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Issue No. 199 | July 3, 2012

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1. BHN Will Return in September with Issue No. 200
Catherine Nasmith

One of the things I'll be doing over the summer
One of the things I'll be doing over the summer

As has become the custom, BHN will take a break for the summer, returning in September with Issue No. 200 (can you believe it!) and a new look website and publication. We will be adding Facebook and Twitter feeds as well. 

Over the summer, please continue to post your news, events, etc. and I will make them live to the website. You can do this by going to http://www.builtheritagenews.ca and clicking on post an event, news, or link item. The publication depends on news watchers from across the country.

I have been getting regular posts from the west from subscribers in Winnipeg, and many thanks to Rob Hamilton for his regular feeds from various online publications. I would love to get more news from the rest of the country, if there is something happening in your neck of the woods, please share with other subscribers. 

Items that are still timely will be sent out with tissue no. 200 in September. 

2. York Square: Arguing for Preservation in the Face of Big Development Pressures
Catherine Nasmith

York Square as published 1969
York Square as published 1969

In 1968 I was in high school bewildered by the social changes happening all around me. In 1968, York Square was finished. It was a project that showed a different path to the scorched earth approach of “urban renewal”, The development made news in architectural and planning journals around the world. 

Two NFB films captured the changing times in Toronto, Christopher’s Movie Matinee and Flowers on a One Way Street. Both films contain footage of young people, part of the counter culture of Yorkville, arguing at Toronto City Council to close Yorkville to traffic. A clash of generations, a shift in values.

Fast forward 45 years….even though the youth movement has long since departed, Yorkville still holds its memory in a counter culture physical fabric. Carved out of old houses, with new infill between, low scale development winds from street to street, full of pedestrian lanes, small courtyards, buildings of modest scale that are now home to some of the city’s most expensive boutiques, professional offices, bars and restaurants. The generation that made the place returns as well heeled tourists.

Now Yorkville is under major development pressures, and there is fear that it may disappear entirely. Property owners complain that even with high rents, property values and tax rates are set by redevelopment speculation, resulting in property taxes that do not relate to the income of the existing buildings. In the absence of effective heights policies, OMB decisions permit one massive re-development after another. Residents’ organizations are arguing Yorkville should become a Heritage Conservation District to stand any chance of survival. At a recent joint planning session convened by Councillor Wong Tam and MPP Glen Murray there was musing about pedestrianizing the area…. an idea whose time may have come more than 40 years after it first caused “hippie riots”.

One of my first dates was going to the New Yorker cinema on Yonge Street to see a foreign film and then walking through Yorkville to browse for books and records at the Book Cellar, one of the few retail outlets open after 6;00. I spent many evenings at the Riverboat café, sipping coffee and listening to the soon to be famous like Joni Mitchell, Arlo Guthrie, Gordon Lightfoot.

I did not know then that Jane Jacobs had just arrived in Toronto, or know of new urban thinking that was emerging in the minds of John Sewell, Jane Jacobs, David Crombie, Karl Jaffary, William Kilbourne, Eb Zeidler, Ken Greenberg, Colin Vaughan, Jack Diamond and Barton Myers. These were days prior to the Ontario Heritage Act when it was not easy to make the case to save lovely old buildings like Old City Hall and Union Station. A year later John Sewell was elected to City Council, followed by the reform Council of the 70’s. It was a period where Toronto gained fame as a livable city, and a place of progressive urbanism.

York Square was the vanguard development of that period, The developer, Richard Wookey was purchasing old houses in Yorkville and making them over for commercial purposes, a commercial “white painter.” York Square was designed by the young firm, Diamond and Myers, pioneering an approach Toronto now takes for granted, yet which received major international press at the time. The round windows pay homage to Lou Khan…reflecting the firm’s connections to University of Pennsylvania,

What made the project unique was that instead of demolishing everything in its path for redevelopment, it retained existing buildings and repurpose, augmenting the historic buildings with new brick faces and super graphics. The interior courtyard is still one of Toronto’s nicest places to eat outdoors. Most know York Square as the home of Vidal Sassoon, who has been there since the development opened. The interior of Sassoon was important in its own right, bringing together Diamond and Myers, and furniture designers Michael Stewart and Keith Muller.

The project is the first of three projects done by Diamond and Myers in the late sixties, early seventies to explore the idea of infill housing in historic areas. The other two are social housing projects, one at Dundas and Sherbourne, the second the Hydro Block between Beverly and Henry Streets, Baldwin and Cecil Streets. All three share the common elements of red brick, courtyards, mixing old and new buildings.

