Hubert Savage, Architect (3)

 

 

Magdalen College Hall, Oxford, built circa 1500 (note flattened Tudor arches)

 

 

Tudor Gestures

One aspect of Victoria's Arts and Crafts architectural tradition was about summoning continuity with the past, without trying to mimic its style or copy its building practices. This was more complicated in the new world than it was in Europe, where traditions of local building dating from medieval times and even earlier were living parts of the built environment. Hubert Savage shared the local aspiration for a reassuring modicum of historic continuity, achieved through a smattering of details from the Tudor era (Savage was an emigre who trained in Britain as an architect). 

 

 

 Aberconwy House, Aberconwy, Wales: 15th century room

 

Generally, Arts and Crafts architects eschewed copying specific styles, preferring instead to emphasize local building practices and local or regional materials. They also liked to achieve effects by expressing the inherent qualities of the materials used in construction and decoration of the building. On Vancouver Island, these materials always involved use of old-growth fir, stone if could be quarried nearby, and to a more limited extent, locally made brick for utilities like chimneys and fireplaces. Arts and Crafts architects preferred local building practices to the more exotic and remote, because staying with the way buildings were traditionally built increased the likelihood of a new building fitting in. A convincing continuity of tradition could also be crafted by incorporating a few elements gesturing in the chosen direction. In Victoria, that direction tended to be Tudor (an era that fell roughly in the sixteenth century in England). As the use of Tudor details was intended to be decorative rather than functional, it was important that they not be laid on too heavily. Hence, a few details giving a building a distinct look or character thus reflected the progressive design idea of 'alluding' to a prior era, which established the desired continuity. Allusive Tudor imagery (for example, Tudor boards used in the gable ends, or similar boards used elsewhere on the exterior) had been found to work in the Victoria housing market, convincingly so by the works of talented society architect Samuel Maclure (see photos below, where Tudor-style boards are shown gracing three smaller Maclure structures). 

 

913 Burdett Avenue, Victoria, chalet for Cecil Roberts, built in 1905

941 Meares Street in Victoria, bungalow for William Christy, built in 1906

2141 Granite Street, Oak Bay, built in 1912, colonial bungalow for A.O. Campbell

 

The use of Tudor boards was standard practice back in 1913, imparting a feeling of familiarity to what was a largely British clientele with the resources to commission architect-designed homes. These architects strove to incorporate a smattering of Tudor details into structures that were otherwise thoroughly modern in their layout and equipment. Savage's use of a limited palette of such details for his own house thus nods in a similar direction. Hence, Tudor boards used in the cross-gables across the frontage are obviously not meant to be taken as authentic half-timbering (which reflected a particular method of using oak planks to construct buildings) but were a device serving to panelize gable space in a way that was not inconsistent with Tudor.

 

 

Authentic Tudor building, with arch and timber details in oak, reconstructed

 

I think Savage designed the original panels between the Tudor boards to appear as plaster (maybe the spaces between the vertical boards were originally of plaster-on-lath, a common wall treatment in houses in 1913). But whatever Savage's original approach had been, the effect had been updated by the time I got there. Now the panels between the Tudor boards were of plywood painted in a tone that appeared to be undercoat-white, of the modern grade known as 'good one side'. 'Good one side' plywood utilizes the inferior product of younger trees grown in replanted forests - or second growth timber, as it's known hereabouts. This product comes with lots of knots in it (the residue of branches) which are patched-over in manufacture, with the patches reserved to one side of the plywood (hence the grade 'good one side'). It's notionally intended for uses requiring just one good face. The strange thing here, however, was that whoever bought the replacement plywood hadn't paid close attention to how it was used - so the replacement panels had been installed with the patched side facing outwards! And these patches were at the point of showing through the now-faded colour scheme. The problem of patch show-through was resolved by the suggestion of Mike Abernethy, of Double A Painting, a heritage paint contractor who has worked extensively on the building, and oversaw the first full repainting. Mike proposed mixing coarse-grained sand into the exterior paint, which he felt would dry to mimic the look of plaster. It took considerable work on the part of his skilled painters to keep this heavy sand suspended in the paint, but the strategy worked like a charm!

 

Panels mimicking a plastered look, masking the visible plywood patches

Patches be gone, and via the magic of suspending sand in the paint, they were!

Another element of Tudor imagery in the Savage bungalow is the extensive use of clear leaded glass. This includes diamond-shaped panes in a fixed window on the north wall, rectangular-shaped panes in the dining room, and hexagonal panes in twin bays on the front elevation, and in a single fixed window on the south wall. The use of Tudor-style leaded-glass throughout the bungalow contributes enormously to its overall atmosphere, adding classy, artistic touches that enrich rooms while distantly evoking Tudor times. The Tudor era was smitten by the possibilities of joining small pieces of glass into panes that were held in place with lead cames, at the time such glass was becoming widely available (see next photo). 

 

 

Tudor-era building, leaded-glass windows, with opening casement windows 

 

 

Manufacturing larger sheets of glass by using lead cames to hold small panes, which in turn could be framed with wood, allowed designers to open the walls and bring more light directly into buildings. In the rainy, often overcast English climate, this was a revelation that took those who could afford such glass by storm. Look closely at surviving Tudor-era buildings and you will see this new effect being actively explored (cf. photo above). The overall feeling a particular window evokes derives to some extent from the shape and size of the individual panes it's made of, which are nearly always in a repeating form. As a result, the use of clear leaded-glass panels still evokes the Tudor era, and Arts and Crafts architects were very much alive to the possibilities of such glazing. But the phenomenon had as much to do with the unique impacts of the leaded-glass, so not simply out of nostalgia for bygone days.

