Lakeside House

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Lakeside House by Fred Hollingsworth, 1990
Buckingham Heights, Burnaby

Photography by James Han
Story by Nadine Cuttingham

At the end of a tranquil tree-lined cul-de-sac in Buckingham Heights in Burnaby, BC stands one of the most complete expressions of architect Fred Hollingsworth’s West Coast vision.

Completed in 1990, the Lakeside House translates the architectural philosophy of Frank Lloyd Wright into the language of the Pacific Northwest— cedar, light, and landscape.

The Architect

A pioneering figure in West Coast Modernism, Fred Hollingsworth was responsible for some of the most significant residential architecture across Vancouver and the Lower Mainland.

Hollingsworth drew deep inspiration from Frank Lloyd Wright — so much so that Wright even invited him to join the office at Taliesin West. He declined, choosing instead to remain in British Columbia and develop Wright's Usonian philosophy on his own terms, adapting it to the particular climate and character of the Pacific Northwest.

The result was what Hollingsworth called Neoteric design, an architecture rooted in regional materials, post-and-beam construction, and a careful integration into the natural landscape. Though his foundational work dates to the 1940s, many of his homes are now listed on the North Vancouver Heritage Registry and continue to be featured in numerous architectural publications.

The Lakeside House, completed in 1988, represents a mature expression of this vision. Like Wright’s Wingspread House, one of the last and most ambitious expressions of the Prairie Style, the house is organized as a series of wings extending from a central core — low, horizontal, and spreading deliberately into the landscape rather than imposing upon it. A generous budget and a compelling site allowed Hollingsworth to bring the full range of his ideas to bear, shared as much by Wright’s enduring influence as by his own decades of practice on the West Coast.

The Setting

The Lakeside House sits at the end of a tree-lined cul-de-sac, in Buckingham Heights, one of Burnaby’s most desirable residential neighbourhoods. Sheltered beneath a canopy of old-growth hemlock, fir, and cedar, it’s the kind of place that takes a moment to find and longer still to leave. Deer Lake lies just below, its wooded shoreline more reminiscent of cottage country than the edge of a major city.

The area’s architectural significance is longstanding. Arthur Erickson’s own lakeside residence exists nearby, a reminder that this quiet corner of Burnaby has long attracted those who understand the relationship between a house and its landscape.

Commissioned by the Malmgren family, who had watched the lot across their street for years before it became available, the design was guided by three principles: outdoor living, views to the mountains, and prominent wood throughout. These ambitions found their expression in a cruciform plan that became the organizational basis for the house.

Arrival

Approaching along the cul-de-sac, the house presents itself without preamble. The asymmetrical massing, jutting triangular forms, and horizontal cedar siding all speak to the influence of Frank Lloyd Wright. The overall composition however feels distinctly its own, shaped by a newer language of West Coast Modernism. While Wright’s influence is felt in the form and material palette, the deep overhanging rooflines and expansive glazing speak to a West Coast sensibility, features conceived specifically for a landscape of grey skies and towering trees.

“This is a house that welcomes people before they walk in the door.”

The Exterior

The house’s heroic roof forms and considered details are grounded in Hollingsworth’s pragmatic response to the West Coast’s persistent rain and summer sun. Four-foot-deep overhangs provide protection for all seasons while concrete catch basins and hanging chain leaders gracefully receive runoff from above. The roof’s edge is considered in equal measure for function and appearance, finished in cedar and gold-anodized aluminum and streamlined to conceal any trace of a gutter.

Hollingsworth believed that a building material should be expressed for what it is, never disguised or embellished. At the Lakeside House, this conviction is legible in every surface. Exterior walls are clad in local western red cedar siding of two alternating widths, paired with masonry sourced from Medicine Hat, Alberta. Its deep clay-red is a grounding presence against the tree canopy. Large expanses of glazing introduce a contrasting lightness, dissolving the boundary between inside and out. Together, these elements give the house an earthy yet weightless quality that sets it apart from a conventional Wrightian composition, lending it a character that feels unmistakably of the West Coast.

The Interior

“Each aspect of this house could easily be called bold. But only in dissection do these choices come across as bold.”

Stepping inside, the earthy quality of the exterior palette continues without interruption. A carefully designed brick floor radiates throughout the main living spaces, its warmth perceptible from the first step inside.

The plan is cruciform in shape, a decision that emerged naturally from the program and the site. Hollingsworth grouped the family room, kitchen, dining, and living areas as a connected series of spaces along one axis, while the guest bedroom, utility rooms, and study completed the cross.

Two fireplaces anchor the living and family rooms respectively, each a composed mass of brick and concrete whose angled hearths echo the triangular geometry that recurs throughout the house.

Rooms flow into one another, defined by subtle shifts in level and material rather than relying upon the doors and walls that typically delineate spaces. The primary bedroom occupies the upper floor, positioned northwards to capture views across the city to the mountains beyond.

