Each year, the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board doles out awards to completed construction projects deserving recognition of their excellence.  For 2012, Pheasant Hill Homes was honoured to learn that our role in the renovation of Raymond DeBeeld Architect Inc.’s offices won just such an award.  Taking home the prize for Best Heritage Renovation, this award category represents unique challenges.  One has to renew and rejuvenate a space, make it sustainable to operate in an environment of increasing energy costs, maintain or improve the integrity of the original architectural design, and still make it a functional space for it’s new purpose.  However, the precise and visionary design of Raymond DeBeeld Architect Inc, and the competent, cooperative contracting of Pheasant Hill Homes made the project an exceptional success.  It’s nice to receive an award for your efforts now and then, but what we’ve appreciated even more are the comments we’ve received from friends, business colleagues, and even strangers about how much they’ve enjoyed seeing the transformation of the landmark building, and how much they’ve appreciated getting a “virtual tour” through our blog posting about the project on our website.  So, congratulations to Raymond DeBeeld Architect Inc, (and to ourselves!) for receiving the 2012 VIREB Commercial Building Award for best Heritage Renovation.

Continue reading on below to view our original blog article about the Raymond DeBeeld Architect Inc. Art Moderne office renovation project!

Art Moderne Heritage House Transforms into Energy Efficient, Creative Office

For most people employed in an office setting, their workspace needs to be comfortable and productive.  When you’re an architectural firm, however, your office space has to be not only an effective workspace, but it also has to embody everything that your firm is capable of achieving for any number of clients that might walk through your door.

That is precisely what Raymond de Beeld (B.A., M. Evds (Arch), MAIBC) set out to achieve when he asked Pheasant Hill Homes to help him transform a unique Art Moderne styled heritage house near downtown Nanaimo into a new commercial office space for his firm, Raymond de Beeld Architect Inc.  Raymond had, of course, a clear vision of what he wanted the space to be: an open, communicative layout for the architects to work and collaborate in, with design elements that showed off their ability to blend creativity, functionality and cost effectiveness.  He succeeded.

In addition to this, it was important to preserve the appearance of the home, which had become a landmark for many on Terminal Ave.  The “big white stucco building,” as everyone in town seems to refer to it, has design qualities cherished by many architects. Because Art Moderne was born out of the German Bauhaus movement in the 1930′s, the house displays many of the sleek, sophisticated signatures recognized as “modern architecture,” even today.  The flat roof, the simple massing, and the wrap-around windows are common on contemporary design today, but at the time of the original home’s construction, these were cutting edge architectural features designed to make the home functional and beautiful all at once.  Not content to sit on the laurels of Art Moderne, however, Raymond de Beeld introduced some new life into the old design.

  Bright primary colours now adorn both the exterior and interior throughout.  Rustic reclaimed fir lumber was refashioned into fun and sophisticated shelving.  The resident architects’ entrance into the office was designed to be a sophisticated modern cedar rainscreen vestibule that acts as a perfect counterpoint to the historic nature of the house.  And Pheasant Hill even helped Ray pick up a length of re-claimed maple bowling alley from DEMXX, which we then lovingly turned into a beautiful 12′ long boardroom table.  It was so enormous (and heavy!) that we had to crane it up to the second story boardroom.

Design considerations aside, environmental responsibility is also an important consideration in everything Raymond de Beeld Architect Inc. creates.  Pheasant Hill Homes fit into this role perfectly, as a contractor with a special focus on energy efficient building practices.  It was important to have a contractor and architect who spoke the same language when incorporating energy upgrades such as spray foam, vapour barrier paint, mini-split heat pumps, point of use on-demand hot water heaters and solar tube skylights.  Because of the work we performed for Raymond, a cold, drafty, poorly insulated (or insulation free in some spots!) heritage house has been altered into a much tighter, thermally efficient commercial space that is comfortable to work in, and a pleasure to look at.

The subtrade work  in the house was all performed either by hand-picked subcontractors via Raymond or by Pheasant Hill regulars.  All electrical work and lighting was installed by Brad Koster of Automated Electrical Installation.  Plumbing was performed by Fairwinds Plumbing and Heating.  Mechanical ventilation, heat pumps and wall cassettes were installed by Archie Johnstone Plumbing and Heating.  Re-Roofing and parapet flashing was performed by Erickson Roofing.  All painting was performed by Indigo Painting Ltd.  The fir and maple floors were re-finished and supplemented with new by Heritage Hardwood Floors.  While working to the high tolerances expected by an architect can require extra time and care, being successfully involved in a demanding commercial project was an excellent example of how Pheasant Hill Homes is capable of producing a high quality of work whether it be a commercial, new residential, or renovation situation.

