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David Gurr Houses
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Accession 2011-066, Files 1-21 (MD)
General note
A note about these David Gurr Houses:
These 21 files are arranged chronologically from my first house (1964) to my last (1982). I have provided a separate List of the Files, showing a brief description of each house. Occasionally, I have added a ”2011 Note” drawing attention to some detail of interest resulting from the passage of time. (36 years!)
Each set of plans has its own descriptive document indicating the architect, builder, location, dates, extent of the file, and description of the sheets included.
Two things stand out in these files:
• I was the actual builder, as well as the designer.
• Second, and perhaps more important: my houses were designed in what has been called “West Coast Contemporary” style.
In fact, though the style sounds as if it should be common, very few people in Victoria actually built such designs. The houses featured Red Cedar for ceiling-decking and heavy roof shakes, and exterior siding, and Douglas Fir lumber extensively for their Posts and Beams, many of which are very large.
The chief object of the “West Coast” style was to emphasize the relation of the house to the local landscape around it (especially the rocky bits). Many of the Properties I built on were only available to me because most people felt them too difficult for construction.
In any event, Future eyes will see construction and drafting (“tracing paper”) techniques that seem strangely quaint, and building materials (those solid fir beams) that now seem unobtainable.
Finally, what these Plans actually looked like after they had been built can be seen by cross-referencing them to their photographs in the David Gurr Fonds (Box 22) and the Collage of Houses among the “Oversize Items” in the fonds (folder 2).
There is also the Houses section on my Website which is in the fonds on a DVD Disc (16.7)
-David Gurr