Vancouver is known architecturally for the hundreds of Arts-and-Crafts- and Craftsman-style mansions and bungalows built early in the twentieth century, the smallest of which now fetches a handsome price. Notable for their shingle exteriors, brick chimneys, stained glass, natural-stone bases, and interior woodwork, they’re found throughout the west side, but particularly on the leafy streets of upscale Shaughnessy, Kerrisdale, Kitsilano, and West Point Grey.
But the greatest period of design in this city was between 1930 and 1970, when the region was a Western leader of Modernist, Expres¬sionist architecture particularly in wood-frame post-and-beam houses, characteristically open to the woodsy coastal elements and flooded with natural light.
The best known of the notable architects who pioneered this trend remains Arthur Erickson (www.arthurerickson.com). He designed many of the region’s most celebrated houses, mostly nestled into the rock and forest of West Vancouver.
Erickson also made his mark with the MacMillan-Bloedel Building on Georgia Street at Thurlow Street an impressive, waffle-like concrete structure; the low-rise, slope-roofed Robson Square and Law Courts (Downtown, bounded by Robson, Howe, Nelson, and Hornby streets), which includes several levels of cascading water from accessible terraces; and the neo-Grecian Simon Fraser University atop Burnaby Mountain.
His name appears on the marquee ofuBc’s Koerner Library and the Scotia Dance Centre at Granville and Davie streets (Downtown), both of which have transparent glass façades.
Such is his reputation that other design firms pay him (presumably) big bucks for input and name association (see “Galleries”). Fortu¬nately, Erickson loves publicity. A decade ago, he created public hysteria by predicting that the population of metro Vancouver (about two million) would soon reach 10 million. At last report, he’s waiting and hoping. Most recent sighting: the Epicurean Deli in Kitsilano, lunching with groupies.
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