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.
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
Photograph of (left to right) Clarice Wilks (later Clarice Eaton), Dr. Carl Eaton and an unidentified woman, taken in the kitchen of the Wilks home, 3707 Dundas Street. Dr. Eaton took this picture himself by tripping shutter with the string visible in his hand.
Photograph of (left to right) Clarice Wilks (later Clarice Eaton), Dr. Carl Eaton and an unidentified woman, taken in the kitchen of the Wilks home, 3707 Dundas Street. Dr. Eaton took this picture himself by tripping shutter with the string visible in his hand.
Photograph of Dugald C. Patterson, Sr., resting in a sun porch. The Patterson family house was originally located at 7260 Edmonds Street (near Kingsway). It was relocated in 1955 to 7106 18th Avenue and is a city heritage site.
Photograph of Dugald C. Patterson, Sr., resting in a sun porch. The Patterson family house was originally located at 7260 Edmonds Street (near Kingsway). It was relocated in 1955 to 7106 18th Avenue and is a city heritage site.
1 photograph : b&w ; 8 x 14 cm, mounted on board 13 x 19 cm
Scope and Content
Photograph of Dugald C. Patterson, Sr., reading at the dining room table of the Patterson family home. The photograph was taken from the parlour, and the pantry door and sewing room door (partly open) can be seen in the background. The portrait at the back right is of D.C. Patterson Sr.'s mother, a…
1 photograph : b&w ; 8 x 14 cm, mounted on board 13 x 19 cm
Description Level
Item
Record No.
213-013
Access Restriction
No restrictions
Reproduction Restriction
No known restrictions
Accession Number
BHS1988-13
Scope and Content
Photograph of Dugald C. Patterson, Sr., reading at the dining room table of the Patterson family home. The photograph was taken from the parlour, and the pantry door and sewing room door (partly open) can be seen in the background. The portrait at the back right is of D.C. Patterson Sr.'s mother, and the woman seated next to the window is his wife, Frances Mabel. The Patterson family house was originally located at 7260 Edmonds Street (near Kingsway). It was relocated in 1955 to 7106 18th Avenue and is a city heritage site.
Handwritten note in pencil on the back of the photograph reads: "dinning room, taken from parlour, showing pantry door & sewing room door, partly open. Uncle Duke at table, Aunt May at window. Grandma's photo on wall" (signature is illegible)
Photograph of the interior of one of the rooms in Robert A.C. Dick's house. There is a piano with vases of flowers and framed photographs adorning it. There is also a small table that has been covered with a lace tablecloth and a vase of flowers. A number of art pieces are hanging on the walls.
Photograph of the interior of one of the rooms in Robert A.C. Dick's house. There is a piano with vases of flowers and framed photographs adorning it. There is also a small table that has been covered with a lace tablecloth and a vase of flowers. A number of art pieces are hanging on the walls.
Photograph of the interior of the Baldwin House, taken from the exterior courtyard. The dining room of the home is visible and two people can be seen seated in chairs. One of the people may be Susan Baldwin. This home was designed for Dr. William and Ruth Baldwin by their friend, Arthur Erickson.
Photograph of the interior of the Baldwin House, taken from the exterior courtyard. The dining room of the home is visible and two people can be seen seated in chairs. One of the people may be Susan Baldwin. This home was designed for Dr. William and Ruth Baldwin by their friend, Arthur Erickson.
1 photograph : b&w ; 6.5 x 11 cm on page 11.5 x 14 cm (pasted in album)
Scope and Content
Photograph of Kitty Hill (later Kitty Peers) sitting beside a table and a large grandfather clock in what appears to be the dining room of Broadview, the Hill family home in the Burnaby Lake area.
1 photograph : b&w ; 6.5 x 11 cm on page 11.5 x 14 cm (pasted in album)
Description Level
Item
Record No.
477-059
Access Restriction
No restrictions
Reproduction Restriction
No known restrictions
Accession Number
2007-12
Scope and Content
Photograph of Kitty Hill (later Kitty Peers) sitting beside a table and a large grandfather clock in what appears to be the dining room of Broadview, the Hill family home in the Burnaby Lake area.
Photograph of an unidentified man and woman in the living room of the D.C. Patterson house. The house was originally located at 7260 Edmonds Street (near Kingsway). It was relocated in 1955 to 7106 18th Avenue and is a city heritage site.
Photograph of an unidentified man and woman in the living room of the D.C. Patterson house. The house was originally located at 7260 Edmonds Street (near Kingsway). It was relocated in 1955 to 7106 18th Avenue and is a city heritage site.
Photograph of Pickard family. Left to right: Clarice Cox Pickard, holding baby, Clarice; John Pickard (husband); Mr. Saunders (family friend). Clarice Pickard, born January 7, 1888, was twenty-three, husband born Dec. 23,1888, was going on twenty-three. Baby Clarice, born August 1911, was six weeks…
Photograph of Pickard family. Left to right: Clarice Cox Pickard, holding baby, Clarice; John Pickard (husband); Mr. Saunders (family friend). Clarice Pickard, born January 7, 1888, was twenty-three, husband born Dec. 23,1888, was going on twenty-three. Baby Clarice, born August 1911, was six weeks old. The photograph was taken in front of the family's rented south Vancouver home.