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Anderson Residence
Calgary
Statement of Significance
Description of Historic Place
The Anderson Residence is a one-storey plus full-height walk-out basement house with a dramatic sky lit roof and exaggerated exposed beams and muscular trusses. The house is oriented on a steep hilltop property with spectacular views of downtown Calgary. The sophisticated West Coast Modern-style house, completed in 1975, features vertical wood siding, large fixed and clerestory windows and a wrap-around balcony. The house is situated on a densely treed lot, with access from a lane south of Royal Avenue SW in the Upper Mount Royal neighbourhood.
Heritage Value
The Anderson Residence, completed in 1975, is a dramatic, high-style, late, West Coast Modern-style house significant for its innovative design that showcases the interrelationship between the building and nature. Calgary-based architect, Bill Boucock was the architect and structural engineer for the project. He is recognized for his exquisitely designed St. Andrew’s Church (1969), and Earl Grey Elementary School (1967), also in Upper Mount Royal.
The concept was conceived by first owners, Gail Anderson and Andrew Yeoman, who envisioned a space that incorporated a sky-lit tropical courtyard, and maximized stunning vistas to downtown Calgary. Boucock focused the design around a central interior tropical garden. Large, stained-wood trusses - exposed in the interior and exterior - add texture to the otherwise neutral interior and parallel the central courtyard, running through to the outside. Large fixed picture and clerestory windows bring transparency and natural light into the space with the house deliberately planned to make the best and maximum use of the natural light at all times of the day. The courtyard, with large mature tropical plants and trees, is encased with low concrete walls that run to the basement floor; the base of the garden is unpaved to ensure proper drainage. Rainwater is collected and stored in a basement tank, which can be pumped up for watering the garden. The design was awarded for its distinguished design in the first City of Calgary Urban Design Awards competition in 1979.
The Anderson Residence is highly valued for its unique construction techniques, designed as a response to the challenges inherent in the narrow, steep lot. Boucock utilized a finely executed post and beam construction with an exposed truss structural form to maximize the interior volumes. Using building technology borrowed from greenhouses, Boucock designed an innovative raised monitor (gabled) glass roof supported by massive wooden trusses. Airflow is controlled through mechanical louvre windows in the monitor roof.
The Anderson Residence is also valued as a rare example of late, West Coast Modern architectural-style in Calgary. Hallmarks of the style, as evidenced in the Anderson Residence, include its almost exclusive reliance on wood and seamless integration of the building with the natural environment. The entire house is cloaked in vertical wooden siding and has wide roof overhangs with large exposed beams and trusses that thrust dramatically out of the house, doubling as exterior trellises. The residence features an irregular massing with the main living space on the upper floor and a walk-out basement below with additional living space and bedrooms. A wide-pitched gabled roofline frames the spectacular downtown viewscapes and large windows, and wide overhanging decks create a blurred transition between the inside and outside spaces. The magnificent vistas and surrounding vegetation viewed from the interior space and open balconies, and the interplay of light through the heavy timber trusses in the interior, create a dynamic and almost rustic urban sanctuary.
The Anderson Residence is also valued for its association with its first and current owner, Gail Anderson. She lead the committee tasked with the development of a public art policy for the City of Calgary and she served as the first chair of the Public Art Board.
The Anderson Residence is additionally valued symbolically as one of many fine quality historical residences in the Upper Mount Royal neighbourhood. Initially developed in an area of Calgary’s finest grand estates, a large palatial house was completed in 1912, surrounded by a stone retaining wall built the same year by F.F. Co. The property was subdivided again for redevelopment in 1957, at which time the 1912 house was demolished. The original stone wall continues to front the north side of several lots along Royal Avenue, including the Anderson Residence.
With its elevated siting in the Upper Mount Royal neighbourhood and striking Modern-style architecture, the Anderson Residence is a landmark in the community.
Character-Defining Elements
The exterior character-defining elements that define the heritage character of the Anderson Residence include, but are not limited to, its:
- setting at the southern extent of a steeply-sloped lot in the Upper Mount Royal neighbourhood in Calgary, accessible by a public lane to the south with views to downtown Calgary;
- siting on a trapezoidal lot within an eclectic mixed residential context;
- associated landscaping elements including vertical board wood (cedar) fence enclosing south yard, wooden decking and planting beds, and terraced planting beds in south yard;
- form, scale, and massing;
- irregular plan (one-storey with full-height walk-out basement);
- low pitched front-gabled roof with raised central monitor roof;
- wide overhangs with exaggerated rafters projecting over the deck to serve as trellises;
- wide pitched projecting gabled roof on north façade with projecting gable screen and truss system extending over front deck;
- attached garage on southwest side of house;
- wooden frame with wooden truss structural system;
- concrete foundation;
- exposed rafters and beams;
- vertical wooden (cedar) siding;
- wooden soffits;
- wood detailing and trim;
- cedar shingle roofing;
- original fenestration, including large fixed full-height windows on all facades; clerestory windows on a side of house; triple assembly wooden-sash windows with centrally fixed middle window and casements on either side; two operable greenhouse roof (skylight) sections; central entryway on south side with large glass transom and side lights around central double solid wooden doors; and
- wrap-around wooden deck with full glass balustrade.
The interior character-defining elements of the Anderson Residence include, but are not limited to, its:
- Layout/ configuration of the upper level;
- exposed, stained-wood beams and trusses paralleling the courtyard;
- open-plan concept with pony walls for privacy;
- central courtyard surrounded with mature tropical plants and trees;
- Mexican tile floors;
- original lighting such as globe pendants;
- corner fireplace in living room;
- spiral staircase down to basement;
- galley kitchen; and
- cedar-panelled bathroom with blue cast-iron tub.
Location
| Street Address: |
1013 Royal Avenue SW |
| Community: |
Calgary |
| Boundaries: |
Portion of Lots 13 and 14, Block 32, Plan 7518HF |
| Contributing Resources: |
Building: 1
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ATS Legal Description:
PBL Legal Description (Cadastral Reference):
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Plan |
Block |
Lot |
Parcel |
7518HF
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32
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13 and 14
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Latitude/Longitude:
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Latitude |
Longitude |
CDT |
Datum Type |
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51.035298 |
-114.085232 |
Digital Maps |
NAD83 |
UTM Reference:
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Northing |
Easting |
Zone |
CDT |
Datum Type |
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Recognition
| Recognition Authority: |
Local Governments (AB) |
| Designation Status: |
Municipal Historic Resource |
| Date of Designation: |
2016/01/25 |
Historical Information
| Built: |
1975/01/01 |
| Period of Significance: |
N/A |
| Theme(s): |
Expressing Intellectual and Cultural Life : Architecture and Design
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| Historic Function(s): |
Residence : Single Dwelling
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| Current Function(s): |
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| Architect: |
Bill Boucock
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| Builder: |
Jens Henriksen Construction
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| Context: |
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Additional Information
| Object Number: |
4664-0373 |
| Designation File: |
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| Related Listing(s): |
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| Heritage Survey File: |
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| Website Link: |
www.calgary.ca/heritageinventory |
| Data Source: |
City of Calgary, Heritage Planning |
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