The Province - Designers for Ridge at Bose Farms get a bright idea, Rediscovering white as fresh, individual look

"In the two display suites at The Ridge at Bose Farms, Mae Suffron and Doris Wutzke of Creative Designworks may have advanced the reputation of all shades of white.

“At one time, when you saw white in a project, you thought ‘boring’. Not any more,” says Suffron, Creative Designworks’ principal designer and the mind behind the suites in Rempel Development’s 253-unit condominium project.

One of the display suites at the project especially allows white to dominate walls and furnishings, with appropriate rustic brown accents adding a rural touch to the modern home.

“The use of white from paint to furnishings allows our climate of dull days to feel bright and refreshing … White becomes the canvas on which we paint, to create an individual look.”

The Bose land on which the development will stand is steeped in history. The land surrounding the development was originally owned by Henry Bose in the late 1800s. Generations of the Bose family kept purebred Holsteins, horses to till the soil and used it for agricultural purposes into the 1950s.

That legacy will be kept intact in many ways. One structure once used to milk cows, for instance, will become a potting shed for the homeowners’ community gardens. And the Bose family home will be restored and contain two guest suites.

In both suites at the presentation centre, cool dances with character, modernity mixes it up with the country touch.

The suites have wide appeal: established buyers respect the local history and natural beauty, while first-time buyers may be attracted more to the contemporary mix, says Suffron.

In a bedroom, she’s placed a vintage-look print and wooden organizer on one wall, while in the living room, a solid trunk-like coffee table sits a metre away from a modern white wall unit. These faux-antique accents add warmth against a dominant white and touches of grey.

“The sense and feel of history is everywhere throughout the project. Our goal was to infuse this sense of history into the modern lifestyle, which would create an appeal to all purchasers.”

Kitchen islands come equipped with drawer storage, square dual kitchen sinks and stainless steel appliances.

Bathrooms have frameless glass shower doors, oversized floor and wall tiles, and contemporary vanities with deep sinks.

The bedroom is just as light, but with the funk factor turned way up. Dresser drawers are covered in antique ad-label lettering and a feature wall of wide planks is set against a modern bathroom.

In the dining room, Suffron decorated with thoughts of the homeowners’ activities in mind.
“We envisioned entertaining at the large dining island and serving up dinner from produce grown in the communal gardens on site and thought, ‘How cool is that?’”"

Read the full article in The Province here.

Global News - Bose farm redevelopment

"Three historic buildings in Surrey are getting a new lease on life. For more than 100 years, three generations of the Bose family – including the city’s former mayor Bob Bose — farmed land in Cloverdale. Now the family’s legacy will live on as part of a condo development."

The Vancouver Sun - Bose family farm opens up for development in Surrey

"If you should happen to arrive at the old Bose Farm on the right day at the right time, you might spot a man with a full head of white hair walking around. He has good posture and bright blue eyes; it seems hardly possible that he is in his eighth decade.

Roger Bose has made a habit of watching the development occurring on the Surrey land his family owned for more than a century, beginning with patriarch Henry Bose in 1892. As Bose walks the property, he reminisces about what the homestead used to be like.

“We used to have the cows pastured over here,” he gestures as he walks over a ridge of land. “We had registered purebred Holsteins, 125 when the herd was at its largest. They were some of the best cows in the country.”

They used horses to till the soil for potatoes. In the winter, the lower fields would flood and freeze, and people would come over to ice skate. The same horses would be pressed into service to pull sleighs.

In 1950, the land was subdivided into two parcels for two branches of the family; that partly triggered the decision to sell off the herd and convert the farm to producing vegetables, grain and hay. In later years, Roger Bose remembers holding huge community salmon barbecues, and allowing Girl Guide units to camp out.

In 2009, Rempel Development Group bought the parcel where The Ridge at Bose Farms is to be located. That began the delicate dance of preserving some areas of the land, and opening up other areas for development.

“The decision was made to pull the homes back to one portion of the property, to allow 12 acres of forest to be saved,” explains Nicole Castle of project marketer Fifth Avenue Real Estate. “Those lands were then donated to the City of Surrey.

The conservation efforts have also extended to some of the original buildings. A shed, built in 1948 to milk the cows, will become a potting shed for residents using the community garden.

The family home, which housed four generations of Boses (Henry, Roger’s father, Roger and his siblings, including former Surrey mayor Bob Bose, and Roger’s children), has been saved as well. It has been moved 350 metres to a new foundation.

