This Fairfield home鈥檚 interior walls and ceilings glow like warm amber from the Jurassic period, but its steely cool exterior is pure 21st century.
Corrugated metal panels of silver and blue are set off by lipstick-red window and door trim, while a strip of ornamental grasses, hellebores and bamboo bisects a rugged rock 鈥渓awn.鈥�
The home is divided into two living areas and New York-born retired architect Andrew Beckerman lives in two-thirds (his tenant has the remainder). He is now designing a small cottage in the garden that he plans to offer with a rental subsidy for five years.
Like the owner, this contemporary house is a combination of lively style and energetic confidence.
鈥淧eople sometimes come to the door to bravely ask if they can look inside, and when they do, they are surprised at the interior, because they think it will be corrugated steel too,鈥� said the retired architect, an amusing raconteur.
It鈥檚 hardly surprising that Beckerman chose to create such a youthful, au courant space, considering he felt reborn after moving here from the States.
鈥淢y friends say grow up, act your age, but I tell them I鈥檓 only 11 in Canadian years.聽Immigration was the fountain of youth聽for me. When I came here, I hit the聽restart button and my life changed completely.鈥�
Since arriving, he has carved out new roles for himself as an activist, volunteer and philanthropist.
HIV-positive since 1980, Beckerman has criss-crossed the country as chairman of AIDS Vancouver Island, not only talking about his own journey of survival but also the pain of others, 鈥渨ho live at the intersection of poverty, homelessness, mental-health and addiction challenges, infection and despair.鈥�
He learned something about the latter during nine months of suicidal depression caused by the side-effects of early drugs for HIV. It gave him deep insight into why some step onto the path of addiction.
The avid art collector has also become a major patron of the Art Gallery of Greater, and recently made a $750,000 donation of art.
鈥淚鈥檝e been collecting so long, I have more stuff than I can actually hang in my house and, not being an Egyptian pharaoh, I have no reason for all of this to be buried in my tomb.鈥� He has also announced a $100,000 challenge fund for those wanting to support expansion of the Moss Street gallery.
Art has long been an integral part of his life, and his home is an ideal background for it, thanks to the glowing, golden walls and gallery-style lighting.
鈥淚 have lots of stuff squirrelled away in storage because I like to give paintings plenty of breathing room,鈥� he said, except in two purpose-built vestibules, which he designed specifically to fill with art.
Contractor Max Huxley built the home, and Beckerman designed the main-floor walls and ceiling to precisely fit a series of 10-by-four sheets of glossy plywood, with no cutting or waste. 鈥淭he sheets cost $135 a piece and my contractor originally ordered 100, but I sensed that was rather a lot, so I did a cutting diagram and ordered just 70.鈥�
Two carpenters spent a month meticulously installing the plywood 鈥� 鈥淏eing very careful because of the delicate maple veneer鈥� 鈥� and in the end, the owner had only two left over. He sent just one sheet back and used another for his upstairs office desk.
Beckerman designed a large library on the second floor with an armchair by the window, and a second library on the main floor, facing the fireplace. Here he has arranged a selection of books, small sculptures and paintings 鈥� including the first painting he bought at age 11.
Beckerman鈥檚 interest in art was piqued at a young age.
鈥淲hen my brother and I were kids, there was not a lot of money around, but we lived on a commuter-rail line and once a month, my parents took advantage of cheap Sunday fares and free museum and gallery days,鈥� said Beckerman, whose father, an interior designer, created apartments for Danny Kaye and Sophia Loren in the Sherry-Netherland Hotel in New York.
The owner got into collecting himself during graduate school, through friend Dorothy Goldeen, who worked in a gallery and eventually became part owner.
The young architect began buying prints to help support her, 鈥渢hen my parents followed my taste, buying every artist I bought, but with bigger pocketbooks, so they bought museum-quality pieces,鈥� which he later inherited.
Beckerman鈥檚 collection is extensive.
It includes Japanese woodblock prints, figurative art from the 1970s and 1980s San Francisco Bay area, bronze and stone sculptures, wood carvings, pre-Columbian pottery and both indigenous and Anglo art from the American southwest.
He has works by the renowned Chiricahua Apache Indian artist Allan Houser; by Fritz Scholder, who has been called the first Native American contemporary painter; by Joan Brown, a member of San Francisco鈥檚 Bay Area Figurative Movement; and by American painter and printmaker Gustav Baumann, a leading figure in the revival of colour woodcuts.
His home brims with unique pieces, such as a Navajo rug he bought at an auction of pieces from Forked Lightning Ranch, home of film actor Greer Garson, 鈥渕y only brush with fame.鈥�
While living in the States, Beckerman specialized in doing home modifications for people with physical challenges in San Francisco and elsewhere. He was involved in numerous non-profits, doing design and community-based planning, and was named first Humanitarian of the Year by the United Way of Santa Fe, where he used to own a small hotel and designed his last home.
鈥淲hen I built this house in Victoria in 2006, my realtor said nobody was interested in a place like this, that everyone wanted craftsman revival.
鈥淏ut now all kinds of people are inclined to build contemporary rather than older styles. This house marked a sea change in this city.鈥�
He was amused to hear that opinion enthusiastically confirmed one day by a Grade 6 child.
The little girl was delivering flyers with her older sister and stopped to chat with him.
鈥淪he told me my place was the first really modern house in Victoria and that it really changed the taste for new house building in Victoria. It was obviously an idea she had drawn from conversation she heard around the dinner table with her parents 鈥� but I now have a stamp of approval from a 6th grader,鈥� said Beckerman.
He added that he supports the gallery鈥檚 building campaign because he believes early exposure to art is critical, 鈥渁nd we have one of the best provincial art galleries in the country here, much better than the Vancouver Gallery, in my opinion.鈥�
AGGV director Jon Tupper said Beckerman鈥檚 enthusiasm is remarkable. 鈥淗e immerses himself in art and has an incredible passion that is very gratifying for a professional to see.鈥�
He added Beckerman鈥檚 $750,000 gift of art provides the gallery with an opportunity to rethink some of its collections, to add Southwest insights and influences into its Northwest coast mix.
鈥淲hile we do collect locally, regionally, nationally and throughout the Pacific Rim, to some degree it makes some logic to push south and try to link some of the amazing artists from the two regions 鈥� for instance, artists like Emily Carr and Frida Kahlo.鈥�
The AGGV plans to add a 12,000-square-foot, three-storey addition to the existing 41,000-square-foot gallery, but the $24-million project still awaits word from the province on its $7-million grant application.