Imagine a site fifteen minutes from the heart of downtown Vancouver,
able to capture in one view: snow-covered mountains and an archipelago,
a lighthouse and the downtown skyline, the vegetation of a moderate
rainforest and ocean waters. Imagine the same view transgressing
national borders to include an active volcano. This is the site where
the story of House Shumiatcher unfolds. As the son of Morris
Shumiatcher, founder of Smithbilt Hats in Calgary, Judah spent his
summers in high school and college learning the art of the hatter. Like
so many other North American cities during this period, Calgary was
experiencing a postwar housing boom. Judah developed an interest in the
delivery of inexpensive, well-designed houses and began to consider an
alternate career as a building contractor. After all, work in that
sector was abundant and the lifestyle appealing. A scheduled stop in New
York City altered the course of his career. There, by chance, he
encountered Frank Lloyd Wright, first in an interview on television, and
then, having gotten upthe courage to request a private meeting, briefly
in person in a temporary building on the site of the new Guggenheim
Museum. Judah took the knowledge and ambition he took from his meeting
with Wright to continue a storied career in architecture in his home
country of Canada. After 38 years in a house he built specifically for
his family, they had to struggle with the difficult decision to sell the
property as Vancouver rates were increasing by 200%, even though they
knew a developer would tear it down. This book then serves as the
lasting testament to a brilliant home designed by one of Canada's best
unsung architects.