 

 

Play of light reflected from leaded glass panes

 

 

"Think of the beauty of leaded glass compared with the lifeless hard mechanical perfection of polished plate. This beauty has nothing to do with its old-fashioned look, with romantic associations, or quaintness of effect; it is simply an inherent property of all leaded glazing, due to the wonderful and never ending charm of the play of light and shade on the different panes, each one catching the light slightly differently from any other..." Barry Parker & Raymond Unwin, The Art of Building A Home, 1901.

 

 

Hexagonal panes running horizontally (right, above) at dusk in early spring 

One unique configuration of Tudor-style leaded glass at the Savage bungalow is the trio of fixed windows with hexagonal panes, two of which appear in the projecting bays bookending the verandah, and the third as a standalone window in the south wall of the living room (seen in the photo above). I have been unable to find a precedent for the design among pictures of surviving Tudor-era glass (unlike the rectangular panes shown below, or the diamond-shaped panes on the north wall) so this use may in fact be a Savage-original. In Tudor-era buildings, the leaded-glass panes tended to be run vertically (as for example the casements shown below, second and third photos) whereas in Savage's use the hexagonal panes run horizontally, thus occupying more width than depth, in a pattern that reinforces bungalow lines.

 

 

Hexagonal window in one of two bays flanking the projecting verandah

  

Transom above opening casements, with stays

  

Casement windows framing a built-in locker seat that invites sitting

 

 

There are also vertical panels of leaded glass in casement format (casement windows are hinged on one side, so they can open, and come with locking and holding devices, called stays or adjusters) in the dining room, as well as the fixed panel serving as a transom above the built-in window seat (see last two photos above). This arrangement forms a cozy niche in a glazed area that invites human use, especially as the casements face due south and are set into a projecting bay. The device of a seat crafted into a bay window also serves as a light trap, magnifying the amount of daylight entering the room.

 

 

Diamond-paned glass graces the walk-in closet

 

 

At the rear of the house there is a diamond-paned window in clear leaded-glass (the only north facing window in a bedroom; the main bedroom has no north-facing windows). Whenever the walk-in closet was added (the exact date isn't known) two small diamond-paned windows were installed as casements (see photo above). Overall, Savage's use of Tudor-style glazing is spare but inventive, reinforcing the theme of continuity with Tudor times, adding considerable feeling to the place and enriching its details immensely. And because these windows are all made of clear glass, they neatly sidestep association with Victorian times where coloured-glass effects were widely explored. They are thus, if you will, that much more pure in their effect. We appreciated the subtleties of the leaded-glass windows, so it was natural for us to add more when addressing situations where windows needed to be replaced, as they did in what became our conservatory. At the time of the initial exterior renovation, back in 1999, I had David Helland, our skilled joiner-carpenter, fabricate matching casement windows with rectangular glass panes (similar to those in the dining room) as replacements for the aluminum sliders sitting on either side of the small picture window. On plan, the original concept called this back porch a "summer tea room" that was open to the elements, but could be shuttered in winter. David did a fantastic job of making and installing the new casements, which we dressed with hardware in an oil-rubbed bronze finish. 

 

 

New leaded-glass casement, conservatory room

 

 

A further use of details that evoke a Tudor-era theme are the arches over inset wall shelves in the dining room, spare bedroom and the kitchen (photos below). This was another of Savage's many artful touches, tastefully spread throughout the house. The Tudor arch is one that has been flattened to come to a low point (in contrast to Roman or Gothic arches, which are either rounded or brought to a sharper point) done in a style that is said to be of Moorish origin. Many themes of Medieval architecture came from contact, via the crusades, with the more architecturally sophisticated Middle Eastern nations.

 

 

 

Tudor-style arches at Hatley Castle, designed by architect Samuel Maclure

 

The arch as a device over inset shelving reinforces Tudor-era continuity, but again, not as functional replication. In fact, taking advantage of the wall cavity to create inset shelving is actually very Californian, adding another American Arts and Crafts touch to the bungalow. These arches gesture in the direction of Tudor without literally trying to copy what would have been done in that era (pictures below).

 

 

Tudor arch above inset shelving, dining room

 

More severe (deco-era) Tudor-arch over shelving under diamond-paned glass

 

Tudor arch set over incised shelving in the kitchen

 

There are, of course, other Tudor references embedded in the building's interior: the matte black wood panelling, plate rail, boxed beams, and the mantle piece and mirror above the fireplace, for instance. Matte black wood was a favoured device of many British Arts and Crafts architects, and Savage and his coterie (the James brothers, both of them architects and close personal friends) tended to prefer this type of treatment in houses they designed. Rosemary James Cross (P. L. James's daughter) confided to me once that in the early days, the architects' wives would organize blacking parties where the woodwork (in the Savage bungalow, matte black woodwork was dominant in the entry hallway, living room, and dining room) was actively re-coated with black shoe polish! You can just imagine the ladies having a go at the walls with rags and black shoe polish!

 

 

You can see the ladies having a go at this room, blackening the walls

"In the English Arts and Crafts tradition, Douglas [James] insisted on having interior wooden trim finished in black...the black finish to interior woodwork has been preserved in most cases." Rosemary James Cross, The Life and Times of Victoria Architect Percy Leonard James (2005). 

 

Books for Looks:

 

Rosemary James Cross, The Life and Times of Victoria Architect Percy Leonard James, Dear Brutus Publishing, 2005.

Martin Segger, The Buildings of Samuel Maclure - In Search Of Appropriate Form, Sono Nis, 1986.