Uncertain future for West Vancouver ‘work of art’

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Of course oral history is important: Without it, much of what we know about ourselves would vanish.

But when considering the history of the last century, say, where artifacts still exist – three-dimensional pieces of a puzzle that can help broaden our understanding – we owe it to our grandchildren to fight to preserve them.

However, when architecture is that puzzle piece, things get complicated.

Such is the case with the West Vancouver home designed by artist/educator Bertram Charles Binning in 1939-40, and built in 1941. Not only is it considered the first truly Modern house on the West Coast, but using merely a humble living room, kitchen, two bedrooms, one bathroom and a painting studio, it has been host to a who's who of architecture and art-world luminaries.

And while larger, more daring designs would follow in Vancouver, says Adele Weder, co-author of B.C. Binning, the home is "a work of art."

"It is subtle," she admits. "It's not as flamboyantly beautiful as some houses, like the Filberg house in Comox by Arthur Erickson, or the [Gordon] Smith House, but it's amazing when you're inside; many people describe it as an incredibly intoxicating or energizing or strange experience."

Stranger still, however, is the story of how the little 1,400-square-foot post-and-beamer – tucked into a forested cul-de-sac overlooking Burrard Inlet – has been involved in a convoluted legal battle that's left it with an uncertain future.

In a nutshell, the problem lies with the will of widow Jessie Binning (who died in 2007 at the age of 101), which specified to trustees that the home be run by a foundation for "historic and scholarly purposes," Ms. Weder says. If that request was not possible, Mrs. Binning's next choice was to have proceeds from the sale go to the University of British Columbia's Binning Memorial Fellowship. (Prof. Binning, who died in 1976, founded the department of fine arts at UBC.)

However, the 2008 transfer of the home to the Land Conservancy of British Columbia was judged invalid in late 2014 after its attempt to sell the property to a private individual ignited a legal challenge by UBC, the District of West Vancouver and B.C.'s Attorney-General. The Land Conservancy, which Ms. Weder says "invested almost nothing in the house and seemed only interested in how much money they could extract from it," had hoped to pay off considerable debt via the sale of the home.

Now, the Binning house has been placed right back into the hands of Mrs. Binning's trustees. "So now it's back to square one," says Ms. Weder, who wrote her master's in architecture thesis on the home and knew Mrs. Binning for a decade. And its sale to a private buyer is imminent, since legal costs incurred by the estate mean it's too financially complicated to set up a proper foundation to run the house.

So why should we care in Ontario?

Simply, Canada needs more architectural history museums, especially those that help interpret the oft-misunderstood Modernist period; in other words, we need the Spadina Houses and Parkwood Estates of 2050. How many "architourists" make pilgrimages to see early American Modernist homes, such as the Eames Case Study House in Pacific Palisades, Calif.(1949), Richard Neutra's Kaufmann house in Palm Springs, Calif. (1946). or Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth house in Illinois (conceived in 1945)?

Yet, Prof. Binning's home predates all of them.

In fact, Mr. Neutra, the legendary Modernist architect, held two "salons" at the Binning residence after lecturing at UBC in the 1940s, and, by doing so, stoked fires in the young hearts of attendees Arthur Erickson and Ron Thom, among others.

Prof. Binning himself was a towering figure on B.C.'s cultural landscape, his paintings a wonderful fusion of London studies under sculptor Henry Moore in the late 1930s, Group of Seven alumnus Fred Varley at the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts before that, and a love of nautical themes.

Despite its diminutive size, the house not only contains original interior and exterior murals by Prof. Binning, its architectural composition is noteworthy as well, as it contains "oblique, splayed lines that make no rational sense, but make all the difference in the optics of the house as you walk through it," Ms. Weder says. The "almost visually imperceptible" cant of the living room wall "makes the ocean view and tree view foreshortened so it brings it right into your face."

Ms. Weder says the "pretty good" municipal bylaw already prohibits demolition or alteration – the house is also a National Historic Site of Canada, but that offers little protection.

However, regarding the inevitable sale, the West Coast Modern League – which includes Ms. Weder and architect John Patkau on its board and architectural powerhouse Phyllis Lambert as "adviser" – recently penned a statement of concern. It asks for a minimum commitment of $250,000 to restore the 74-year-old home; that the new owners allow "limited periodic scholarly and community access;" and that the bylaw be strengthened so it cannot be rescinded by a future, less sympathetic council. The group has also collected 250 signatures from the arts and architecture world – including 15 Order of Canada recipients – to strengthen their plea.

"It's really like a John Steinbeck book," Ms. Weder says. "There're all these characters and players and it's a real saga, but it could still have a happy ending.

"It's just that it's really on the brink right now."