“Vancouver Special” Christmas Ornament: so cute it should be outlawed
The “Vancouver Special” was
once the most reviled house design in the city
Now it’s feeling a resurgence of love in Vancouver’s pop culture
My Vancouver Special Christmas ornament — with its low-pitched roof, straight balcony and classic variegated orange brick across the front — is a miniature composite of the thousands of these iconic houses in my East Van neighbourhood.
While I think my ornament is quite adorable, not everyone felt that way about the houses themselves.
“Devoid of architecture, devoid of charm”
Detractors quoted in the Vancouver Sun called Vancouver Specials “bland stucco houses, devoid of architecture, devoid of charm,” “lot-line monsters” and “ugly and box-like.” Harsh words considering what a hit they were among home-buyers.
The simple, boxy house design of the Vancouver Special was created in the 1960s by draftsman Larry Cudney to provide a low-cost option for family homes. The design exploited a loophole in the building code, which didn’t include the square footage of basements in the allotted home size. Cudney’s plans sunk the homes 18-inch below grade, which allowed the house to be built at double the footprint of other homes. This was particularly appealing to immigrants with multi-generational households and those wanting to create suites in the “basement.”
Pick two: cheap, fast, pretty
The drafting plans could be purchased for less than a hundred dollars and the standardization of plans meant the city approvals could be done in lightning speed. At the height of their popularity, building suppliers stocked everything needed to build the homes. As a result, construction firms could have the homes completed in a little as three weeks! No wonder they were so popular!
Perhaps, a little too popular...
By the late ‘80s, Vancouver Specials made up an estimated 11 per cent of houses in the Hasting Sunrise area and five per cent in Marpole. In total, about 10,000 Vancouver Specials were built before Vancouver’s city council outlawed their construction in 1988.
What’s special about my “Vancouver Special” Christmas ornament?
Well… everything!
The second storey of my miniature Vancouver Special is painted in the typical warm white stucco colour, while the first story is a 1970s burnt sienna.
Windows and the sliding glass doors are outlined in silver paint, nodding to the aluminum window frames.
The fine detail — variegated bricks on the front facade and on the resin chimney and the windows on the two garage doors at the back of the house — are achieved with a decal I designed. The garage diverges slightly from the classic Vancouver Special to make it easier to create in blown glass and so that it will hang properly on the tree.
Finally, to give the ornament a little Christmas flair, the roof is sprinkled with “snow” and there’s a tiny green wreath painted on the front door.
Most of all, it’s just sooooooo Vancouver!
Learn more about Larry Cudney’s motivation for designing the once-maligned-and-now-beloved Vancouver Special in this article, “His ‘Revenge’ on Architects Was the Vancouver Special,” in the Tyee.
In the CBC video, A ‘Special’ Solution to the Housing Crisis, you’ll get a glimpse of the scope and variety of Vancouver Specials built and learn how this design responded to the housing crisis of its day. CBC also explores whether the same principles could be applied to address today’s housing crisis.