St George Street House

Clean and minimalist in appearance, St. George Street House is a consummate example of perfectly aligned surfaces and lines. Its finished simplicity belies an incredibly complex and time-intensive planning and construction process.

Location Vancouver, east side Type Residential, single family Size 2,100 sf Architect Randy Bens Designer Falken Reynolds Interiors Completion Fall 2018 Photographer Ema Peter Photography

Achieving clean, straight and flush lines along both the fireplace and appliance walls was no easy feat. Working with multiple trades, surfaces and materials, this construction required many meetings, site drawing, coordination and creative problem solving.

In fact, we redid the drywall three times to ensure it was perfectly flush with the fireplace stone and millwork.

A staircase work of art

We required multiple mock-up installations to ensure the wood-block treads, fabricated off-site from engineered hardwood, fit perfectly with the vertical metal guard slats. Built in three sections so they could be lifted, the 800-pound metal slats were welded to fit the space before being transported off-site for powder coating and returned to be permanently secured. Once the slats were in place, we used detailed wood pieces to infill the recesses between each slat below the treads. Fully concealing the mounting of the slats, we laid the floor and ceiling pieces in last.

Indoor-outdoor seamlessness

To achieve a seamless transition between indoor and outdoor spaces, we built up the ground below the custom-milled, yellow cedar deck so it's level with the main floor. Extending the warmth of the living space outdoors, the Paloform fireplace has an underground gas connection attached, controlled remotely from within the house. Beneath the deck, we installed a predetermined grid of lighting wires and irrigation drip lines for the softly curving birch trees, which arc in contrast to the straight lines of the house.

Construction of the modern, minimalist master bathroom necessitated maximal forethought and planning. To install floor-to-ceiling glass in the curbless shower, we had to lay out the exact positioning of the pivot hinges to account for the radiant floor heat and hidden shower water liner.

Instead of a floor drain, we used a pedestal system to hold the floor shower tiles and allow water to drain between the gaps in the tiles. Handmade tiles capped with a piece of black engineered stone form the lower portion of the back wall and extend into the toilet room.

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St George Street House