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Homeowner and builder Mike Miller is an avid car collector, so it was only fitting that he build
a showcase to house his collection in an underground, James Bond-worthy garage (centre). The car
exits through the ceiling, thanks to a scissor lift.
DEEP INSIDE THE UNDERGROUND workshop of his Victoria home, Mike Miller’s 1960 Porsche Roadster is perched on a four by three-metre elevator platform, washed, waxed and ready to hit the road. With the flick of a switch, the custom-made scissor lift begins its ascent, raising the vintage vehicle three and a half metres through a trap door in the ceiling to the main floor of the garage above. A James Bond-worthy car emerges from its hidden lair.
Blasted into the cliffs above Gonzales Bay, the 1,800-square-foot subterranean garage—accessed through a door off the basement family room—is one of the signature elements of Miller’s striking contemporary residence in the posh Victoria enclave of Oak Bay. “I really wanted a three-car garage but I just couldn’t make it work on this lot, so we decided to dig down into the rock,” says Miller, who also owns a 1972 Ferrari Dino and a Mercedes 280SL.
The futuristic space seems in perfect step with the contemporary aesthetic on display throughout the 6,000-square-foot home, where sleek lines, minimalist vintage decor and a stripped-down construction style offer an innovative take on laid-back West Coast modernism.
Intent on maximizing the view potential of the narrow property, Miller anchored the structure around a two-storey circular entryway from which all the home’s supporting beams emanate, dictating a wide-open floor plan defined by curved walls, subtle geometric transitions and “ridiculous amounts of natural light,” as Miller describes it.
“I wanted to build it out like a fan in order to get the feeling of a bigger frontage. That’s why it’s called Radius,” says Miller. Stepping into the crescent-shaped main living area, a gently curving wall of four-metre-high windows framed in vertical-grain solid fir spans the entire width of the main floor, revealing a panoramic view of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the hazy blue-white peaks of Washington state’s Olympic Mountains beyond.
The focal point of the main room is a custom-made semi-circular sofa with orange leather cushions and zebra-wood backing that would look right at home in Dean Martin’s living room, complemented by a pair of Womb chairs. A two-way gas fireplace separates the living area from the dining room, where a stainless-steel light fixture resembling floating planets hovers above a solid cherrywood table and chocolate brown leather chairs.
Miller worked closely with Victoria-based interior designer Robyn Meredith Bryson, whose vision was to create contrasts by combining modern decor with futuristic touches that echo the ultra-contemporary design of the house. That aesthetic is seen in details like the stainless-steel mosaic on the backsplash of the kitchen coffee bar, the mosaic glass inserts in the curved living room steps and the television mounted on a steel post rising from the cut concrete floor.
A stainless-steel and glass staircase in the main entrance winds upstairs to the master suite, where curved, boardroom-style double doors open to a custom-made, freestanding bed with wraparound walnut headboards, set beneath a trio of floor-to-ceiling picture windows. Here we find a few right angles: in the master bathroom with a deep rectangular, polished white bath, custom-made from a pre-cast resin composite by Wetstyle. Cube-like Italian contemporary faucets by Hansgrohe complete the geometrical contrast, while the pebble-inlaid shower walls evoke a connection with the rocky shores below.
Perhaps its greatest design success is in the way that Radius literally sinks into the background, allowing the fabulous setting to take centre stage—one of the rewards, Miller says, of taking a “minimalist” approach to both the design and the decor. “It’s not as in-your-face as other houses,” he says. “It’s over the top, but it’s also understated.” wl
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