exterior doors were used to integrate indoor and outdoor spaces and exploit spectacular views of ocean and forest. Abundant local and inexpensive construction materials, such as hemlock, cedar and stone, linked the house to its surroundings and brought a natural palette into the living space.

As Vanderhorst states, because of its architecture and outstanding natural beauty, West Vancouver has been home to some of Canada’s most celebrated artists, such as Jack Shadbolt, Douglas Coupland, Gordon Smith, Sarah MacLachlan, and Diana Krall and her husband Elvis Costello.

West Vancouver has now become a large municipality of almost 42,000 people. With a unique mixture of old summer resorts, modern homes, and elaborate waterfront estates.

For more information on this history and architecture of West Vancouver, please visit the West Vancouver Museum: 680 17th Street, West Vancouver, BC V7V 3T2, 604.925.7295.