BURST
A big log house at 4686 West 2nd Ave. has been one of the most distinctive buildings in Vancouver since 1912.
It has also been one of the most visible, because it sits high up on the crest of a hill, with a commanding view of the city, Burrard Inlet and the North Shore Mountains.
In Vancouver’s old heritage ranking system, it was Heritage A, the highest classification.
But the city did away with the A, B and C rankings last year, and now the house is being cut in half and moved to a storage facility on Vancouver Island.
Because the 5,000-square-foot structure is so large, it had to be cut to get it down the street. It will be moved to Locarno Beach, loaded on a barge and floated over to a Nickel Bros. facility at Duke Point.
Three giant trees on the property are being cut down in preparation for the move.
The property was initially listed for sale for $16 million, but wound up selling for $8.5 million. Developers appeared to be leery of buying it, because a redevelopment would have been complicated if you retained the house and trees.
But soon, both will be gone.
Jennifer Fahrni’s family sold the property in November 2022, which had belonged to her late mother Jean, a beloved fixture in Vancouver cultural circles. The family had thought the house would be saved in any redevelopment, and Fahrni fears its removal may have broader implications.
“If this can come down, being the only house of its kind in the entire city, what does it mean for all the other heritage buildings?” she asked.
She is thankful the house itself will survive. But she is crestfallen at the loss of the cypress and Douglas fir trees, which were all over 10-storeys high.
“Those old-growth trees, I felt like they raised me,” said Fahrni. “(But) it’s good to see that, if it has to be done, that so many of the important pieces (of the house) are being saved.”
The saviour of the home is Susan Walker, who had a personal connection to it.
“My mother was president of the Canadian Society for Asian Arts, as was Jean Fahrni,” said Walker. “I went there as a child, I used to visit the house with my mother. I always thought that it was the most beautiful home. Who wouldn’t love a log house?”
After reading that developers Munish Katyal and Sapna Rani Katyal had submitted a proposal to build three new houses on the three lots, she said she approached the mayor of West Vancouver about moving it to West Van “to replace a youth centre that had burned down.”
That didn’t pan out, so she approached the developer and they agreed to let her take it away. The City of Vancouver said in an email that “the developer is responsible for all costs associated with moving the house,” but Walker said she is footing the bill, which will be costly.
“You’ve got the Nickel Bros. moving costs, the deconstruction of the house, (which) has to be moved from the floor joists,” she said. “You’ve got the entire basement that essentially has to be removed. Then, of course, you have to remove all the concrete. Then the utilities cost (to take down power lines on the street during the move).
“It’s a great deal of money. I have not done the math, intentionally.”
Walker knows how costly moving a house can be because she saved another heritage house from demolition, which is going to be moved to a lot in West Van in mid-October. But it took 11 years for her to do it — the house has been in storage for a decade.
Mark Craig of Nickel Bros. said the details that made the home unique will be saved, including the cedar logs on the exterior, which were floated down from Half Moon Bay on the Sunshine Coast.
The house also has several fireplace mantles made from stones that were dug out of the Capilano River. They will all be saved, along with the fir panelling, coffered ceilings and pollard oak floors that were part of the home’s arts-and-craft interior design.
Heritage expert Don Luxton said it’s best to try to preserve buildings on their site. But moving a building is better than seeing it demolished.
“We want to preserve buildings to preserve their memories and their stories,” he said. “But realistically speaking, we can’t always preserve everything in exactly the same place.”
In an email the city said it has received proposals to build on the three lots where 4686 West 2nd is located but “the development permits are under review so we do not have further information to share at this time.”
The zoning for the three, 33×168.4-foot lots allows for a 0.6 floor- space ratio, which means the main house could be about 3,300 square feet. The zoning also allows for a laneway house of 0.25 FSR, which is about 1,400 square feet.