Raymond and his staff now have an office they can enjoy working in and an open layout facilitates easy collaboration.  The energy efficient retrofit translates into a comfortable, conscience-friendly space and the playful, contemporary design motif injects energy into the atmosphere.  And perhaps most importantly, a landmark heritage house in Nanaimo was maintained to ensure it lasts well into another century of use.  Should the deadlines and workload ever become too stressful around Raymond’s office, however, the staff need only find their way upstairs to blow off some steam with a round of bowling on their boardroom table.

If the beautiful photos above (mostly taken by Artez Photography) haven’t whetted your appetite, review the full gallery below.  And if you have a unique project that requires an attentive, or energy conscious touch, don’t hesitate to contact Pheasant Hill Homes now, by clicking here.

(Click here to visit the City of Nanaimo Heritage Register’s page on the Wardill Residence.)

In our pursuit of energy efficient homebuilding, Pheasant Hill Homes is continually keeping apprised of the latest developments and technology in this area.  In the last few years, the most popular kid in the sustainable building school has been LEED.  However, with it’s intense documentation workload, complicated points system, and demanding accreditation process it has been slow to move into the residential market.  Add to that mounting indications that with post-construction monitoring, many LEED buildings don’t actually end up using less energy, one begins to wonder if there might be a better way?  And while LEED certainly ensures a very complete approach, incorporating water saving strategies, transportation concerns, and material life cycle analyses, there is a new kid in school, that recently immigrated from Europe.  And over there, he is the most popular kid on the continent.

A Passive House (or Passivhaus if you’re in Europe), is an extremely energy efficient home that utilizes a computer-aided thermal modeling package, and unique construction principles to help it achieve a stringent set of performance standards.  Namely, the home must:

1. Have a space heating load of only 15 kWh of energy per square metre of floor space, per year

2.  Use a total of 120 kWh of energy per square metre of floor space, per year, for everything from lighting, to TV’s to domestic hot water production and all heating.

3.  Have a completed airtightness rating of no more than 0.6 air changes per hour, at a 50 Pascal pressure difference.

If you know your energy efficiency stuff, you will realize that these are extremely demanding targets!  However, what they do, is allow a Passive House to reduce its energy consumption by an average of 85% over a comparably sized typical home, which reduces it’s CO2 production by 65%.  In terms of a carbon footprint, that’s like going from size 13 shoes to a size 8.5!!

Now, if you’re not an energy nerd, here’s the laymen’s low-down:  Essentially, a Passive House is a home designed and built with:

- an energy efficient shape (smallest surface area to volume ratio possible)

- good solar exposure

- a super insulated shell around all six sides

-extremely high performance windows and doors

- a world-class HRV system to retain the heat input while still ventilating with fresh air

- a minimal amount of thermal bridging, and

- an extremely air-tight envelope so that energy loss and the potential for moisture problems are almost completely mitigated.

The result of all this is that you have a home that retains it’s heat so well that you don’t need to install a conventional heating system, but can rely largely on the latent heat produced by appliances, lighting and residents to provide a large portion of it’s space heating demand.  And more importantly, residents end up with a home that is remarkably comfortable in temperature, is exceptionally soundproof, has excellent indoor air quality and reduces their energy costs substantially.

So, why are we writing about Passive Houses now?  Because Pheasant Hill Homes is working with a client (well, my wife and I) to hopefully build one in Nanaimo this summer!  We’re quite excited, and having been doing lots of planning and preparation.  I have personally spent many, many, many(!) evenings and weekends learning and performing the thermal modeling, and we have been meeting with engineers, architects and designers about construction details and planning.  And as an unsung hero in this, my father (an architectural project manager in Alberta) has spent heaps of his time helping us finesse a plan that meets the challenging demands of a Passive House design.  As clients and a building contractor, we are hoping to serve as the proverbial guinea pigs so that Pheasant Hill Homes can get the details and supply chain ironed out for our location to make Passive Houses a real, financially feasible option for any potential clients that want to get very serious about building an energy efficient, sustainable home.  Even if you dream of building a Net Zero house (the zenith of sustainable building!), the surest and most cost effective way to get there is to first design a home that meets the Passive House requirements.  And while Passive Houses are quite common in Europe, having had tens of thousands built over the last decade, they are still quite rare in North America.  However, the Canadian Passive House Institute is now in operation, through which Ken and I took their excellent course recently, and we plan to work closely with them to do our best to develop and construct on here for ourselves.