This type of development has become the hallmark of Toronto design, although of late the old portions are often reduced to just the façade. IronicallyYork Square is now proposed to be razed for pretty banal proposal to redevelop as a 38 storey condo tower. It is not protected.

Recently Linda Lewis and I have nominated York Square for designation under the Ontario Heritage Act. As part of the background research we uncovered articles in publications from around the world. It received 10 pages in Progressive Architect, and was written up in Architecure d’Aujourd hui, (france), Baumeister, Germany, A+U (Japan), as well as Architecture Canada and Canadian Architect. William Dendy and William Kilbourne included it in Toronto Observed as an important project.

In the intervening years, York Square has become so much a part of Toronto and so widely imitated as to seem unremarkable now, yet it is just those qualities that make it worthy of preservation. It is the original, it is the mould out of which so much that we value in Toronto was formed.

The Sewell Crombie era was a time of the people of Toronto asserting themselves against City Hall cronyism and over-development. Crombie passed a 45’ height bylaw to give time to plan. Toronto needs to take a similar breather now. Preserving York Square will only happen if the current Council also decides enough is enough. 

 

Editor's Note:

You need to get the economic engines in the region all sitting down at the same table to decide how best to use this massive structure. 

Refitted for multi partner use it is an excellent candidate for adaptive reuse.  You couldn't put up what is still there for 4.5 Million so moth balling costs are a steal. 

Stratford festival needs a proper set, props and wardrobe storage area in the worst way.  The region could use a proper records management and archives centre, allied with that, archives facility. Same goes for both school boards 
A response from Rob Hamilton


As it is downtown, and the place is SO BIG a significant portion could be turned over to purely commercial purposes such as a LCBO store, Beer Store, grocery store, gym and dance studio spaces and light commercial use.  Perhaps move an extension of Waterloo into the facility as has happened with their satellite campus in Galt, Laurier's in Brantford and McMaster's in Burlington. Think-think-think . . . 

3. Stratford Locomotive former GTR Repair Shop A Challenge to Preserve
Catherine Nasmith

1908 View, Grand Trunk Railway Repair Shed, Stratford
1908 View, Grand Trunk Railway Repair Shed, Stratford

Municipal Councils purchase heritage buildings in the hope of saving them, but often end up having a hard time doing that.

The former Forsyth’s shirt factory was demolished by the Kitchener City Council…a sad ending for a building they had hoped to preserve. Happier endings include the Tremont hotel in Colliingwood restored by Rick Lex after winning an RFP to purchase and reuse. Another is the former Court House and Jail on Adelaide in Toronto, now a Terroni’s. Stratford’s massive former GTR rail repair sheds poses a much bigger challenge.

At 120,000 s.f. it is not a building that a small business person might find the resources to tackle. It is a glorious robust steel structure, big enough to hoist and move railway cars overhead. At a recent talk at RAIC, Chris Borgal mentioned preliminary estimates to stabilize enough to mothball at 4.5 million. These potential costs are putting Stratford Council under considerable pressure to decide the future of the property. A public meeting is being held on June 27th to discuss options.

So far efforts to find a new use or user have not been successful, but it is not clear how wide a search has been undertaken. Can’t help thinking that some national publicity might find someone who needs a big facility. While a large building, it is much smaller than some of the huge structures for big box service that form the blandscape along Ontario’s 400 series highways, and Stratford is nicely placed to serve industries from Toronto to Windsor.

A well publicized national RFP might yield a new use.  

4. Heritage Canada's Top Ten Endangered and Worst Losses List
Heritage Canada Foundation Release

OTTAWA, ON – June 27, 2012 - The Heritage Canada Foundation (HCF) has released its Top Ten Endangered Places and Worst Losses Lists drawing attention to architectural and heritage sites in Canada either threatened with demolition or already lost.

