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NewsArticleWhat is West Coast Modern architecture, and how is the iconic style relevant today?

What is West Coast Modern architecture, and how is the iconic style relevant today?

Category : Article

Date : 2022-07-11

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Where will you be this September? Design Vancouv

Where will you be this September?

Design Vancouver Festival returns Sept 17-27th for 11 days of open studios, tours, talks, exhibitions, workshops, gatherings, and public programs across the city. This year's festival features 43 studios and 53 events led by Vancouver's architecture and design community. Explore Design Districts, visit local studios, join architecture tours, attends talks and workshops, discover exhibitions and installations, and take part in community gatherings.

Will the League be there? As if you even had to ask!

On Sept 22nd, we'll be joined by @and_daughters and @studioroslyn, in partnership with @informinteriors, for West Coast Fresh Take. These wildly talented designers will share recent works broadening the usual notions of our regional modernist identity.

We'll see you in the Downtown/Gastown Design District and at events and studios across the city.

DESIGN VANCOUVER FESTIVAL
2026 SEPT 17–27

The full festival schedule is now live! Start planning your DVF experience today.

LINK IN BIO
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#designvancouverfestival #DVF2026 #designvancouver #westcoastmodernleague #wcmlvan

Many communities across British Columbia are curre

Many communities across British Columbia are currently experiencing a wildfire crisis. Tens of thousands of residents have been evacuated or placed on evacuation alert. Hundreds, if not thousands, of structures have been lost across the province in over 900 wildfires and 3,900 square kilometers burned this year.

If you can, please consider support for ongoing efforts to help those displaced.

LINK IN BIO

#bcwildfires

📢 On September 22nd, join the West Coast Modern Le

📢 On September 22nd, join the West Coast Modern League with INFORM, during Design Vancouver Festival, for the next talk in our On the Boards series. Vancouver-based design firms &Daughters and Studio Roslyn will each share recent works broadening the usual notions of our regional modernist identity.

SAVE THE DATE

&Daughters is a Vancouver-based design studio led by Darcy Hanna and Emma Sims. Working at the intersection of architecture and interior design, &Daughters creates cohesive, concept-driven environments across residential building design, residential and commercial interior design.

Studio Roslyn is an interior design and creative consulting studio led by Jessica MacDonald and Kate Snyder. The studio holds dear their core belief that true creativity is not to conflict with commerce, and that their work should not be bound by the divisions between art, design, fashion, and architecture.

SEPT 22 • 2026 | 5:00 • 7:00PM
INFORM | 50 WATER ST | VANCOUVER BC
DOORS 5:00PM | TALK 6:00PM
PART OF DESIGN VANCOUVER FESTIVAL

The League is grateful for the partnership and generous support of INFORM and Design Vancouver Festival.

@wcm_league
@informinteriors
@designvanfest
@and_daughters
@studioroslyn
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#wcmlontheboards #designvancouverfestival #DVF2026 #westcoastmodernleague #wcmlvan

🚨 For the second time in a little over a decade, t

🚨 For the second time in a little over a decade, the Binning House has been listed for sale, and it bears repeating its architectural and cultural significance. When completed in 1941, the Binning House posed a daring new architectural expression and modern way of living unseen before on Canada’s west coast. Binning, an artist and educator, was an early advocate for modernism and a proponent for melding art with architecture and everyday life. Inspired by lessons learned during a London sabbatical with the likes of artist Henry Moore, and influenced by modernist ideas spreading across North America, Binning set out to create a holistic and cohesive vision for a modern architecture uniquely of this place. With the help of Ned Pratt and Bob Berwick, the Binning House marked the first in what would become known as West Coast Modernism. It is a National Historic Site and is heritage protected with legally required maintenance.

Beyond its architectural pedigree, the Binning House also served as host to an active social scene cultivated by Bert and Jessie Binning, holding court with prominent artists, architects, and writers, and fostering interdisciplinary dialogue. As an educator, Bert influenced the trajectory of some of Canada’s most notable architects –Thom, Erickson, Massey, Downs. Famously, Richard Neutra joined many of these up-and-coming architects on several occasions for salons at the Binning House.