When the 1924 residence is restored, it will contain two guest suites on an upper floor.
“The main floor will have a layout similar to what it would have been like in Henry Bose’s time,” says project architect Colin Hogan.

“There’s a kitchen, a living room, a library, an amenities room with a fireplace. We’re keeping the spirit of the space, instead of just using it as a shell for residential units.”

The old potato barn has been lovingly restored with wood salvaged from other structures on the farm.
They matched the old growth timber by species, and cut it to size using old-fashioned square cuts, meaning no rounded edges.

They fastened the new sections in by hand — no power tools allowed — and since all of the joins were exposed, every cut had to be perfect.

The gambrel roof soars overhead, supported by huge buttresses.

Gambrel roofs are no longer common. Think of an elongated trapezoid.

The upper portion of the roof slopes at a shallow angle, forming a broad, flatter surface; the lower part slopes sharply to the ground, creating “walls.”

The barn is naturally cooled by its foundation, and strategically placed cut-ins allow light to stream through. That makes it ideal for future use as workshops or artist studios.

The second floor will be set aside as an event area for the strata, to hold movie nights or celebrations.
It will be paired with a “country club” new amenities building with a giant glass wall facing the potato barn. People in the barn will always be able to watch the hub of activity, enlivening the development.

“Surrey has a very new feel to it. The city is growing very rapidly, and there is not a lot of heritage. It was important to help preserve all of this,” Hogan says.

The new homes have been designed to appeal to first-time buyers, young families and downsizers alike.

The hope is that they will form a mini-community of their own — of people who want the experience of living country-style, surrounded by farmland, while being only minutes away from city amenities like shopping, schools and entertainment.

The homes show off clean new details like kitchen islands with drawer storage, square dual kitchen sinks, stainless steel appliances, and high ceilings.

Central living areas are airy and filled with light; bedrooms are big enough to accommodate full-sized furniture.

Bathrooms have frameless glass shower doors, oversized floor and wall tiles, and contemporary vanities with deep sinks and plenty of storage space. Tubs are deep, suitable for soaking in, or cleaning up a couple of children at the same time.

They are modern touches for buyers who will own a part of Surrey heritage.

In keeping with the spirit of the Bose farm being a gathering site for the community over the years, the public release of the homes today will be marked with a harvest-style festival.

There will be live music, prizes, and not a few slices of pumpkin pie eaten. Don’t be surprised if you see a Bose or two too, marking the next stage in both their family history and the history of the city.”

Read the full article in The Vancouver Sun here.

Surrey Now - Surrey's historic Bose buildings get new lease on life

"Three buildings belonging to a prominent pioneer family in Cloverdale are being restored and will serve residents of a condo development being built on the property.

The Bose family home, built in 1924, was hoisted onto a new foundation Monday and will undergo heritage revitalization, along with an old milk parlour and potato barn.

The developer, John Rempel of Rempel Development Group, negotiated with the City of Surrey for higher density on the non-forested part of the property in exchange for dedicating the forest to the city. Approximately 12 acres of trees are being protected as part of the development and the city plans to turn the forested area into a park.