The Endangered Places List, compiled from nominations received as well as from news items that HCF has been following and reporting on throughout the year includes (from west to east):

  • Riverview Hospital Lands, Coquitlam, BC—an extraordinary provincially-owned cultural landscape is threatened with insensitive development
  • Paramount Theatre, Chilliwack, BC—historic city-owned theatre could face destruction despite youthful grassroots campaign
  • Barron Building, Calgary—birthplace of Calgary’s oil industry faces demolition by neglect
  • École Connaught Community School, Regina—Regina’s oldest school set for demolition despite neighbourhood outcry
  • Hamilton Education Centre, Hamilton—Demolition permit a condition of sale of modernist architectural landmark now headed for landfill
  • Ontario Place, Toronto—internationally renowned modernist park shuttered with no legal protection, pending a major redevelopment
  • Bala Falls, Township of Muskoka, ON—a green energy project intersects with natural and cultural heritage conservation interests
  • Église Très-Saint-Nom-de-Jésus, Montreal—closed and suffering a steady decline, the historic church and world-class organ are victims of a declining congregation and skyrocketing maintenance costs
  • Zion Baptist Church, Yarmouth, N.S.—clock is ticking on landmark historic church that congregation is looking to deregister
  • Canada’s Historic Lighthouses—local communities left holding the financial bag as federal government unloads hundreds of “surplus” heritage lighthouses

5. Torontoist: Draft Official Plan Heritage Policies
Jamie Bradburn

Making Torontos Heritage Official

Torontoist: Draft Official Plan Heritage Policies

Report offers proposals for improving the heritage preservation language in Toronto's Official Plan.

“A greater effort must be made to retain our remaining important heritage resources, and to balance Toronto’s growth while keeping important touchstones to our past. Heritage resources need to be viewed as contributing long-term value to our built fabric and individual developments, as well as our collective sense of ourselves.”

That viewpoint, developed from public consultation on heritage policy over the past two years, was one of the key messages in a staff report [PDF] presented by the City Planning Division to the Planning and Growth Management Committee, at City Hall yesterday. The findings reflected the importance of heritage conservation to Torontonians, whether they are active advocates or just people who occasionally line up for Doors Open.

Editor's Note:

For Full Report go to:

 

http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgendaItemHistory.do?item=2012.PB13.8A 

Click here for Link

6. Toronto City Website: Toronto Proposed OP policies re: Heritage

City of Toronto Proposed Official Plan Policies

Read and be prepared to comment, coming to a public meeting near you!

Click here for Link

7. Toronto Star: Federal Cuts Endanger Archives, Libraries,
Valerie Knowles

Budget squeeze on libraries impairs national memory

These are dark days for authors, genealogists, journalists, historians, academics and researchers seeking access to federal government libraries and archives in Ottawa.

Citing the need to cut costs, the government is slowly and stealthily wrecking Library and Archives Canada. If this were not bad enough, it is also closing many of its own departmental libraries and cutting service delivery in the remaining ones.

The flagship of Canada’s heritage keepers is Library and Archives Canada, where a large number of staff positions are being axed. This in turn is leading to a reduction in programs, one involving the acquisition of new archival holdings.

Already dozens of documents, photos and artifacts so essential to the preservation of Canada’s history are not being acquired. If present plans go into effect, a 10-month moratorium on purchased archival holdings will be extended for another couple of years.

Also in danger of being lost forever is precious archival material in other locations. Thanks to the cutting in April of a federal grant program, part of $9.6 million in reductions to Library and Archives Canada, efforts to preserve Canadian history in small historical archives in dozens of communities are threatened. Previously the program helped to support First Nations, religious and historical archives.

Click here for Link

8. Toronto Star: Draper Street
Kenneth Kidd

Torontos storied, charming Draper St. laden with memories

Toronto Star: Draper Street

Wee as can be, Mary Kohut still manages to fill a room with her personality, even as she sits, just now, snuggled into a front-room armchair opposite her original, 1889 fireplace — such are the stories she spills forth about Draper St.

How Polly Iwanyszyn used to run the eccentric variety store across the way, always ready to share an in-store drink (rye, she being transplanted from the Prairies) with any neighbour who dropped by for milk or bread (“It wasn’t the cheapest, but it was local.”)

That would be in the same house-cum-store where former lieutenant-governor Lincoln Alexander was born, back in 1922.

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9. Toronto Star: Union Station
Jessica McDiarmid

Toronto Union Station train shed renovations on track, says Metrolinx

Toronto Star: Union Station

Some 80 years ago, massive steam trains trundled into the train shed at Union Station, connecting the east and west of Canada under a low-slung 35,000-square-metre roof, where daylight cracked in through narrow vents.
Over the years, steam engines gave way to diesel. And now, parts of that leaking wooden roof are being removed to make way for a glass atrium allowing natural daylight onto the tracks.
When the project is complete in 2014, energy-efficient bulbs mounted in the glass ceiling will light it up at night.
 
