The Graham House

In 1965 architect Arthur Erickson designed and built a home in Vancouver, British Columbia, as a series of interlocking horizontal terraces. Natural materials and a reflecting pool related the structure to the lake and rocky cliffs on either side. Tall panes of glass and vertically ribbed cedar walls were surmounted by horizontal wooden slabs that projected beyond corners as geometrical accents.

This beautiful house was demolished in 2007. Why? Because some rich asshole probably wanted to build a Mediterranean-style McMansion it it's place. I just dont understand why a person could demolish something that looks as amazingly unique and beautiful as the Graham House. Ugh.

The site for the Graham house was a rock cliff dropping forty feet down a sheer cliff to a rock bench over the sea. The solution to this difficult site was the creation of a multi-story house descending the slope in levels.

The formal idea of the piling up of hovering beams was the basis of the composition. These enclose the major living areas, which step down the embankment for four stories from the carport to the bluff over the sea below. Each area opens onto a roof terrace over the living quarters below, so that there is maximum access to sunlight and view. Because of the ruggedness of the site, the outside living areas are confined almost entirely to the roof areas of the house itself.