As a revered piece of our West Coast Modern story, the stature of this house requires that we take extra care with its conservation. The forms, landscape, materiality, colours, details, and the connective tissue between them matter. This protected home offers a unique and invaluable window into the origins of West Coast Modernism and the daring explorations that Binning was instrumental in promoting.

Jessie Binning’s first wish, as expressed in her will, was to have the house maintained for historic and scholarly purposes. We encourage prospective buyers to take time to understand the unique cultural and historic value of this heritage property and to consider its place as a public cultural asset.

[Images 1-3] Steve Gairns
[Images 4-7] Gavin Froome

When the world comes to play, Vancouver shows up!

When the world comes to play, Vancouver shows up! From Team Canada exceeding expectations on home soil, to community viewing parties dotted across the city, visitors from across the globe cheering on their teams, to cheering for everyone’s team regardless of their flag, the past month of the World Cup has been non-stop joy. This is Vancouver, a cosmopolitan city where hosting the world has for generations played an outsized role in the evolution of our modern civic life. We’ve been here before, hosting the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, Expo 86, the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, and the 2015 Women’s World Cup. When we welcome the world, we can accomplish some incredible things, and we can thank some of our renowned modernists for laying the foundations.

Civic celebration is vital to the health of cities, boosting social cohesion, improving mental health, and driving economic vitality. As we’ve done in the past, let’s take stock of what worked and what could be improved, and let’s not forget to keep some of this magic for ourselves.
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#wearevancouver #fwcvancouver2026 #teamcanada #westcoastmodernleague #wcmlvan

From start to finish, the League has been followin

From start to finish, the League has been following the remarkable restoration and transformation of Ron Thom's 1959 @fellshouse. Over decades, under multiple owners, the home had been altered and added to and was showing the passage of time. With tenacity and admirable commitment, new owners, with @darcyjonesarchitects, have recaptured the soul of this Wrightian-inspired home while bringing it into the 21st century.

Last night, we celebrated the renewed life of this architectural gem with a beautiful art collection by @addition.vancouver and floral art by @_studioilo_.

Stay tuned for more...
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#ronthom #midcenturymodern #modernwestcoastplaces #westcoastmodernleague #wcmlvan

Vancouver showing off as it does 📸 [Images] Steve

Vancouver showing off as it does 📸

[Images] Steve Gairns
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#vancouverarchitecture #vancouverhostcity #modernwestcoastplaces #westcoastmodernleague #wcmlvan

Jack Poole Plaza was completed in 2009 as part of

Jack Poole Plaza was completed in 2009 as part of the expansion to the Vancouver Convention Centre. Since then it has served as one of downtown Vancouver's prime public spaces for festival and global celebrations. Most famously, the plaza is home to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games Cauldron and is the namesake of Canadian businessman, the late Jack Poole who led the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Bid Committee.

Over the past few weeks, the plaza has served as the center of Canada's World Cup coverage featuring a pop-up TSN/CTV studio. That studio, set against gorgeous views across Burrard Inlet to the Coastal Mountains, was also designed to provide prime viewing of World Cup matches to crowds that have at times been in the thousands.

Today, the last day of Vancouver's World Cup hosting duties, marks the last day of coverage and viewing parties in this location. It's been a blast!
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#jackpooleplaza #fwcvancouver2026 #modernwestcoastplaces #westcoastmodernleague #wcmlvan

The new PNE Amphitheatre opened not even a month a

The new PNE Amphitheatre opened not even a month ago and has already hosted tens of thousands of football (soccer) spectators and concert goers. Designed by Revery Architecture with Fast & Epp, the impressive open-air venue boasts one of the largest free-span timber roof structures in the world, measuring in at more than 340 feet. The structure is set into the slope of Windermere Hill, on the grounds of Hastings Park, with two of three arches framing picturesque views of the Coastal Mountains. The third arch, to the back of the audience, frames a view to the thrills and chaos of Playland.

In a temperate climate such as ours, it is a privilege to be able to have an open-air cultural venue with all-important rain cover!

LINK IN BIO

[Images] Steve Gairns
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#pneamphitheatre #masstimbershell #modernwestcoastplaces #westcoastmodernleague #wcmlvan

2025/26 Partners & Supporters

The West Coast Modern League is based on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples – Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.
© 2013-2026 West Coast Modern League. All rights reserved.

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