Billy Campbell has acted in a great deal of things. He was a jet-pack-wearing superhero at The Rocketeer, Abraham Lincoln at the TV film Killing Lincoln, an architect at the show Once &, Jennifer Lopez’s punching bag in the film Enough plus a mayoral candidate in the hit TV series The Killing. However he just appears to be a pretty darn great designer, also.
He worked together with architect Rick Wilson of Radius Architectural Millwork to build a massive 25-foot by 25-foot storage unit in his Vancouver attic, with Murphy beds plus a cool steel catwalk inspired by the tall sailing boats he works in his spare time. “It is more than sufficient to store everything I have, except my motor vehicles,” Campbell says.
Radius Architectural Millwork Ltd..
Though Campbell grew up in Virginia and resides largely in Los Angeles, he fell in love with Vancouver while filming different TV series, including The Killing and The 4400.
He bought a one-bedroom downtown attic there on the floor using a newish high-rise construction, together with plans to make it his permanent home once his immigrant status is approved. One day he was trying to figure out what to do with the unit’s massive 25-foot by 25-foot concrete alcove. “I was thinking I could shove a sofa in there, but the big space was still likely to swallow it up,” Campbell says. “Standing there, I suddenly had an image of sailing on a ship. And that is where I got the thought of creating two tales of storage with a very nautical catwalk.”
Campbell surveys the construction of his 48-foot schooner, called Martha Seabury, at The Dory Shop boatyard at Nova Scotia. An avid sailer, he got the idea for his storage device from components of sailboat design.
Radius Architectural Millwork Ltd..
“When he started talking about building a 25-foot-tall piece of millwork, I thought that he was mad,” says architect Rick Wilson.
But he worked with Campbell to design the simple and clean painted maple unit, using a steel gangplank and sufficient room to save Campbell’s garments, along with an abysmal console, bookshelves, hanging cabinets plus 2 Murphy beds. “The place, together with the addition of Wilson’s work, really looks larger than it did before, which is an interesting thing,” Campbell says.
The gangplank was precut and then scraped onsite, because it could not fit through the doors. None of the millworkers had experience installing cabinets this high, much less using a steel bridge in the middle, so it took some careful maneuvering. Using scaffolding, they first built the bottom half of their cabinets, then put in a temporary gangplank, constructed the upper cabinets and set up the permanent gangplank.
Steel: Epic Metal Works
Radius Architectural Millwork Ltd..
Campbell custom designed the davit, a hand-pulley system on a swivel shared on sailboats for unloading cargo. A steel arm swings out of the wall so that he can transport items up and down the device (Wilson and his wife demo here). There hangs A nautical rope nearby to finish the aesthetic.
Radius Architectural Millwork Ltd..
A hook grabs a panel whenever the Murphy beds have been pulled to bring a built in headboard. The hardware is exactly the same that is used on the U.S. president’s private airplane, Air Force One.
Radius Architectural Millwork Ltd..
The steel ladder is painted a primer red, although the catwalk steel has been left raw. “We wanted to find the variation in colour and have it look somewhat industrial,” Wilson says. “We wanted it to ding and change over time.”
Campbell may lock the upper half of the storage device by pulling a hinged door, ideal for when he’s filming location. “I can lock it shut and rent out the place without a second thought,” he says. “I could not have been more pleased. Yet to fill it up, it’ll take a while.”