The building restorations are said to be the largest heritage revitalization in Surrey in recent years and will be the centerpieces of a new 253-unit condo development on the property. The home will be used as guest suites, the potato barn will be an amenity centre for residents and the milk parlour will be a tool shed for a community garden.
Three generations farmed the land from 1892 until 2009, including Bob Bose, who served as Surrey’s mayor from 1988 to 1996.
“It’s wonderful that our family home, having been a part of Surrey’s heartland for 89 years, will be enjoyed by future generations on the farm it was built on,” said Bob.
Bob’s twin brother Roger Bose is also happy to see his family’s home restored.
Roger recalled fond memories of the family around the fireplace in the living room, particularly around Christmas.
Roger said the home had a wood stove in the kitchen, as well as a furnace.
“My mother was always the first one to get up in the morning and put a wood block on the furnace. She never had to use a match. She was a good manager,” he said with a chuckle.
“And we have many good memories as kids playing out in the bush. We also had lots of barbecues and things in the bush in later years. The family home was a very special place,” Roger said.
And the farm itself has quite a history.
Henry Bose, Roger and Bob’s grandfather, established the Cloverdale farm in 1892 after settling in British Columbia from England. Henry operated a massive farming operation and became heavily involved with community organizations and politics. Henry served as mayor from 1905 to 1909, as police magistrate for 35 years and on the Surrey school board.
The property was originally 160 acres, mostly on the hillside, but when Henry married May Churchland in 1901, he gave half of the land to his father-in-law, John Churchland, as a dowry.
Some produce was sold or traded to local residents, and Henry made a weekly trip by horse to a New Westminster farmers’ market to sell vegetables, meat, eggs and butter.
When B.C. Electric Railway built the Interurban train line in 1910, it opened up a whole new market for the family.
Henry was a charter member of the Surrey Farmers’ Institute, which had a licence to sell dynamite for clearing land. Dynamite was stored and distributed from the Bose farm for more than 40 years.
The farm also supplied thousands of bales of hay to Dairyland to feed horses, which were used to pull the milk delivery wagons through the streets of Vancouver.
By that time, the farm had grown to 340 acres and produced 1,000 tons of potatoes, hay and grain, and had 75 cows.
When Henry died in 1951, his two sons Harry and Norman took over the farm.
The dairy herd was dispersed in 1963 and with that came the dissolution of the partnership of Harry and Norman. The farm was never again the thriving operation it once was.
With no succession plan, the farm was finally dispersed for development.
And with that, the farm’s history came to its conclusion, but its legacy will live on in Surrey through the restoration of its original buildings.
- See more at: http://www.thenownewspaper.com/surrey-s-historic-bose-buildings-get-new-lease-on-life-1.646597#sthash.C31n2s5k.dpuf

The building restorations are said to be the largest heritage revitalization in Surrey in recent years and will be the centerpieces of a new 253-unit condo development on the property. The home will be used as guest suites, the potato barn will be an amenity centre for residents and the milk parlour will be a tool shed for a community garden.

Three generations farmed the land from 1892 until 2009, including Bob Bose, who served as Surrey’s mayor from 1988 to 1996.

“It’s wonderful that our family home, having been a part of Surrey’s heartland for 89 years, will be enjoyed by future generations on the farm it was built on,” said Bob.

Bob’s twin brother Roger Bose is also happy to see his family’s home restored.

Roger recalled fond memories of the family around the fireplace in the living room, particularly around Christmas.

Roger said the home had a wood stove in the kitchen, as well as a furnace.

“My mother was always the first one to get up in the morning and put a wood block on the furnace.

She never had to use a match. She was a good manager,” he said with a chuckle.

“And we have many good memories as kids playing out in the bush. We also had lots of barbecues and things in the bush in later years. The family home was a very special place,” Roger said.

And the farm itself has quite a history.

Henry Bose, Roger and Bob’s grandfather, established the Cloverdale farm in 1892 after settling in British Columbia from England. Henry operated a massive farming operation and became heavily involved with community organizations and politics. Henry served as mayor from 1905 to 1909, as police magistrate for 35 years and on the Surrey school board.

The property was originally 160 acres, mostly on the hillside, but when Henry married May Churchland in 1901, he gave half of the land to his father-in-law, John Churchland, as a dowry.
Some produce was sold or traded to local residents, and Henry made a weekly trip by horse to a New Westminster farmers’ market to sell vegetables, meat, eggs and butter.

When B.C. Electric Railway built the Interurban train line in 1910, it opened up a whole new market for the family.

Henry was a charter member of the Surrey Farmers’ Institute, which had a licence to sell dynamite for clearing land. Dynamite was stored and distributed from the Bose farm for more than 40 years.
The farm also supplied thousands of bales of hay to Dairyland to feed horses, which were used to pull the milk delivery wagons through the streets of Vancouver.

By that time, the farm had grown to 340 acres and produced 1,000 tons of potatoes, hay and grain, and had 75 cows.

When Henry died in 1951, his two sons Harry and Norman took over the farm.

The dairy herd was dispersed in 1963 and with that came the dissolution of the partnership of Harry and Norman. The farm was never again the thriving operation it once was.

With no succession plan, the farm was finally dispersed for development.

And with that, the farm’s history came to its conclusion, but its legacy will live on in Surrey through the restoration of its original buildings."

Read the full article in the Surrey Now here.

Vancouver Sun - Pioneer farm house in Cloverdale moves 350m for condo development

"A farm house belonging to a prominent pioneer family in the historic centre of Surrey has been moved to a new site nearby because of a condominium project.