Stay tuned then!  Pheasant Hill Homes will hopefully be starting construction on its first Passive House this June.  Because we believe so passionately in sustainable, energy efficient building, one of our goals of the project is to educate as many people as possible.  To that end, we will be doing public tours of the project at key stages of construction to show other contractors, designers, city officials, trades and architecture students, and of course the general public what kinds of design and detailing goes into building a super energy efficient home.

If you’d like to read a more in-depth primer of what a Passive House is all about, you can download and read this PDF.  Thanks for your interest, and make sure to check the blog often to see how the Rutherford Ridge Passive House is shaping up!  Contact us by clicking here if you have any questions about the project, or if you’d like to speak with us about the potential for building your own energy efficient home (or even bringing your current home up to a higher performance standard).

Follow along with Pheasant Hill Homes as we continue down the path of upgrading a 100-year old heritage house into a comfortable, energy efficient 21st century home.

In this part of the video series, Ken Connolly (one of the company owners), discusses some common discoveries that were revealed once demolition began on the house.  Pheasant Hill Homes often finds evidence of water damage, insect damage, and poor construction details while renovating older homes, and the Crossan House is a great illustration of what kinds of things can lurk behind the seemingly benign veneer of paint and plaster.  But, Ken also discusses how we’re able to remediate these problems, ensuring that they won’t happen again.

Take a few minutes to watch the video below, and be sure to check back often, as the 4th part in our series will outline the first way in which we are beginning work on the deep energy retrofit of this character home.

If you have questions about this project, or are pondering doing some energy or stylistic upgrades on your own home, give us a call!  We can be reached here.

When: March 17 & 18, 2012
Where: Beban Park Social Centre.

Okay, we may be stretching the truth just a little bit, but when a couple of clients came to us with plans to put an addition on their house, Pheasant Hill Homes jumped on board.  To document the project (and others to come!), we installed a weatherproof time lapse camera on site that took a still picture of the progress each hour of the day.  When all these pictures were strung together, it revealed a fun overview of just how quickly a project can progress from start to finish.  You can check out the video at the end of this post to see what all the fuss is about.

With two growing kids full of energy, and the parents needing an office space at home, and addition was just what this family needed.  More room to work in the day; more room to play at night.  An attached garage was placed on the ground floor, with lots of space for storage and a small workshop space.  Above, a big, open space was built to do triple duty as a playspace, tv room, and more private lounging area, away from the bustle of the kitchen and main floor.  Attached to it is an office with enough room for two people to work in (or simply enjoy the silence!) while the kids are at school.  In just 3 months (over Christmas break, no less), this house gained much needed room and versatility.

Enjoy the time lapse video below.  It’s a fascinating way for people who are thinking about building a new home or addition to get a sense of the rapidfire steps involved in taking a project out of the ground and up to the point where the keys are handed over.

Check back often to see upcoming time lapse videos; we’ve got one running on the Crossan Heritage House rebuild right now.  If you’d love to see a time lapse of your new project being built, contact us today by clicking here!  Summer is on the way, and Pheasant Hill Homes will soon be kicking into high gear.

We will be hosting a booth at the event and our very own Ken Connolly is speaking at 12:00 PM on the ‘Top 10 Renovation Blunders’.

There’s plenty of parking underneath (over 300 stalls) as well as another 300 under the Port Theatre next door. HGTV host, Sarah Daniels of Urban Suburban will be presenting twice from our Speakers Stage and 102.3 The Wave will broadcast live on location.

Admission includes your ticket for the Grand Prize Draw, Kenmore front loading washer & dryer worth over $2000 courtesy of SEARS!!!  It’s $5 for adults, $3 for Seniors & Students and Children under 12 are FREE. This year’s show is sponsored by Fortis BC, La-Z-Boy Furniture Gallery, The Nanaimo News Bulletin and 102.3 The Wave.

Visit the chbacvi.com site for more details!

In our work, some projects pose more challenges than others.  It is also true that some offer more opportunities than others.  Opportunities to be creative, to introduce beauty, functionality and efficiency beyond every day norms.  Along these lines, we are excited to now begin a major renovation of the Crossan Heritage House in Nanaimo.  This promises to be both challenging and rewarding in every way, and we’re looking forward to sinking our teeth into it.

