People don’t normally turn to electricians for architectural advice. Read More
The Ron Thom-designed house is very serene and imaginative, with all sorts of built-ins and wood (teak, oak, birch) everywhere.
The Ron Thom-designed house is very serene and imaginative, with all sorts of built-ins and wood (teak, oak, birch) everywhere.
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People don’t normally turn to electricians for architectural advice.
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But Dr. Milton Dodek was intrigued when one of his patients recommended a young architect, Ron Thom.
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“I guess they had a conversation about the fact that (the Dodek family) were going to build a house,” said Dodek’s son Peter. “This electrician had worked in a house that was designed by Ron Thom, and was quite impressed with the innovation of the house.”
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Dodek met Thom and commissioned a home. The cost was $18,000 in 1958, which got him one of the gems of the west coast modern era.
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Westcoast Homes
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Dodek and his wife Irene raised three kids in the home, and loved it so much they never moved. But Irene died in 2019, and Milton died in 2024. Sixty-seven years after the Dodek family moved in, the house is for sale, for $3.95 million.
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The wow factor is in the living room, which is large but seems even bigger because of an open floor plan, vaulted ceiling, and floor-to-ceiling windows into a hidden courtyard.
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Beams soar over the space, showcasing the height and pitch of the ceiling. A long built-in couch anchors one side, and was beloved by both the Dodeks and Thom, who became a lifelong family friend.
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“That was Ron’s corner,” Peter Dodek said, pointing out where Thom loved to sit at the end of the built-in. “He enjoyed cozy spaces.”
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The focal point of the room is the giant brick fireplace, interlocking vertical and horizontal rectangles that are like a sculpture.
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“It’s vertical, horizontal, vertical, horizontal, very soothing, and then it just kind of rises up to the ceiling,” said Peter Dodek.
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“The hearth is his signature,” said architectural writer Adele Weder, author of the acclaimed book, Ron Thom, Architect: The Life of a Creative Modernist.
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“He thought that was the nucleus of any house — an enormous, prominent fireplace for the family to gather around.”
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The house is very serene and imaginative, with all sorts of built-ins and wood (teak, oak, birch) everywhere.
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“It’s influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright,” said Weder. “You can tell with the high level of craftsmanship and the sort of Japanese aura of it. It’s an incredibly cosy family house.”
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Another feature of Thom’s houses is that they are designed to have a piano, and the Dodek living room featured an elegant black Kawai grand.
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“Ron Thom was a trained concert pianist, as well as an artist,” explained Penny Mitchell, the realtor selling the home.
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The home is two storeys, and a 1967 addition designed by Thom brought it up to five bedrooms and 3,250 square feet. The addition features a family room, bedroom and basement rec room, and is connected via the dining room, turning what was originally an L-shaped house into a U-shaped home.