5010 cambie street, vancouver statement of...

WONG RESIDENCE 5010 CAMBIE STREET, VANCOUVER STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCEJUNE 2015

STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: WONG RESIDENCE, 5010 CAMBIE STREET, VANCOUVER

DONALD LUXTON & ASSOCIATES INC. JUNE 2015 1

STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: WONG RESIDENCE

Address: 5010 Cambie Street, Vancouver, British Columbia Name: Wong Residence Architect: Harry Lee (Duncan McNab’s firm) Landscape Architect: Cornelia Hahn Oberlander Original Owner: Wong Kung Lai Long-Term Owner: The Wong Family Date of Construction: 1955-1956 Description of the Historic Place The Wong Residence, located at 5010 Cambie Street in Vancouver, is a two-storey, split-level house built behind a prominent outcropping of volcanic rock near Queen Elizabeth Park. Designed in the West Coast Modern style, the glazed front façade and low-pitched roof structure conceal the inner courtyard, mature foliage, and side entryway. Heritage Value of the Historic Place The Wong Residence is significant for its West Coast Modern style, rare within Vancouver, designed by Harry Lee of Duncan McNab’s architecture firm and landscape architect Cornelia Hahn Oberlander. The house is also valued for its association with the Wong Family and Milton Wong in particular, a successful Vancouver-based financier and philanthropist and one of nine children who lived in the Wong Residence and later, raised his own family in the home. The house also illustrates the postwar settlement and development of Vancouver along the Cambie Street corridor. Completed in 1956, the Wong Residence is a unique and refined example of the West Coast Modern style in Vancouver. Characterized by its design innovation, its use of natural, local, and inexpensive materials, and often integrated with the natural environment, the West Coast Modern style prevailed in the Lower Mainland between 1945 and 1970, during an era of postwar prosperity and growth. Designed by the first Chinese-Canadian registered architect, Harry Lee, and one of Canada’s most distinguished landscape architects, Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, the site is defined by the dramatic volcanic rock outcropping in the front yard; the feature was retained due to Oberlander’s recognition of its importance to the aesthetics of the site and in providing noise and visual protection from the street. The front façade of the house is characterized by its



significant glazing, its simple form and its front-gabled roof structure, all of which screen the larger structure hidden behind. Known for his pragmatic approach to Modernist architecture, Duncan McNab, formerly of Thompson Berwick & Pratt, firmly believed that a client’s practical needs should always come first and architectural aims and aesthetics should come second; this conviction would benefit the project, which focused on providing comfortable housing for a large, and growing, extended family. The Wong family selected Harry Lee, a Chinese-Canadian architect who worked with McNab, to design the home. Together, Lee and Oberlander successfully integrated a deceptively large house within the existing natural environment, all while providing enough indoor and outdoor space for the Wong family. Residential West Coast Modern architecture was uncommon within the city of Vancouver. The style was more often applied to challenging, undeveloped and verdant lots of the North Shore, as opposed to the repetitive, flat and unlandscaped lots available in Vancouver in the 1950s and 1960s. For the Wong Residence, Lee and Oberlander designed an urban retreat with noise protection, visual privacy, and an abundance of natural light, with views to both the front and side gardens. The Wong Residence demonstrates the increasing integration of the Chinese community within postwar suburban areas of Vancouver, even as they were excluded in other developments, such as the British Properties. The house was constructed for Wong Kung Lai and Chu Man Wong (also known as Man Ming Wong), the patriarch and matriarch, respectively, of the Wong family. Wong Kung Lai emigrated from China to Vancouver in 1908 and opened his business ‘Modernize Tailors’ in 1913 in the Chinese Freemasons Building along Pender Street, where it still exists today. Milton Wong (1939-2011) was the second youngest of the nine Wong children and lived in the house for several years while attending UBC and before moving to Toronto in the 1960s. Following his return to Vancouver, Milton, along with his wife, Fei, moved to the Cambie Street house where they raised their daughters and where Milton would spend the rest of his life. Milton Wong was one of Vancouver’s most prominent, successful and philanthropic citizens. Recognized as an energetic community leader, Milton contributed significant time and money toward a wide variety of charitable causes. The Wong Residence is located along the Cambie corridor, which included some of the last undeveloped sections of the city. At the conclusion of World War II, the Canadian Pacific Railway proceeded with the subdivision and sale of the last of its major land holdings granted in the 1880s. Single-family lots south of 33rd Avenue were released for sale in the 1950s, including the Wong property. Planning concepts for the area reflected the Bartholomew Plan, which advocated the use of a network of generously landscaped driving boulevards throughout the city. Character-Defining Elements The elements that define the heritage character of the Wong Residence are its: Site:

- location along Cambie Street in Vancouver; - continuous residential use; - volcanic rock outcropping in front yard; - protruding newspaper and mail box at entry gate; and - landscape features, including mature, native trees and plants; inner courtyard with

reflecting pool; and the use of gravel at the front of the lot.



Exterior: - residential form, scale and massing as expressed by its L-shaped, two-storey, split-level

plan with partial basement, and low-pitched front and side-gabled roof structures; - wood-frame construction; - West Coast Modern style architecture, including its: use of local building materials, such as

wooden vertical tongue-and-groove siding; tapered wooden beams; cedar and perforated masonite soffits; clerestory windows on either side of the basement level, as well as the second storey, providing an abundance of natural light;

- banks of wood-frame windows and transoms and full-height glazing at entry, living room and master bedroom;

- relationship between the indoor and outdoor spaces with extensive glazing and French doors that provide a transition between the interior and exterior;

- full-height side entryway, accessed via the inner courtyard, with overhanging eaves; and - adjacent garage attached with a covered walkway.

Interior: - sequence of entry; - arrangement of rooms; - West Coast Modern style details, such as its vaulted ceilings, curved teak balustrades, and

stacked masonry fireplaces, one in the basement and one on the second floor, featuring stretcher bond and stack bond bricks; and

- original window and door hardware.



RESEARCH SUMMARY CIVIC ADDRESS: 5010 Cambie Street, Vancouver, British Columbia LEGAL ADDRESS: Lot: 7, Block: 840, District Lot: 526 NAME: Wong Residence ARCHITECT: Harry Lee (Duncan McNab’s firm) LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT: Cornelia Hahn Oberlander CONSTRUCTION DATE: 1955-1956 REFERENCES:

Publications: • Ward, Doug. “Saying goodbye to Milton Wong, a great British Columbian”, Vancouver

Sun. January 1, 2012. • Weder, Adele. “Second in Command”, Canadian Architect. May 1, 2008.

http://www.canadianarchitect.com/news/second-in-command/1000222616/?&er=NA • Vancouver Heritage Foundation Mid-Century Modern House Tour, brochure, 2008.

ORIGINAL PLANS

Landscape Plans, Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, 1955



Architectural house plans, Duncan McNab, 1955

Architectural house plans, Duncan McNab, 1955



ARCHIVAL IMAGES

The Bartholomew Plan, 1928



Cambie Boulevard, 1958, CVA 392-3, red circle shows location of the Wong Residence



Cambie Street looking north from 45th Ave, May 24, 1952, CVA Str N248



Images from Fei & Milton K. Wong Family Foundation website



AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHS

Wong Residence, view to the north, Bing Maps

Wong Residence, view to the east, Bing Maps



Wong Residence, view to the south, Bing Maps

Wong Residence, view to the west, Bing Maps



Aerial view showing the inner courtyard, Google Maps

Aerial view of the larger neighbourhood, showing the location of the Wong Residence, Bing Maps



CURRENT PHOTOGRAPHS

5010 cambie street, vancouver statement of...

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