Office 1959

Design: Reilly Walker

Construction: Evan Walker

Team: Youngmi Kim, Charles Harris

Situated on a service lane behind the 1959 bungalow it was designed in, this auxiliary building uses a combination of post-frame, balloon frame, and platform framing to accommodate a cantilevered office within an atrium lit by alternating rows of windows facing three different sets of views.

The brief placed priority on having a large, comfortable office space for conducting business, privacy from both the laneway activity and the future occupants of the adjacent main dwelling, while adhering to a tight budget.

The north and south windows, facing the main house and the laneway, respectively, are placed at the top of the wall plane. This ensures privacy while providing generous sunlight, glimpses of the tall spruces of the neighborhood, and views of nearby Nose Hill Park. On the west wall, the windows provide a view of the Blue Spruce tree in the amenity space, without exposing the interior to the occupants of the adjacent main dwelling.

As a way of creating generous space despite a restrictive square footage limit imposed by development restrictions, the strategy of cantilevering a sizeable office in a double height space became the primary friction of the project. A 30° crank in the second floor centers the office volume in the atrium, while creating a cozy bedroom balcony and a three-walled ensuite bathroom. The staircase expands around the curved half-wall of the office and into the 30° configuration of the floor plan.

The light wood framing techniques combine platform-type for the stacked garage and bedroom, balloon-frame for the unfenestrated double height walls, and post-frame for the tightly packed window rows in alternating planes.

Office 1959 (2026)