Architecture through the Okanagan ages!

Have you ever wandered around the streets of the Okanagan and noticed that sometimes every house on the street looks exactly the same OR that every house on a certain street seems to be completely random in design compared to its neighbor?

Neighborhoods are often built in phases and blocks and depending on the era, they were either given two to three architectural style options or they would go with the cookie-cutter method and you get uniform neighborhoods where the only way to know your house from the neighbors is what colour your siding is!

Below we cover off a few of the most common housing styles you will find in the Okanangan to help you identify the decade and designs you see every day.

First up, a dash of the past, the early 1900s, in between the two world wars was born the classic and modest “art-deco/art-moderne” war-house often found in the Kelowna north and south district areas, distinctly recognized by their small, 1.5 storey stucco-clad or wood-siding presence. These homes typically boasted 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom and modest kitchens and living rooms. They were designed to be practical and functional, but not robust in size for entertaining.

The next big block of recognizable housing structures that made a notable imprint on the Okanagan landscape happened in the 70s, which birthed the nostalgic 70’s-bi-level, filled with shag carpets and wall-paper. These homes have the entry landing with split staircases going up and down, were rectangular in shape with low pitch or flat roofs and often sported 3 bedrooms down a hall on the upper with a kitchen, dining, and living room at the other end and then a rec room or family room with laundry in the basement.

Throughout the 80s and 90s you see the emergence of more entertainer-style homes, and a shift away from the minimalism and functionalism of the former decades. There is a leap towards more decorative architecture and a resurgence of ornamentation in design. This is where we find more of the grade level entry home with the double car garage on one side, a cute front porch and gable style roofs with decorative windows.

As we broach into the early 2000s, there is a return to the quaint roots of farm life and we see the evolution of the modern farmhouse and mid-century modern ranch style of housing and the re-birth of open concept living, with bedrooms on one end, large open entertaining spaces and the separate family/rec room, which carries forward right into the current times in 2023.

As the designs evolved into the 2010s and to date, the Okanagan saw more adoption of the West Coast Contemporary style of narrow homes that fit onto skinny lots and offer a work-out with the daily up-down required from so many stairs. This WCC style comes with slanted rooves, lots of windows and is more suited for a snow-free environment but has been cleverly adopted to Okanagan winters.

Given the desirability of the valley for retirees, we continue to see the rancher/rancher-walk-out-basement style grow in popularity with the primary bedroom and all living spaces on the main and guest spaces below. However, one change we are slowly starting to see creep back into the architectural designs of the interior of homes is some segmenting of the open concept floor plans.

After decades of open concept, it seems as though some of the population is discovering, especially with many folks working from home, that the open concept design is not conducive to quiet, shared workspaces and/or not the best design to allow for multiple people to be using the same space for different purposes simultaneously.

It will be interesting to see how housing designs morph and shift as we move forward in a highly digital era that offers many both the freedom to work from home, but the necessity of a more divided floor plan to allow for one or two parents and kids to all share in the same work and learning spaces throughout the day.

Hopefully this brief overview gives some guidance on the main single family housing types you will often encounter on your house/investment-hunting journeys.

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to comment below or reach out directly. I am here and happy to help with all your real estate needs, both selling and buying!