“It tends to be a very dark place even on a bright day and that’s a huge difference our customers will notice,” said Michael Wolczyk, acting vice-president of capital infrastructure for GO Transit.
 
Renovations throughout the train shed, used by GO and VIA Rail, are underway, part of a $196-million renewal. Decaying wood on portions of the roof has been replaced with steel, and work has closed tracks 11 and 12.

Click here for Link

10. VIA Rail Canada: $6.5m renovation for Union Station

A 100th Year Announcement at Winnipeg Station

Just as we reach the end of Winnipegs Union Stations centennial year, the Government of Canada and VIA Rail have announced a further $6.5 million investment in the Heritage building. The funding is slated for improvements....(more)

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11. insideTORONTO.com: Councillors save controversial heritage home - Langdon House
LISA QUEEN

In a battle that pitted the desire to preserve a heritage site against homeowners' property rights, saving history won.

 North York councillors voted last week to refuse a request by Timothy and Charlotte Stanley to demolish their home, at 140 Dinnick Cres., near Lawrence Avenue and Mount Pleasant Road. They want to build a much bigger home in its place.

City staff will defend councillors' decision at a May 23 Ontario Municipal Board hearing, which was requested by the Stanleys. 

Editor's Note:
OMB disagreed, this is an important case, and seems to have circumvented the Conservation Review Board process.

Click here for Link

12. Niagara Falls Review: Lighthouse a newly frosted cake
Matt Day

Renovated Point Abino Lighthouse
Renovated Point Abino Lighthouse

FORT ERIE - Spiderwebs lined the Point Abino Lighthouse for decades.

Some were woven, while others appeared as cracks in broken windows of the 95-year-old structure that once served as an important beacon for mariners travelling the treacherous shoals of Lake Erie into Buffalo and Port Colborne.

The concrete was crumbling, the crisp white paint had dulled to a light shade of grey and rust lined the metal railings, pipes and bars.

That was just over a year ago.

On Friday, a plaque dedication was held to commemorate more than a year’s work of restoration to the lighthouse, hopefully ensuring the historic landmark would be able to endure another 95 years.

“We were in fear of losing the structure without the work,” said Sean Hutton, the town’s facility manager, of the $1.4 million construction project completed by Phoenix Restoration and Taylor Hazell Architects Ltd.

The work included casting, forming and stabilizing the concrete that makes up the base of the tower.

The most visible parts of the restoration project include a new coat of paint, new windows and doors, a restored balcony, and bright, red accent paint marking the entrance to the light station.

“In a year from now, or five years, or 10 years, the work only would have cost more. It really shows, so we are encouraging people to come down and see it for yourself,” Hutton said.

The first guided tour since 2010 was held Saturday, one day after the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of The commemorative plaque was unveiled with the help of town councillors, MP and Minister of Justice Rob Nicholson representing Environment Minister Peter Kent, members of the Point Abino Lightstation Preservation Society and guests.

Click here for Link

13. guelphmercury.com: Heritage matters more than it seems to these days
Susan Ratcliffe, Crossing the Line editorial

One tiny church in one tiny village closes. Does it matter?

One big red-brick school in one small town disappears. Does it matter?

Twenty-seven historic sites across Canada will lose their tour guides. Does it matter?

Sixty heritage buildings and landscapes out in the rolling countryside will be destroyed. Do they matter?

I’ll tell you their stories and why it really does matter.

Colborne, Ont., founded in 1858, population 2,160, houses Trinity Anglican Church, which is 166 years old and was officially opened by Bishop John Strachan in 1846. In its graveyard is the tombstone of William McMurray, the chief trader of the Hudson’s Bay Co., after whom Fort McMurray, Alta. is named. On June 12, the Anglican diocese of Toronto deconsecrated the church and left its future existence in doubt.

Brighton, Ont., founded in 1851, population 10,928, housed Brighton Public School, built in 1915, a beautiful red-brick school with wide hallways, squeaky stairs and lots of light flooding its big classrooms. It was demolished on March 1, despite alternative plans for using the building and the opposition of most of Brighton’s citizens.

The Woodside National Historic Site, the boyhood home in Kitchener of William Lyon Mackenzie King — Canada’s longest serving prime minister — will lose its tour guides and archival staff as a result of cuts in the recent budget of Stephen Harper’s Conservative government. When visitors arrive, they will be greeted with pamphlets and wall plaques. Harper’s budget dealt a similar fate to 27 Parks Canada historic sites across Canada. In the words of the director of the Louis Riel house in St. Vital, Man., where Riel’s body lay in state in 1885 after his hanging: “There will be nobody to explain what the history of this place is and what its importance is.”