The Project:

We will renovate, upgrade, restore and generally breathe new life into a genuine, 1912 Nanaimo Craftsman home.  The house is a good example of Craftsman era construction and finishes which, despite some modifications, is more or less intact.  It even has a “miner’s shower” on the back porch– a place for a worker’s coal dust to get rinsed off before stepping into the house! 

Welcoming front porches and wooden staircases were hallmarks of the Craftsman movement, and it appears that these were removed from the front of this home in the 1950′s.   This significantly moved the home away from its architectural roots, and we will restore the front façade to its former state – that is our starting place.  Beyond restoring the home’s original architectural purity, we will modernize the interior with a blend of new and old finishes, lift the house up to create a legal suite in the basement and significantly upgrade the home’s shell to 21st century energy standards.

Phase I – Assessment and Design:

The work done prior to construction commencing is in fact just as important as the building phase, yet it is often neglected in the rush to get construction underway.  Before rushing into construction we took three and a half months to document existing conditions and construction of the house, perform an energy audit, trace some of the modifications performed since it was built, and to develop plans and engineering which will allow us to turn it into a warm (in every sense of the word!), functional, eye-catching home that will provide at least another century of comfort and pleasure to its subsequent owners.

As already mentioned, we want to be faithful to the history and “street presence” that this home once had.  We will be restoring features that have been removed over the years, and adding onto the house in a seamless manner which will complement the original architecture.

Next, complete modernization of the interior will take place; a bright, comfortable suite will occupy the basement.  Heating, ventilation, electrical, and plumbing will all be renewed and upgraded with comfort and efficiency in mind.  Structural weaknesses in the house will be addressed along the way.  To “top it off” a cozy master suite will be tucked into the attic.

Energy efficient design needs to be part of any renovation or new home.  This heritage house, like many, is in desperate need of a deep energy retrofit if it is to be comfortable and durable for another 100 years of life.  While the attic is already well insulated from previous upgrades, we suspect little or no insulation in any of the walls.  This suspicion seems to have been validated by a November hydro bill of $350 based on one occupant living in the house.  (And yes, that was a bill for 30 days – NOT 60!)  We will therefore focus on upgrading the building envelope (a fancy name for the wall, roof, and floor assemblies that separate the indoor environment from the outdoors).  Insulation will be added under the basement floor and to the exterior walls.  A Heat Recovery Ventilator will supply fresh air indoors while minimizing the heat loss of exhausted stale air, and we will seal up the house effectively to reduce energy loss through unwanted air leakage.  New windows– used in combination with the original windows in some cases– will complete the retrofits.  What is now a noticeably un-comfortable house, will  be transformed into a cozy, comfortable home.

If you are have an interest in, or questions about the energy audit and our plans to improve the efficiency of this home, please contact us by clicking here.  We’re always happy to discuss how we can improve energy efficiency for any project.  We believe educating the public about building issues is an important part of our profession, so don’t be afraid to ask!

Check out all the “before” photos in the gallery below, and stay tuned to keep up with our progress as we implement our plan!!

(Click here to visit the City of Nanaimo’s Heritage Registry Page on the Crossan House.)

This February 9th, Nanaimo Daily News is launching a new quarterly feature focusing on interior design and homebuilding, called “Island Homes by Design.”  To our delight, they have chosen Pheasant Hill Homes as their featured builder for the launch.  Having noticed a recent new build of ours that really stands out from the crowd, the Daily News wanted to focus on that specific home to show how precisely an attentive and meticulous builder and a tuned-in designer can create something truly exceptional.

Fortunately we have an extremely gracious client who has allowed her home to be photographed multiple times, featured in new homes tours, and included in sustainable homes tours.  Her patience and willingness to let strangers into her home has definitely gone far beyond the call of duty.

   The Homes by Design feature will focus on the ability of clients to find local designers, builders and suppliers to provide something uniquely personal.  In the case of this Pheasant Hill Homes project, the client knew exactly what she wanted in a home: clean, modern design, energy efficiency and low maintenance.  Unfortunately, she couldn’t find that complete package already on the market.  So she knew it was time to track down a builder that could package those goals into a custom home specifically built for her.

  The article was put together with support from Karly Parker of Kallos Interior Design for some staging of the shoot, and was photographed by Dirk Heydemann of HA Photography.  The writer, Jacquie Howardson, will focus on how clients can move from concepts and ideas of what their ideal home might be, to having local talent and suppliers turn it into reality.