If the plan is the home’s organizational logic, light is its animating force. A large ridgeline skylight bridges the living and dining spaces, washing the cedar-finished interiors and vaulted ceilings in a diffuse, even glow that shifts with the weather and the hour. Combined with the floor-to-ceiling cedar-framed glazing that opens the main rooms to the garden, the interior feels luminous even on the most grey of coastal days.

This quality of light follows you through the house. Ascending to the upper floor, a triangular skylight draws a shaft of natural light down through the cedar-lined stairwell, illuminating the exposed aggregate treads below. It is a considered moment where the staircase acts as a lantern within the house, marking the transition between the social spaces below and private quarters above.

This attention to detail extends to the furthest corners of the house. The garage-adjacent workshop, modest in scale, nonetheless receives its own triangular bay window and skylight, a reminder that for Hollingsworth, no space was beneath his consideration.

The same openness carries through to the landscape beyond. Three terraces open directly from the main living spaces, each with its own character and outlook catching the passing sun at different hours of the day. Generous in scale and connected directly to the living and dining areas, they were conceived as extensions of the home’s social life - places for the family to gather as naturally outside as within. The lowest terrace steps down to a reflecting pond, its still surface mirroring the roofline and tree canopy above.

The site’s gentle westward slope gave these terraces their distinct levels, marked by concrete steps that pass uninterrupted through the house itself, refusing any distinction between interior floor and exterior ground. Moving through the home, one senses the architect’s intention to incorporate the West Coast landscape into domestic life. And while Hollingsworth’s thinking is legible at every scale, some of its most telling expressions are the easiest to miss.

Hollingsworth Signatures

The Lakeside House rewards careful attention. As one moves through the home, a second layer of detail begins to emerge: a grounding materiality, a hidden mark, or a light fixture all hinting at the depth of thinking from which the house descends

The concrete stairs present throughout are cast with local river pebbles, rounded as they tumbled downstream over the centuries. Hollingsworth left the surface raw and exposed — their variegated colour and texture a reminder that even the concrete beneath one’s feet is of natural origin with a geography of its own.

Set into the face of the concrete mantel above the living room fireplace is a small cross-shaped relief — Hollingsworth’s personal mark, cast discreetly into the material. It is a signature he used throughout his career, modest in scale and easy to overlook, but unmistakable once seen.

The light fixture in the stairwell acts as a projection of the cedar siding strips that line the walls, composed of acrylic sheeting drawn across a simple porcelain socket to create a lantern from the building’s own material. It’s the kind of detail that Frank Lloyd Wright would have recognized immediately: nothing added, nothing imported, every element an extension of what was already there.

A Living Legacy

"This was my parents' house. They built it as a place to be until the end of their lives, and a place for their family to gather. The greatest honour we can give them now is to ensure it goes to someone for whom it will be the same."

For nearly four decades, the Lakeside House has served as a quiet sanctuary, operating as Hollingsworth had intended — a home inseparable from the landscape it inhabits. Carefully preserved and deeply considered in every detail, it stands as one of the architect’s most complete statements of his Neoteric vision. Its next custodian will inherit more than a piece of exceptional architecture. They will inherit a way of living.

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Home Facts

Name: Lakeside House
Address: 7356 Punnett Close, Burnaby, V5E 1X2
Neighbourhood: Buckingham Heights
Designer: Fred Hollingsworth
Price: $3,198,000
Year Completed: 1990
Interior Living: Two-level West Coast Modern residence centered around central hearths, expansive glazing, vaulted ceilings, and integrated indoor-outdoor spaces.
Levels: 2
Bedrooms: 2
Bathrooms: 3
Interior Living: 3,203 sqft
Exterior Living: 1,537 sqft
Landscape Architect: Tattersfield Association Land Design Group
Builder / Contractor: Sven Moortensen

Structural / Engineering Highlights:
- Dramatic angular architecture with strong geometric forms
- Vaulted ceilings and exposed beams
- Large sweeping skylights introducing natural light
- Extensive glazing with no window coverings
- Integrated indoor-outdoor concrete and aggregate flooring
- Hidden studio space accessed through the garage

Landscape and Planning:
- Elevated lot with mature trees
- Property oriented toward views of the lake and mountains to the west
- Outdoor spaces connected through multiple doors extending interior floors outside
- Large pond and fountain anchoring the outdoor experience

Key Materials:
- Cedar (interior and exterior)
- Concrete
- Exposed aggregate
- Brick flooring
- Brick exterior walls

Views / Orientation:
- Expansive westward views toward lake and mountains
- Surrounded by mature tall trees

Features:
- Grand sculptural fireplace
- Vaulted exposed-beam garage
- Hidden studio space
- Large pond and fountain
- Sweeping skylights
- Extensive glazing throughout
- Aggregate staircase leading to upper level
- Cedar interiors and strong geometric architectural forms

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