Click here for Link

14. Guelph Meercury: Old Guelph farmhouse an ugly duckling, heritage panel hears

Future uncertain The province's Conservation Review Board is considering whether a heritage designation is appropriate for the Wilson farmhouse in north Guelph.
Future uncertain The province's Conservation Review Board is considering whether a heritage designation is appropriate for the Wilson farmhouse in north Guelph.

 

The Wilson farmhouse is "a bit of an ugly duckling" undeserving of a heritage designation, a landscape architect testified Tuesday.
Owen Scott, who specializes in cultural heritage conservation, also took issue with the city's position the house on Simmonds Drive has historical significance because of its connection with the pioneering Wilson family.
The Conservation Review Board panel has heard the Wilsons purchased the property from the Canada Company in 1836 and farmed it for more than 100 years before selling it.
"Lots of other families did that as well and that doesn't mean they're significant either," Scott argued. "Does that make them significant to the community? I don't believe it does."
Scott said he has attempted to research the original Wilson family and can find no evidence of its impact on the community.
Resident Mike Lackowicz, who lives across from the house, filed an appeal of city council's intention to designate the property under the Ontario Heritage Act.
Earlier the review board panel heard city staff believes the house is a representative example of vernacular Ontario Gothic farmhouse architecture of the late 19th century.
Scott, an expert witness called by Lackowicz, suggested Tuesday the term "representative" should only be used to refer to properties which are special "as opposed to very ordinary."
Stephen Robinson, a senior heritage planner with the city, conceded the house "is not a good example of textbook Ontario Gothic farmhouse architecture," but testified he believes if to be a good example of a vernacular -- or interpretive -- style.

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15. Waterloo Record: Councillor leads charge to save Tannery building from demolition
Terry Pender

189 Joseph The Joseph Street building that was once part of Kitchener's Lang Tannery is the focus of preservation efforts. Philip Walker/Record staff
189 Joseph The Joseph Street building that was once part of Kitchener's Lang Tannery is the focus of preservation efforts. Philip Walker/Record staff

Waterloo Record: Councillor leads charge to save Tannery building from demolition

KITCHENER — Councillor Frank Etherington wants to re-open the debate about the future of a historic industrial building on Joseph Street that was part of the Lang Tannery.

 

Etherington wants the brick building at 189 Joseph St. designated as a landmark under the Ontario Heritage Act and protected from demolition.

Etherington said one of the reasons he ran for city council in 2010 was because city staff allowed Toronto-based Cadan Inc. to demolish three historic buildings on Joseph Street to make room for a gravel parking lot. The former city council refused to intervene.

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16. Waterloo Record: If those old houses could talk: Website documents history of heritage architecture
Terry Pender

Kayla Jonas stands in front of the old Carnegie Library at 40 Albert St., Waterloo, one of the hundreds of properties documented on the website Building Stories.
Kayla Jonas stands in front of the old Carnegie Library at 40 Albert St., Waterloo, one of the hundreds of properties documented on the website Building Stories.

 


WATERLOO REGION — Nellie Evans has long admired Orlagh House at 41 Main St. in Bayfield, and thanks to a unique website developed by the Heritage Resource Centre at the University of Waterloo, anyone with a computer and internet connection can see and read about the stunning example of 19th-century Georgian architecture.

“It’s pretty cool,” Evans said of the house built in 1877.

She was among a trio of heritage supporters from around Ontario who attended a recent workshop to learn how to use the site at www.buildingstories.co, which now has more than 700 properties listed just a few weeks after it was launched.

It is called Building Stories, and you can learn more about it at info@buildingstories.co. It is an online, interactive inventory of official and unofficial historic sites found across Canada. Anyone who registers can contribute to the inventory, not just municipal officials or members of heritage committees.

Click here for Link

17. Northumberland Today: Cramahe to designate Trinity Church
Mandy Martin

The Friends of Trinity Anglican Church are determined to retain the church and on June 5 they fired the next volley in the battle for retention. In a presentation led by Canadian author and Colborne resident, Jane Urquhart, the group asked Cramahe Council to begin the process to designate the building as historically important to the community.
 
Council unanimously moved to protect the historic significance of the building.

“What happens if it is designated? Who then becomes responsible?” Cramahe Councillor Clinton Breau asked.
 
