Dodek Residence

Designed by Ron Thom, the residence was built in 1957 for Mort and Irene Dodek. Mort is a retired doctor who opened his practice in 1955 and within just two years – with a bit of help – they were able to get a mortgage to purchase a lot and a home. It cost $10/sq ft at the time.

“Mort was talking to his patient who was an electrician, and telling him we were looking for a house we wanted but what we liked we couldn’t afford, what we could afford we didn’t like, and he said “you should build, and I know this wonderful architect.” And he showed us some of the houses that this Ron Thom had designed. The houses in West Vancouver and it blew us away; the design was unbelievable; we had never seen anything like it. And we came home and said this is the man. So we arranged a meeting with him.

Ron came to our apartment to talk to us about designing a house. We just told him the things that we liked, and the things that we didn’t like, and he said “Well I’ll come back with some plans in about three weeks” and that’s exactly what he did and what he came back with is what we live in today. We knew nothing about design, about building, we’d only lived in an apartment, and he gave us a mini course in architecture. He invited us to his home, which was up in Lynn Valley, and showed us – he had studied under Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin West, in Arizona, and showed us pictures of buildings, of designs, and how certain things work, and certain things don’t. And this is how the house began.” (Irene’s memoirs, “You’ll Always Be My Darling” Courtesy of the Jewish Museum and Archives of BC.)

Ron Thom is most well-known for his design of Massey College in 1963, one of the colleges of the University of Toronto. He was made an officer of the Order of Canada in 1980. He passed away in 1986. The house is in a U-shape, wrapping around a courtyard on the south side. It was completed as an L in 1958 and the final leg was added in 1967. Inflation happened to quickly over the decade that the cost of the addition was the same as the initial building: $20,000. It was added to the City’s register in 2005 as a legally designated and protected heritage building, as well as interior features.

Source

City of Vancouver, Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia

More information

https://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=8778