A West Vancouver reno with an architectural pedigree
The 1964 Massey Award winning home at 4090 Bayridge Ave., West Vancouver built by architect Barry Downs.The home was bought in 1998 by architects Bo Helliwell and Kim Smith who restored and renovated the property. Renovation opened up the mid-century core of the house , widening doorways, expanding the kitchen, amplifying glazing, while adding a studio, completed in 2000.Hadani Ditmars
In a happy marriage of form and function, the studio curves around the pond and landscaping, completing a circle at the home's north facing entrance. At the back, seen here, the home overlooks the water.Hadani Ditmars
West Vancouver had designated the house as a modernist heritage home and the city’s heritage panel initially nixed their plans to add a studio on the grounds that it was too much of a departure from the original design.Hadani Ditmars
The new bathroom is one of the house’s most attractive interior spaces. With it’s 11 foot high vaulted ceiling and glazing that overlooks a garden of lilac trees and smokebush, there is a sense of suspension into the site. 'Taking a bath here,' says Ms. Smith, 'is like floating over the garden.'Hadani Ditmars
The tall firs and cedars that surround the house obscure neighbouring residences. The steep, rocky slope toward the sea and a ravine that falls away to the east and allows an unobstructed water view, conspire to make the ½ acre site appear much larger than it actually is.Hadani Ditmars
The genius of it, says Mr. Helliwell, is how the house sits “suspended in the landscape.”Hadani Ditmars
Mr. Helliwell and Ms. Smith were attracted by the home's mid-century style and its neutral palette of white stucco, cedar and fir, enhanced by the natural beauty of the site.Hadani Ditmars
“Our intention was not to mimic the original home,” says Ms. Smith “but to enhance it. Sometimes you can get trapped in trying to be too faithful to the original design – and in doing so you can lose the essence of it.”Hadani Ditmars