Arthur Erickson purchased the property in 1959, consisting of a small cottage and a garage/storage shed built on two 33' x 120' lots. The cottage, built in 1924, was tight to the lane at the back of the property, a common and allowable practice at that time so that the owners would have somewhere to live while a proper house was built in the centre of the lot. The main house was never built and it left what had become a unique property and one with a potential which Erickson was quick to appreciate. The herbaceous border garden which had been there when the cottage was purchased soon became overgrown and, in 1959, he decided to bulldoze the garden, forming a pond in front of the cottage and piling the excavated dirt up to form a berm which provided a backdrop to the pond and a privacy barrier to the street. A high fence completed the process of isolating the garden from the outside world and created a private and quite magical oasis in the midst of a suburban neighbourhood. Some of the garden was paved with brick to create outdoor sitting areas, planting included keeping rhododendrons, azalea, mountain laurel and firs, while adding ferns, reeds, wild grasses, bamboo, and summer flowers in pots. A final touch was the creation of a stone moon-watching platform at the edge of the pond. The platform forms an aesthetic and spiritual centre for the naturalistic composition of the garden. In 1960, the cottage and the garage were joined with a link which serves as a kitchen/dining room. The garage, which had become a guest house, was enlarged with the addition of a small greenhouse section and became a sleeping loft and a studio where Arthur Erickson has been able to work in serenity and solitude on his singular, creative designs, looking out on the tranquil garden he created. The interior of the cottage incorporates many gestures in form and materials that have been aesthetic choices that have become signatures of Arthur Erickson's architecture.