This house makes a theatrical statement — whether you walk in through the garage, across its highly polished concrete floor and full-length curtains worthy of a stage show, or arrive via a floating walkway and into an entry featuring a two-storey floating staircase.
Not surprisingly, it won six gold awards at the recent Construction Achievements and Renovations of Excellence (CARE) event, including the evening’s crowning glory: Project of the Year. It also won gold for its media room, master suite, contemporary kitchen and both outdoor and indoor living spaces.
Owner and builder Leonard Cole, of Urban Core Ventures, said it was exciting being the night’s big winner, and taking home Project of the Year, especially as he had never entered the competition before. He believes the home swept the awards thanks to the collaboration of all involved and because it followed a theme of tailored simplicity and functionality.
Cole said he has always loved the Despard Avenue area, just south of Rockland Avenue, and decided this was a location where he could feel confident about building such a contemporary house.
“In this neighbourhood, on this street, with this view, you could blow your brains out and really create something special. I am passionate about this road. I was born and raised here, used to deliver flyers here and used to have a property on the north side.
“I know the area well, and it’s a safe place to invest,” said Cole, who recently completed The Zen in Fairfield, which has 25 suites from 400 to 500 square feet in size.
Although he has mostly renovated or built traditional houses, he is attracted to the sleek, contemporary look he went for on Despard.
“I’m always reading, watching trends and touring new houses in places like L.A. to get inspiration, but putting it all together is a challenge.
“You’ve got to keep to an overall design. There are exciting new ideas coming along all the time, but you can’t put everything into one house, although it’s tempting.”
Being both the builder, owner and interior designer on this project was an asset, because it meant he could change or adapt elements along the way. “For instance, I decided to add the pools after I constructed the home. I stood here looking out the new window system and thought, there has got to be a water feature.”
Instead of creating just one pool, he envisioned a 20-person infinity hot tub that spills over into a lower swimming pool. When the waterfall is turned off, the upper pool quickly heats to a higher temperature.
“It’s very efficient because it is well insulated, has a cleaning and chemical management system built in, and power covers.”
Three elements go into a successful house,” said Will Peereboom of Victoria Design Group. “A good client, good designer and good contractor. In this case, the client was also the contractor and he carried his vision right through, putting the necessary money in to really make it work. Leonard has a lot of ideas and vision, and my job was to fulfil his dream.”
He agreed that working with a builder-owner made things flow smoothly. “For instance, when we had the house framed, and saw the view corridors, we decided to reverse the kitchen and living room. We could make changes on the fly.”
The main goal was to maximize orientation to the southerly view, and although it is a narrow lot and a tall house, they did more than create a thin tower.
“We used a very simple stacking form, and undulated the forms,” Peereboom said.
“There was really only enough width for the garage and front entrance, so we made it interesting by making the garage more subdued, by coming up and over with interesting forms, and focusing on the entrance.
“To me the house is like a sculpture, rather than your typical West Coast contemporary house.”
Originally the rooftop deck was only going to be on the home’s east side, “but when we got up there, it was obvious we should make it over the whole roof. It is definitely designed as an entertainment space,” Peereboom said.
And that applies to every level.
On the main floor, Cole created a large, central column that looks like a piece of furniture rather than a set of walls covered in oak veneer, and is designed to hide a pantry, coat closet and bar area.
“My idea was to keep the concept very simple and clean,” said Cole, who recently turned 40 and has been buying and selling things his whole life.
He used to restore and fix cars, then worked with an Internet marketing company, but when that market shifted, he got into buying houses, fixing them and selling. “I started in 2006, just before the market ground to a halt. It was a difficult time, so I focused on unique infill-style development.”
He also likes to focus on kitchens as a main entertainment area of any house. Here the countertops are quartz and the cabinets float. Instead of having one large dishwasher, he has two, drawer-style appliances by Fisher & Paykel. “This way there is never any clutter around.”
The kitchen door flows onto a deck with an outdoor kitchen, and appliances by Jenn-Air.
All the cabinets feature electric touch latches so there are no handles to interrupt the clean lines, and once doors and drawers are closed, they seem to disappear.
His office is on the top of the 5,100-square-foot house and leads to a vast rooftop deck. “You feel a world away up here, and it has full sun exposure from morning to night.” It’s also engineered for a hot tub, but he decided against that.
“It feels like a different climate up here. We went camping this weekend and when I was out there I thought, what was I thinking? I should have pitched a tent up on the roof and stayed home.”
He had fun in the garage, too, using a huge double curtain to cover up storage on a giant floor-to-ceiling wall of shelves. The polished floor makes it look like a dance studio, or a stage set.
“And the living room is exactly the same size as the garage. So I’ve had a few parties in there, after bringing all the living room furniture. It really messes with people’s heads. They don’t know where they are,” he said with a grin, adding he doesn’t like a garage to look like a garage.
CARE awards celebrate indoor-outdoor lifestyle
The CARE awards exemplify West Coast living and our indoor-outdoor style, said Casey Edge, executive director of the Victoria Home Builders Association.
“And nobody does it better than builders on Vancouver Island. As far as I’m concerned the projects entered this year [were] incomparable.”
It’s not all about spending money, he said. It’s about creativity and the alchemy that happens when designer, builder and client tune in to a common goal.
“We see a lot of innovation at the CARE Awards; every year the bar gets raised. Homes become more sustainable, more energy efficient, more natural materials are used.”
More than 200 homes were entered in the awards this year and he said the range is spectacular. Organizers decided to split the kitchen category into traditional and modern, “because it’s so tough to compare apples and oranges,” and there [was] a good selection of smaller, more affordable houses this year, as well as townhouses.
One of the intriguing townhouse projects entered this year was a distinctive row of four freehold units on Fifth Street in Sidney, created by custom builder Alan Jones.
The CARE awards have been going for 22 years and Edge says it is the premier industry event for residential construction — a great opportunity for builders, craftspeople, designers, supplier and trades to showcase their work.
“There’s a lot of pride out there and it’s not a stagnant industry,” he said. “Everything is constantly changing: building codes, materials, applications, sustainability, and because of global communications, people here are seeing what’s possible all over the world.
“Homes are changing. The 1940s or 1950s, homes were boxes full of smaller boxes. We’ve seen the evolution of the great room, more and more electronics, of media rooms.
“And look at what’s happening to kitchens. Cooking shows are a big trend and people entertain in their kitchen. They have cook-offs with friends, maybe even a little Hell’s Kitchen,” he joked, referring to a reality TV show.
