The Vancouver Sun
The Character of a Neighbourhood is Saved
Homes bring together past and present

"With every creak, every knothole and every scrap of buckling wallpaper, an old house whispers of the past. Like a great-grandparent who has dozed off in a recliner, its appearance can be deceiving. Sometimes what seems perfectly still and lifeless conceals invaluable stories of a disappearing era.

Surrounded by a sea of slapdash Vancouver Specials, the Craftsman house at 5872 Wales Street is still speaking thanks to a special effort to preserve the character of both the house and the block. Now the house lives on to share a heartwarming tale of three East Vancouver families.

Built in 1919 upon a then shared 1.5 acre plot directly across from the Avalon Dairy, the Killarney home first housed the Cooper family. In the 1940s, the Underdahls bought it, and there they stayed through the remainder of the 20th century.

"The fond memory I have is that we had such a large piece of property," said Harold Underdahl, a retired fisheries worker who lived in the house with his parents on and off from the age of three.

By and by, the modern East Vancouver landscape began to evolve around the house, which underwent few of its own changes and in doing so acquired "Heritage A" status. By 2003, it was one of only three large heritage lots in the vicinity along with the Avalon Dairy and the school board nursery site.

Most of the similar sites had been razed over time, making room for block upon block of Vancouver Specials.

When Harold's mom passed away in 2000, he knew it was time to sell the property. Since it was city protected, the house was safe, but subdivision posed a problem because the structure was situated smack in the centre of the property.

At this time, the third family came to own the house, in the form of Peter Banicevic Developments Inc., a.k.a. East Vancouver-raised brothers Peter and Karlo Banicevic.

Developers and old houses may sound akin to oil and water, but Harold Underdahl trusted Peter Banicevic to do the right thing.

We've always really liked Peter. We thought he was a super guy to deal with," Underdahl said.

Banicevec brokered a deal with the city. He would undertake the arduous task of moving the house to the corner of the property if the city allowed him to build five high density duplexes on the remaining land.

This is where the saga of the 87 year old heritage house becomes a new homes story.

Given the green light, Banicevic contracted architect Keith Jakobsen of Jakobsen Associates, who formerly worked at city hall as a heritage and development planner. Given that the city had imposed high-density RT8 zoning- most commonly seen in Kitsilano- Jakobsen was able to design five eye-catching new Craftsman homes to complement but not cheapen the original. Three of the houses went up on Wales Street, while the remaining two were built around the corner on 44th Avenue.

For inspiration, Jakobsen looked to a strip of houses along MacDonald and Sixth Avenue in Kitsilano.

"I thought to design a different house on each lot would be very time-consuming and costly, so what we tried to do was come up with an idea and then do variations on a theme," Jakobsen said.

"You go through Kitsilano and you think, 'Wow, a lot of these houses have the same kind of dormers,' but every one of them has a different kind of porch, different kind of entry, different details, and different kinds of knee braces or beams."

Banicevic said the design makes sense from a builder's perspective too.