So, make sure to check your mailbox this February 9th for the new “Island Homes by Design” pull-out from Nanaimo Daily News.  And if you like what you see, make sure to contact us to find out how effectively we can translate your goals and wishes into a home that’s perfect for you!

For most people employed in an office setting, their workspace needs to be comfortable and productive.  When you’re an architectural firm, however, your office space has to be not only an effective workspace, but it also has to embody everything that your firm is capable of achieving for any number of clients that might walk through your door.

That is precisely what Raymond de Beeld (B.A., M. Evds (Arch), MAIBC) set out to achieve when he asked Pheasant Hill Homes to help him transform a unique Art Moderne styled heritage house near downtown Nanaimo into a new commercial office space for his firm, Raymond de Beeld Architect Inc.  Raymond had, of course, a clear vision of what he wanted the space to be: an open, communicative layout for the architects to work and collaborate in, with design elements that showed off their ability to blend creativity, functionality and cost effectiveness.  He succeeded.

In addition to this, it was important to preserve the appearance of the home, which had become a landmark for many on Terminal Ave.  The “big white stucco building,” as everyone in town seems to refer to it, has design qualities cherished by many architects. Because Art Moderne was born out of the German Bauhaus movement in the 1930′s, the house displays many of the sleek, sophisticated signatures recognized as “modern architecture,” even today.  The flat roof, the simple massing, and the wrap-around windows are common on contemporary design today, but at the time of the original home’s construction, these were cutting edge architectural features designed to make the home functional and beautiful all at once.  Not content to sit on the laurels of Art Moderne, however, Raymond de Beeld introduced some new life into the old design.

  Bright primary colours now adorn both the exterior and interior throughout.  Rustic reclaimed fir lumber was refashioned into fun and sophisticated shelving.  The resident architects’ entrance into the office was designed to be a sophisticated modern cedar rainscreen vestibule that acts as a perfect counterpoint to the historic nature of the house.  And Pheasant Hill even helped Ray pick up a length of re-claimed maple bowling alley from DEMXX, which we then lovingly turned into a beautiful 12′ long boardroom table.  It was so enormous (and heavy!) that we had to crane it up to the second story boardroom.

Design considerations aside, environmental responsibility is also an important consideration in everything Raymond de Beeld Architect Inc. creates.  Pheasant Hill Homes fit into this role perfectly, as a contractor with a special focus on energy efficient building practices.  It was important to have a contractor and architect who spoke the same language when incorporating energy upgrades such as spray foam, vapour barrier paint, mini-split heat pumps, point of use on-demand hot water heaters and solar tube skylights.  Because of the work we performed for Raymond, a cold, drafty, poorly insulated (or insulation free in some spots!) heritage house has been altered into a much tighter, thermally efficient commercial space that is comfortable to work in, and a pleasure to look at.

The subtrade work  in the house was all performed either by hand-picked subcontractors via Raymond or by Pheasant Hill regulars.  All electrical work and lighting was installed by Brad Koster of Automated Electrical Installation.  Plumbing was performed by Fairwinds Plumbing and Heating.  Mechanical ventilation, heat pumps and wall cassettes were installed by Archie Johnstone Plumbing and Heating.  Re-Roofing and parapet flashing was performed by Erickson Roofing.  All painting was performed by Indigo Painting Ltd.  The fir and maple floors were re-finished and supplemented with new by Heritage Hardwood Floors.  While working to the high tolerances expected by an architect can require extra time and care, being successfully involved in a demanding commercial project was an excellent example of how Pheasant Hill Homes is capable of producing a high quality of work whether it be a commercial, new residential, or renovation situation.

Raymond and his staff now have an office they can enjoy working in and an open layout facilitates easy collaboration.  The energy efficient retrofit translates into a comfortable, conscience-friendly space and the playful, contemporary design motif injects energy into the atmosphere.  And perhaps most importantly, a landmark heritage house in Nanaimo was maintained to ensure it lasts well into another century of use.  Should the deadlines and workload ever become too stressful around Raymond’s office, however, the staff need only find their way upstairs to blow off some steam with a round of bowling on their boardroom table.

If the beautiful photos above (mostly taken by Artez Photography) haven’t whetted your appetite, review the full gallery below.  And if you have a unique project that requires an attentive, or energy conscious touch, don’t hesitate to contact Pheasant Hill Homes now, by clicking here.

(Click here to visit the City of Nanaimo Heritage Register’s page on the Wardill Residence.)