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Dr. William & Ruth Baldwin House

https://search.heritageburnaby.ca/link/landmark534

Repository: Burnaby Heritage Planning

Description: The Dr. William & Ruth Baldwin House is a two-storey modern post-and-beam structure, located on the southern shore of Deer Lake in Burnaby's Deer Lake Park. The site is steeply sloped, and the main entrance of the house is at the top of the slope facing onto Deer Lake Drive.

Associated Dates: 1965

Formal Recognition: Community Heritage Register

6 images

Repository: Burnaby Heritage Planning

Geographic Access: Deer Lake Drive

Associated Dates: 1965

Formal Recognition: Community Heritage Register

Enactment Type: Council Resolution

Enactment Date: 26/05/2003

Description: The Dr. William & Ruth Baldwin House is a two-storey modern post-and-beam structure, located on the southern shore of Deer Lake in Burnaby's Deer Lake Park. The site is steeply sloped, and the main entrance of the house is at the top of the slope facing onto Deer Lake Drive.

Heritage Value: The Baldwin House is valued as a prime example of Burnaby’s post-Second World War modern heritage and progressive architectural style, as well as for its personal connections to internationally-acclaimed architect, Arthur Erickson. Inspired by the modern domestic idiom established earlier in the twentieth century by Frank Lloyd Wright and Richard Neutra, Erickson conceived his architecture as responding directly to the site. A cohesive expression of simple orthogonal lines and ultimate transparency, this structure reduces the idea of post-and-beam West Coast modernism to its most refined elements. A fine example of the evolving talent of Erickson’s earlier work, this house is a landmark modern house in Burnaby and is unique in terms of siting and context. Having just won the 1963 competition for the new Simon Fraser University in Burnaby with his partner, Geoff Massey, and having built fewer than half a dozen homes previously, Erickson’s reputation was growing and his skill as a designer of modern buildings was in great demand. The same year that Erickson/Massey Architects designed SFU, Dr. William Baldwin and his wife, Ruth, personal friends of Erickson, commissioned him to design this house. Erickson was already familiar with the site; as a child he had spent time at this spot when his family visited friends who lived on Deer Lake. Both the Baldwin House and the university were completed in 1965. SFU became internationally famous; the Baldwin House was also considered an architectural success and was recognized in publications of the time. Only a single storey of this two-storey house is visible from the road, as it is built into the hillside in response to its steep site and proximity to Deer Lake. Like many other Erickson designs, this structure was conceived as a pavilion. Constructed of glass and wood, its transparency facilitates visual access to the lake’s edge, acting as an invitation, rather than a barrier, to the landscape. The house blends into the natural surroundings and the site includes other man-made landscape features such as a reflecting pool. As a reaction to the often grey quality of light in the region, Erickson exploits flat planes of water as a source of borrowed light. The refined and purposeful design, transparency, openness of plan and adjacency to the lake combine to give the house a floating appearance at the water's edge. The concept of a floating house set within an accompanying garden was inspired, in part, by the palaces and house boats of Dal Lake in Kashmir and the famed nearby Mughal Gardens. Although Erickson never visited Dal Lake, he travelled extensively throughout India, and specifically mentions the Kashmir reference in relation to this house. There is a rich complexity of other allusions worked into the fabric of the house, unified by a feeling for the conjunction of light, water and land at this special location. Widely renowned as Canada’s most brilliant modern architect, Erickson’s reputation is important to the development and growth of modern architecture in Canada and North America.

Defining Elements: The elements of the Baldwin House that define its character are those materials and details which respond to the location of the building and determine the relation between landscape and building, combining to create a single cohesive site. These include its: - close proximity to water - orthogonal plan and massing, with flat tar-and-gravel roof - stepped down massing orienting the house towards the water - post-and-beam construction, with the width of the beams matched to the width of the posts - wood and glass used as primary building materials - transparency and light achieved by the abundant use of glass - large undivided sheets of single glazing - butt glazed glass corners - abundant and generous balconies, which blur the transition from interior to exterior - horizontal flush cedar siding - use of salvaged brick for chimneys - use of chains as downspouts - built-in rooftop barbeque - built in furniture and fittings dating to the time of construction, such as original hardware, benches, bathroom vanities and kitchen cabinets - landscaped site including reflecting pool, plantings and a dock protruding into the lake

Locality: Deer Lake Park

Historic Neighbourhood: Burnaby Lake (Historic Neighbourhood)

Planning Study Area: Morley-Buckingham Area

Function: Primary Current--Single Dwelling; Primary Historic--Single Dwelling

Community: Burnaby

Cadastral Identifier: P.I.D. No. 011-946-032 and P.I.D. No. 011-946-067

Boundaries: The Baldwin House is comprised of two municipally-owned lots located at 6543 and 6545 Deer Lake Drive, Burnaby.

