The Vancouver Special likely came about as small-scale builders saw the opportunity to maximize site coverage and build cheaply. By 1985, Vancouver’s planning department had written zoning bylaws that inhibited the building of Vancouver Specials. LEFT: architect Stephanie Robb’s Lakewood Residence in East Vancouver.

Special mention
Initially reviled by the design community, now the humble Vancouver Special is being recognized as ‘probably the only residential building style unique to Vancouver.’ At least one – architect Stephanie Robb’s reno – really is special

story by BEVERLY CRAMP

Late in September, on a sunny autumn day, a modest 1,100-square-foot home was opened to the public for a Vancouver Heritage Foundation tour. The house is small and not that old, being built in 1974 and renovated in 2001.

Now considered a home of architectural significance, the Lakewood Residence as it is called, drew many interested viewers. The ground storey (there is no below-ground basement) is completely open space, with exposed wood framing, a polished concrete floor, plywood walls, and wooden stairs leading to the second storey. At each end of the bottom floor are large windowed terrace doors that let light flood into the space. The top floor has two small bedrooms separated from the master bedroom by a common bathroom and storage area. The closets and storage areas are open with no doors. This house bares its structural bones and functions.

With such unpretentious and authentic elegance, the Lakewood Residence has been gaining recognition. It won the Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia Innovation Award for Architecture in 2005 and was on the cover of Canadian Architect magazine in 2004.

The Lakewood Residence’s growing notoriety heralds the official revival of the once reviled Vancouver Special. For this house in Vancouver’s East End is a renovated Vancouver Special, originally built in two weeks by a Portuguese immigrant of salvaged cedar. Other than changes to the front and back façade and the removal of interior walls, owner and renovator Stephanie Robb, an intern architect and principal with Pechet and Robb Studio Ltd., has retained most of the original house structure.

It’s not unusual that history changes perceptions. No matter how scorned a house style is during its introductory years, there is always the possibility that, with the benefit of reappraisal in the fullness of time, its stature and desirability will grow. Such is the case of the Vancouver Special, an unassuming residential design with a low-pitched roof that came to prominence in the years 1965 to 1985.

Initially, people despised these infill homes as, soon after their introduction, they were seen to take over neighbhourhoods of older pre-war craftsmen and bungalows in an unfriendly manner. With a two-storey boxy look, the bottom often made with a brick façade and the top a stucco finish, punctuated by a balcony railing that may or may not have a real balcony behind it, the Vancouver Specials, as people sarcastically referred to them, were not welcomed by the design community.

The Special likely came about as small-scale builders and immigrant buyers saw the opportunity to maximize site coverage and build cheaply. People bought Vancouver Specials primarily because they were so affordable.

But by 1985, the planning department at the City of Vancouver had written design guidelines and zoning bylaws that inhibited the building of Vancouver Specials.

“They aren’t being built anymore and they are probably the only residential building style unique to Vancouver,” said Diane Switzer, executive director of the Vancouver Heritage Foundation to a crowd of more than a hundred people who came to hear a presentation about Vancouver Specials a few days before the actual house tour.

Switzer introduced two pioneers who have become instrumental in the revival of the Vancouver Special: artist Keith Higgins, who has been working on a photo essay project since 2001 (vancouverspecial.com), and architect Stephanie Robb, who is behind the remarkable renovation of the Lakewood Residence.

To really get an appreciation for the broad range of Vancouver Specials in the city, artist Higgins’ web site is a great place to start. Higgins’ goal is to photograph all of the city’s Vancouver Specials. He has taken over 1,400 pictures already. But don’t expect great photography – Higgins modus operandi is to take pictures on the fly as he drives or passes by a house.

“People either think this is a joke or someone interested in real estate,” says Higgins, who explains that he started this art project because he wanted to examine the impact of the Vancouver Special on the built environment. “In the seven years I have been doing my photo essay, there has been a sea-change in people’s perception of Vancouver Specials.”

Higgins says there are a couple of reasons for the new popularity of Vancouver Specials. “There is a whole generation of people who have grown up in them and have affection for them. And Vancouver Specials are close to Mid-century Modern in that they have clean lines and flexible interiors. They appeal to mid-century hipsters for whom high modernism is out of their reach.”

The tour of Robb’s Vancouver Special is the first initiative of its kind for the Vancouver Heritage Foundation, which promotes the conservation of important heritage buildings in the city.

The Foundation now recognizes Vancouver Specials as having heritage value and they hit the mark with the Lakewood Residence.

“This is the eighth time I have volunteered for these house tours,” said one of the Vancouver Heritage Foundation volunteers who helped guide visitors around the Lakewood Residence, “and I’ve never seen so many architects come through.”