The plans for the house John Shields and his wife Pam Tobin would build on a seven-acre lot in Victoria’s Highlands didn’t come together in the cushy confines of an office. Instead, the couple camped on the property and made architectural models out of cardboard and sticks. “We wanted to understand the site, first and foremost, and grow the house out of it,” says Shields.

It worked. Roughing it in the woods changed the way they configured the space: preserving a flat area (the more obvious building site) for a garden and “growing the house” out of the most beautiful spot on the property, a cliff with a breathtaking view.

Four years later, their 4,650-square-foot home sits 940 feet above the city, surrounded by arbutus and sloping down to the Garry Oak meadow of Thetis Lake Park. “It’s like a private oasis,” says Tobin, who contributed to the design and site management during building. “Like living in a tree fort.”
The contemporary home is designed with two storeys on one side and three on the other, public and private wings that are bridged by the front entry and an open stairway. “It’s about discovering the house within the house,” says Shields.

On the public side, large living areas, a kitchen and media rooms make entertaining their friends and extended family simple and provide space to home-school their daughter, Kamille. The private side, with its five bedrooms and a library overlooking the Japanese garden, nurtures family downtime.

“We have lots of house guests,” confirms Shields, a woodworker, furniture designer and commercial interior designer whose current project is the much-anticipated Les Amis du Fromage on Vancouver’s east side. “And while I love it, it’s so nice to escape to the bedroom and have your own space.” In the top floor master bed and bath, a day bed beckons for afternoon reading.
The show-stopping feature is the ground-floor media room—a favourite winter space with its eccentric chairs and velvet boudoir couch. A bank of eight-foot-tall birch plywood sliding doors lines one wall, concealing the flat-screen TV and electronics. And just behind those doors lies something even more intriguing: a secret passageway to the soon-to-be-built wine cave, kept at perfect cellar temperature by the surrounding rock.

But the combination living/dining/kitchen area is “the heart of our home,” says Shields. “We cook together a lot and it’s where everybody wants to be.” A Viking Pro stove and poured concrete countertops provide ease for cooking and prep, while a Costco tool chest holds knives and spices. A separate “dishpit” area hides dirty dishes during party time.

In-floor heating throughout is offset by an efficient wood stove in the media room, a concept Shields calls “low-tech green.” In a one-of-a-kind design trick, the 22-foot-high chimney doubles as a climbing wall. “We call it our vertical gym,” says Shields. “Kids love it. Adults love it too—we have a ledge at the top that we sometimes use for a tequila shooting bar.”

It’s a far cry from those original cardboard-and-stick maquettes made in a tent way back when, but the couple now relish that first critical decision to maximize views over ease of construction. From the distinctive Wet tub in the master bath, the couple has the lofty view they originally hoped for: one overlooking both the forest and the city. Shields says, “I always feel like a rock star.”

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