Area: 6,070.20

Contributing Resource: Building; Landscape Feature

Ownership: Public (local)

Other Collection: Canadian Architectural Archives, University of Calgary, Collection: Original Plans No. ERI 4A/76.13

Documentation: Heritage Site Files: PC77000 20. City of Burnaby Planning and Building Department, 4949 Canada Way, Burnaby, B.C., V5G 1M2

Street Address: 6543 Deer Lake Drive

Images

Exterior view of the Dr. William & Ruth Baldwin House, 2008.. North Elevation. thumbnail

Entrance to the Dr. William & Ruth Baldwin House from Deer Lake Drive, 2013 (South elevation. Exterior Photo). Copyright: City of Burnaby. thumbnail

Arthur Erickson at the Baldwin House, 2003 (Interior view. Other). Copyright: City of Burnaby. thumbnail

BBY-6543-Deer-Lake-Dr-1966-357-004 thumbnail

Interior view of the Baldwin House, 2008 (View of dining room. Other). Copyright: City of Burnaby. thumbnail

Interior view of the Baldwin House, 2008 (View of living room. Other). Copyright: City of Burnaby. thumbnail

Interview with Judy Hagen by Eric Damer November 7, 2012 - Track 1

https://search.heritageburnaby.ca/link/oralhistory332

Repository: City of Burnaby Archives

Date Range: 1918-1948

Length: 0:09:53

Summary: This portion of the recording pertains to Judith "Judy" (Robins) Hagen's views on the neighbourhood of Dover Street in Burnaby. She begins by discussing how her family first arrived on Dover Street (when her father Jack Robins was only two years old) and continues their story through her childhood …

1 image 1 audio

Repository: City of Burnaby Archives

Summary: This portion of the recording pertains to Judith "Judy" (Robins) Hagen's views on the neighbourhood of Dover Street in Burnaby. She begins by discussing how her family first arrived on Dover Street (when her father Jack Robins was only two years old) and continues their story through her childhood during the war years, including neighbours and neighbouring buildings.

Date Range: 1918-1948

Photo Info: Judith "Judy" Robins (later Hagen) posing in a dance costume, 1949. Item no. 549-036.

Length: 0:09:53

Subjects: Geographic Features - Neighbourhoods

Geographic Access: Dover Street

Interviewer: Damer, Eric

Interview Date: November 7, 2012

Scope and Content: Recording is an interview with Judith "Judy" (Robins) Hagen conducted by Burnaby Village Museum employee Eric Damer, November 7, 2012. Major theme discussed: the neighbourhood of Dover Street.

Biographical Notes: Judy Robins (later Hagen) was born in 1941 and grew up in South Burnaby. Her paternal grandfather, a master stone mason from Devon, moved to Vancouver in 1912 to find work before bringing over the rest of the family. He bought three lots in Burnaby and in 1918 moved his family to a small house on Dover Street (formerly Paul Street). Judy’s father, Jack, married, bought one of his father’s lots and built a new home for his family. Judy attended school and church nearby, took dance and piano lessons and participated actively in Girl Guides. After high school, she attended the University of British Columbia (UBC) and then Simon Fraser University (SFU), worked for a few years and then married in 1967 before moving to Courtaney, British Columbia.

Total Tracks: 7

Total Length: 1:09:51

Interviewee Name: Hagen, Judith "Judy" Robins

Interview Location: Nanaimo Museum on Vancouver Island

Interviewer Bio: Eric Damer is a lifelong British Columbian born in Victoria, raised in Kamloops, and currently residing in Burnaby. After studying philosophy at the University of Victoria, he became interested in the educational forces that had shaped his own life. He completed master’s and doctoral degrees in educational studies at the University of British Columbia with a particular interest in the history of adult and higher education in the province. In 2012, Eric worked for the City of Burnaby as a field researcher and writer, conducting interviews for the City Archives and Museum Oral History Program.