The Bose family home, where former mayor Bob Bose grew up, has been moved from its spot at 16390 64th Avenue in Cloverdale, to new foundations about 350 metres away.

The farm house, built in 1924, will undergo heritage revitalization, along with a milk shed and potato barn, with three buildings incorporated into the new condo development on the Bose farm. The farm house will be used as guest suites for The Ridge at Bose Farms condo development; the potato barn will become an amenity centre; and the milk shed will become a tool shed.

The new development will have 253 condo units in four buildings of four storeys in height.

Henry Bose, the Bose patriarch, was born in London, England, in 1868 and arrived in Canada in 1890. He put down farming roots the area two years later, and served as Surrey mayor from 1905 to 1909.

The wooden house was built with two floors, but had another added in 1939 after a fire destroyed the cedar shingle roof. Roger Bose, Bob Bose’s twin brother, remembers that his bedroom was on the top floor looking east.

In its heyday, the Bose family farm was a centre of activity, according to Roger Bose.

“We used to have barbecues in the bush for 150 people,” he said.

“In the 1940s, we had more winter than we had now. It would freeze up. There were be 400 to 500 people in the fields ice skating.”

The Bose family was in the dairy business for more than 60 years, and were considered to have one of the best Holstein dairy herds in the Fraser Valley.

A total of three generations of the Bose family farmed the land until 2009, when it was divided into two lots, with one being sold for the development.

Bob Bose was first elected to Surrey council in 1978. He was elected mayor in 1987, 1990 and 1993."

Read the full article in Vancouver Sun here.

Business in Vancouver - "Rural history preserved in Bose Farms development; housing affordability spread varies by municipality"

"BARN RAISING
When development rolls across farmland, it's usually a case of barn razings rather than barn raisings.

Abbotsford-based Rempel Development Group is turning the tables on the traditional scenario, however, with its development of the Ridge at Bose Farms, to be launched at the beginning of October.

Rempel has an 85-acre slice of the original 340-acre farm established on the site in 1892 by Henry Bose. It intends to build 253 units in four low-rise buildings on approximately 7.5 acres of the property.

The centerpiece will be the farm's original 1936 barn and dairy shed, as well as the surrounding yard.

“The barnyard will look like what it would have in 1936,” said John Rempel, president of RDG Management Ltd. “It will be a pretty spectacular building. It will be very significant, very prominent on the hill.”

The shed will remain a shed while the barn, formerly used to store potatoes, will provide space for meetings, movies and other events. And it will remain very much a barn – restored but unfinished, without drywall, an ambient environment preserving all the freshness of the original farm.

While the restoration of the structures wasn’t cheap, it stands as a rare example of preserved farm buildings in an urban setting. While the Salt building on False Creek and the nearby Opsal Steel building have been incorporated into their surrounding developments, barns are usually tumble-down structures whose heritage value is overlooked.

Rempel doesn’t see it that way.

“It was important ... so that people in the future would have an idea what a farm looked like up on the hill,” he said.

Affordable ownership

Columns in this paper and elsewhere have taken advantage of a release of the latest National Household Survey, based on the 2011 census, to tap casks of ink regarding the question of affordability.

Yet the numbers Statistics Canada presents hold a surprise – for many people, home ownership is more affordable than renting. Regionally, just 27.6% of homeowners dole out more than 30% of household income each month on shelter. This compares with 44.7% of renters who face unaffordable shelter costs.

StatsCan’s data indicates that housing in Electoral District A – the UBC endowment lands – is the least affordable in Metro Vancouver, with 54.8% of households in unaffordable housing. Renters are particularly hard hit, with a stunning 68.8% in unaffordable accommodation.

Delta and Langley Township have some of the least vulnerable residents, with just 23.5% and 27.3% of their residents, respectively, in unaffordable housing.

Meanwhile, Pitt Meadows is hospitable to renters, with just 34.8% facing unaffordable shelter costs.
But what’s most surprising in the latest data is how low shelter costs can go and still rank as unaffordable.

Langley City, for example, has the region’s cheapest average rents, at $877 a month – more than $200 less than the Vancouver average of $1,089. Yet shelter costs are unaffordable for 48.7% of tenants, a greater proportion than in Vancouver, where 46% of tenants lease unaffordable housing.

Burnaby also boasts cheaper average rents than Vancouver, but a greater proportion of overstretched tenants.

Speaking of Delta ...

