Stuart Stark

February 8 | 2-4pm
Bungalow Boom! The Iconic Arts & Crafts Home of the West Coast

This lecture explores the rise and success of the affordable California Bungalow and its popularity on the Pacific Coast of North America between 1895 and the 1920s, using illustrated examples from Los Angeles to Victoria. Both exterior design influences and interior design developments and decoration will be discussed, showing how the style evolved from a break- away philosophy for living to a style adopted by developers. The bungalow—the first modern home—heralded a new century and incorporated many modern domestic details that we take for granted today, along with some experiments that were dropped along the way. Indeed, so successful was the bungalow in Edwardian society, the name was generally adopted, carried over into a new generation, and applied to homes that had no hint of their illustrious forebears.

About Stuart Stark

Stuart Stark B.F.A. (UVic); B.Arch. (U.B.C.) is an award-winning Heritage Consultant, specializing in accurate restoration of heritage buildings, including some of the earliest structures in the province: Emily Carr House; Craigflower Manor; Point Ellice House; Irving House and St. Ann’s Academy. He has taught heritage conservation courses at Camosun College and the University of Victoria and has written the following books: Oak Bay’s Heritage Buildings: More than Bricks and Boards (inventory; 1986); The Crystal Gardens: West Coast Pleasure Palace (joint authorship) (1977); The B.C. Agricultural Association Exhibition Building at the Willows (2017); and Hotels of the Gold Rush: 1857–1862 (two volumes; 2025). Besides receiving awards for individual restoration projects, Mr. Stark won the prestigious British Columbia Heritage Award in 2002 and an Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award from the Heritage Society of British Columbia in June 2021. Concurrent with this career, he and his wife set up Charles Rupert Designs, selling hard-to-find materials for the restoration of buildings. 

Image Credit: Stuart Stark, courtesy of Graham Stark.