Downs House II, 1979

• Constructed 1979
• Location West Vancouver, BC
• Architect Barry Downs
• Use Dwelling
• Features
  WCML Masters of West Coast Modernism (2017)

Barry and Mary Downs called this place home for 43 years. Dubbed “Downs House II,” it is the second home and studio that Barry designed for his family, and one that sits prominently at the forefront of West Coast Modernism, published widely.

Their first home, “Downs House I,” is located on a flat residential lot on the south side of Vancouver. Surrounded by treed suburbia, the design took a more insular approach, in plan and section, drawing connections to lush courtyard gardens, out of view of the neighbours. Several decades later, Downs House II took a different approach set high atop a seaside precipice. In the procession from hillside forest to seaside cliff, the architecture unveils and immerses you in the vast beyond, overlooking the waters of Garrow Bay and further to the Strait of Georgia, albeit always grounding you to the sensory experiences of the immediate ecosystem. Both homes exemplify living comfortably in quiet celebration of our natural surroundings.

A second-wave pioneer of the West Coast Modern movement and Member of the Order of Canada, Barry Downs sits prominently amongst a cohort of architects and designers who played a vital role in shaping our region. Fred Hollingsworth, Ned Pratt, Ron Thom, Arthur Erickson, Geoffrey Massey, Don Vaughan, and Cornelia Hahn Oberlander are to name just a few. And, just as Barry continues to influence and inspire subsequent generations of designers, so too do his personal residences. They are the living embodiment of the modest life that he and his family lived, and the creative experimentation that would go on to influence so many other of his designs.