The lavish seven-bedroom home took nearly five years to build and still includes the site’s original heritage house at its core
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Price: C$33.99 million (US$26.74 million)
A “dream team” of local designers and architects created this 12,413-square-foot mansion—among the “most stunning” properties on the market in Vancouver, according to Daniel Tan of Angell, Hasman & Associates Realty Ltd., the listing agent.
The seller, a Vancouver finance executive, took “two-and-a-half years to plan the house, and four and a half years to build it—that’s the same time it takes to build a 60-story skyscraper,” Mr. Tan said. Architects The Airey Group designed the home; noted landscape designers Paul Sangha Creative conceived the grounds; and local interiors firm HB Design conceived the living spaces.
The house is a hybrid, with a new-build contemporary on the left of the front door and the original heritage structure to the right of the main entrance. The center of the house is a huge great room that encompasses a living area, dining space and kitchen. Floor-to-ceiling glass doors open from the kitchen to the pool. “With the doors open, it feels like Beverly Hills [California],” Mr. Tan said.
The formal dining room, whose tall windows overlook a garden and koi pond, boasts a long, slim table with seating for 14. Its abstract ceiling light “was inspired by tree branches,” Mr. Tan said. A few steps away, in the heritage side of the house, an expansive formal living room includes more traditional furnishings and light fixtures. The next room houses a private office, with built-in bookshelves in solid walnut and views of downtown Vancouver.
All of the home’s bedrooms include en-suite bathrooms with features like marble sinks and heated towel racks. Three bedrooms are upstairs; a bedroom on the ground floor “is for seniors, so they don’t have to use stairs,” Mr. Tan said. Two bedroom suites in the basement were built for staff.
A standalone coach house also includes a bedroom and two bathrooms.
Stats
Set on a 0.58-acre lot, this seven-bedroom, nine-bathroom house features 12,413 square feet of living space over three levels.
Amenities
The basement has been outfitted as a luxurious grown-up playground. Multiple televisions surround a huge, L-shaped sofa; nearby, a pool table abuts a bar and wine area. Just opposite, a koi aquarium is visible through a large rectangular window. A fitness room on the basement level features an adjacent bathroom suite; the gym could easily get converted to a bedroom, Mr. Tan said.
Talking Points
The seller splurged on everything from appliances to fish, according to the agent. A C$500,000 La Cornue cooktop island anchors the kitchen area. Lighting fixtures, imported from Germany, totaled more than C$200,000. A striking, abstract black geometric sculpture in the dining room—which unfolds into a wine cabinet—cost C$50,000. More than 30 fish inhabit the koi pond; “those fish cost C$500 each,” Mr. Tan said.
Neighborhood Notes
First Shaughnessy is a five-minute drive from downtown Vancouver and 20 minutes from Vancouver International Airport, according to Mr. Tan.
Originally developed in 1907, the neighborhood “was designed as the city’s most exclusive residential enclave. It was an area of large lots where a building of $6,000 minimum value was required,” according to Heritage Vancouver. “Pre-1940 houses and their lush landscaping with 90-year-old trees define this heritage character neighborhood.”
Most properties in the area “are heritage homes, some more than a century old,” Mr. Tan said. “This house is unusual because it maintains the integrity of the original heritage structure, but enhances it with a contemporary design.”
The average price of homes for sale in First Shaughnessy is C$9.12 million. Across Vancouver, the benchmark price for a home was C$1.91 million 2021, an increase of 22% over the previous year. “This year’s been hot for luxury properties, especially waterfront” – a development partly sparked by Mr. Tan’s sale last summer of a C$27 million coastal property that he had first toured with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
Agent: Daniel Tan, Angell, Hasman & Associates Realty Ltd.