How it began…
The Union House was purchased by artist and entrepreneur, Sandra Botnen, in 2015. What started as a simple desire, fix up a run down old house in the downtown east side of Vancouver, quickly became much, much more. At the height of Vancouver’s housing crisis, the free-standing house dating back to 1895, was stuck at a major intersection of conflicting ideas. The city’s plan for both increased densification, and heritage retention overlapped on the same lot. Add to the mix an outdated single room occupancy designation (SRO), and the fate of this house became seemingly irreconcilable. The house was ultimately abandoned and an advanced state of decay at the time Botnen’s purchase.
There was a worst case scenario for the house which drove off developers demanding greater financial gains. After lengthy negotiations with the city, indeed the worst case scenario prevailed. The house simply was what it was- not to be torn down due to heritage retention by-laws - not to be altered due to building codes that would be impossible to engineer - and not to be converted back to single family home without paying a whopping $875,000 to remove the SRO designation. After exploring every avenue, Botnen concluded the worst case scenario did not have to be that bad. If anyone could turn lemons into lemonade, it was an artist. With a dwindling housing supply forcing young, and not-so-young people to get creative, co-living with like minded others seemed a far more desirable option than living in parents’ basements, unheated garages, or tiny mobile housing units. Today Botnen looks at the Union House project as as a model for the future with a focus on synergistic living. Art takes time, as any good artist knows. The Union House is about minding resources, with time and community being among them. Supporting art and artful living is also about building vibrant and safe neighborhoods.
“The Union House is about minding resources- time and community being among them.”
Commercially zoned, the Union House will allow artists to use the gracious staircase as a gallery space to show their work. A growing on-line community provides a platform for networking, added exposure for emerging artists, and built-in brand recognition, not to mention remedying the feelings of loneliness and isolation when forging ahead with a challenging career path.
Art has a way of breathing life into areas of decay. Botnen believes focussing her attention on artists will bring this historic house back to life. Instead of an eyesore and crime magnet, The Union House embarks on building a landmark in a neighborhood otherwise pressured by foreign investment which might make a neighborhood look shiny and new but often leaves it empty and lifeless. For more information, do not hesitate to send a message using the contact page. Thank you for visiting and enjoy your tour of The Union House.