Delta may be home to a large slice of affordable housing, and Surrey-based Blexo Developments Ltd. is poised to leverage that fact with the municipality’s first highrise development since the early 1990s.
The project will have 359 units in a concrete tower set to rise 37 storeys. It represents an investment of approximately $60 million, according to the B.C. Major Projects Inventory.

The project stirred strong emotions during the approval process. Residents surrounding the site at 11941 80th Avenue (at Scott Road) objected to highrise construction in what is largely a low-rise neighbourhood. The nearest towers are located across the street, but both are less than half the height of Blexo’s development.

Delta mayor Lois Jackson was unavailable for comment prior to deadline, but materials distributed before a press event slated for October 2 tout the tower as igniting “the economic rebirth of North Delta.” According to the press materials, Jackson expects further densification in the Scott Road corridor will follow Blexo’s lead."
Read the full article in Business in Vancouver here.

The Globe and Mail - "As Surrey grows, trees are traded for density"

"Sales start soon for a major condo development that got caught in the middle of a long battle to save significant old-growth forest in Cloverdale, BC.

The Bose Farm had been a Surrey landmark since 1890, when Henry Bose bought 160 acres, and began what became the Bose family legacy as farmers and public officials. His grandson, Bob Bose is a well-known former mayor and long-time councillor. And the Bose farm has long been a fixture of pastoral Cloverdale, one of the last surviving old family-run farms, says Henry's other grandson, Roger Bose, who grew up there and worked on the farm all his life.

When his grandfather died, the property was left to his father and uncle, and the Bose farm was divided into two farms. Roger and his siblings sold their farm to a developer who found a way to preserve the 12 acres of forest as park, as well as relocate the family's heritage buildings to their lot and incorporate them into a condo development.

The 12-acre forest on the other farm, with trees nearly 100 years old, didn’t fare as well. Mr. Bose estimates about three-quarters of the trees have been lost to development. But he says many people don’t understand that two separate properties are involved, and he managed to preserve all of his own forest, as well as the oldest buildings.

“All the trees on our property were saved,” says Mr. Bose. “The trees on the other property, only about one quarter to one third were saved. City Hall didn’t get it right. Newspapers didn’t get it right. And the public gets all this misinformation.

“We didn’t want to see them chopped down. We had to give up concessions on our property to save the trees, but they didn’t have to on their half.”

As Surrey continues to develop, the trees continue to fall, to the dismay of residents. Developer John Rempel, who purchased the Bose land, says Mayor Dianne Watts urged him to save the old forest, so he was able to exchange trees for parkland and more density. In order to make the project financially viable, he switched from a plan for 40 single family homes to a new plan for 253 condos. The Bose barn, built in 1936, is being restored and renovated, as well as the family house. They will be used as amenities buildings for the residents who live at the Ridge At Bose Farms, a four-phase development that will take about three years to build out. Mr. Rempel sold off the agricultural portion of the land to a blueberry farmer. The property is still surrounded by farms and forest, says Mr. Rempel. The condo project will comprise about 7.5 acres. It took about four years to negotiate and obtain approvals, says Mr. Rempel.

“We didn’t take any land out of the agricultural land reserve. The ALR boundary line runs through the dairy barn, but that’s being protected as a heritage site,” says Mr. Rempel.

“Everyone thinks Surrey is new subdivisions and lots of families moving in, which is true, but in 50 years, people will be able to say, ‘that’s where the Bose farm was, and that’s what the original barn looked like.’ The Bose family came to Surrey in the late 1800s, and the family has been magistrates, police chiefs, councillors, the mayor, and they controlled most of the area. They are a very prominent family and the driving force in Surrey’s development over the years.”

Henry Bose was also the president of the Surrey Co-Op, served on the Surrey School Board, was secretary of the Union of B.C. Municipalities and a long-time police magistrate, among many other public positions. For many years, the Bose farm, called Meadow Ridge, also grew hay for Dairyland’s cattle. At its peak of production, it produced 1,000 tons of potatoes, hay and grain, and had 75 milking cows. The dairy herd was sold off by 1963, and operations were scaled back.

“With no succession plans, the farm was finally dispersed for development,” says Roger Bose.

It was a B.C. institution and now it’s part of Surrey’s new wave of redevelopment. Condo prices are anticipated to start at $129,000 for studios and junior one bedrooms, and go as high as $329,900 for two bedrooms."

Read the entire article from The Globe and Mail here.