'Hideous' house in Vancouver's Point Grey neighbourhood compared to WW II bunker

A house on Point Grey Road is turning neighbours' heads and raising eyebrows among architects in Vancouver.

Thesteel-cubehome that sits on top of a glass box is still under construction,but is already the talk of the town.

It was even called "Vancouver's Most Hideous Urban Design" on onelocal blog.

Former city councilor and city planner Gordon Price says it's been a polarizing work of art.

"You love it or you hate it.There's nothing in between," Price said.

"Initially, it has the shock of the new, but when you look at the houses next door, it's a variation on a very simple modernist box idea."

Unneighbourly

Although the street is lined with character homes, over the years, more modern, boxystructures have sprung up.

But the black steel boxhousehas created more reaction than the others.

On Price's localarchitecture blog, commentators compare the house to a SecondWorld War bunker and call it "hideous" and "ugly."

Historian Michael Kluckner just calls it simplyunneighbourly.

"It turns its back on the street ... it's the ultimate expression of a courtyard culture and the evolution we have gone through over a century from being a front-porchculture," Kluckner said.

An outside-the-box box

But the architect of the "cube," as it's being called, says he was thinking outside the box.

"It's outside the box in terms of people's preconceptions about what a house is,"said Tony Robins.

"For me it's a sculptural building.It'spart of the world stage of architecture, butthe people I am really concerned about arethe neighbours, so if they are upset, I am sorry," he said.

Robins says that there will be Japanese maple trees and other shrubbery that will soften the building up.

He estimates the building, which hasn't sold yet, willgo for about $8 million or $9million. It has a glass elevator,afour-car garage, and afully glassed-in kitchen and living room. It also has a rooftop with a view of the mountains and ocean.

The new house replaced a1935 character homepurchased in thefall of 2014 for $3.5 million.