“We have founded a Friends of Trinity,” Ms. Urquhart responded. “Perhaps we will be responsible.”

She said the designation “will not cost you a cent” .

Editor's Note:

To read the full presentation made by Jane Urquhart see,  http://www.cramahe-now.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2786:jane-urquharts-presentation-to-council&catid=34:ads&Itemid=60

Click here for Link

18. Owen Sound Sun Times: Downtown HCD?
Denis Langlois

City ponders heritage designation for downtown

Owen Sounds downtown area, with its heritage buildings and historic landmarks, is one of the citys greatest assets, says Mayor Deb Haswell.I know when people travel anywhere, whether its just in Ontario or across the country or in the U.S. or abroad, they go to communities that look nice and have lovely buildings to look at and so on. Communities dont attract visitors and new investments by having great parking lots, she said Monday in an interview.Consultants with MHBC Planning, which is reviewing the citys official plan, are recommending a new policy that could lead to council having more power to protect and preserve its historic downtown.The official plan amendment would direct the city to prepare a heritage conservation study for the downtown area to investigate the feasibility of designating the area as a heritage conservation district.Such a designation would enable council to manage and guide future change through adoption of a district plan with policies and guidelines for conservation, protection and enhancement of the areas special character, according to Ontarios Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport.The immediate benefit of HCD (heritage conservation district) designation is a planning process that respects a communitys history and identity. District designation is one of the best ways to ensure that this identity is conserved. The adoption of a HCD plan as part of the designation process ensures that the communitys heritage conservation objectives and stewardship will be respected during the decision-making process, the ministry says.Haswell said the designation would give council and the city more of a say on new buildings and changes to existing structures in the downtown.

Click here for Link

19. Owen Sound Sun Times: Markdale Fire Hall
Don Crosby

Council warned old Markdale fire hall a hazard

The future of the historic Markdale fire hall could be decided by the end of the year.

Council is waiting on recommendations of a task force to determine what to do about the aging structure, which will be 100 years old in 2013 and is showing the effects of years of neglect.

Click here for Link

20. Owen Sound Sun Times: Old water plant on display
Denis Langlois

Owen Sound

With Owen Sounds first water filtration plant set to mark its 100th birthday this year, the Grey Sauble Conservation Authority wants to know if the hand-formed cavernous structure is the only one of its kind left in Ontario.

Its always been a question thats been left unanswered, community relations co-ordinator Krista McKee said Tuesday in an interview.

The decommissioned plant near Inglis Falls is a popular stop on Owen Sounds annual Doors Open tour, which is scheduled for June 2 and 3. The free event features 18 sites this year.

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21. CBC Manitoba: Historic Sherridon hotel fire under investigation

Sherridon historic hotel fire under investigation

....The four-storey Hotel Cambrian dates back to the 1920s, when the community of Sherridon was created at the site of a northern mining operation.

The hotel remained after the rest of the original community was shipped to Lynn Lake in the early 1950s, says John Leclair, an amateur historian from Cranberry Portage....

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22. West End Dumplings: Seven Stories About Portage and Main

Seven Stories About Portage and Main

Happy 150th birthday Portage and Main ! Here is a collection of stories about our most famous intersection. Hopefully some of them are new to you !

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23. Winnipeg Free Press: Portage and Main
Gordon Sinclair Jr.

Portage and Main turns 150, but city has no plans to celebrate

Portage and Main turns 150 years old on Saturday, which makes it more than a decade older than Winnipeg itself, but city hall isn't planning anything to commemorate the occasion....

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24. Winnipeg Free Press: St. Boniface Police Station defended by Etienne Gaboury

Famed architect urges city to preserve his building

Winnipeg Free Press: St. Boniface Police Station defended by Etienne Gaboury

....A renowned architect says it's sad city officials want to demolish a former St. Boniface police station instead of finding a way to preserve the modernist structure.

The City of Winnipeg has listed the former police station at 227 Provencher Blvd., at the southwest corner of Dumoulin and Langevin streets in St. Boniface, for sale for $470,000. Online documents show the purchaser must demolish it and submit plans for a multi-family residential development.

The former District 5 station closed after city council approved a plan to reduce the number of districts across Winnipeg.

Étienne Gaboury designed the building in 1963 and said the structure is a significant piece of architecture that became the prototype for his future projects designed to reflect the Winnipeg region....

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25. Winnipeg Free Press: Winnipeg's Louis Riel House not closing, says MP

MP Kent: 'Riel House is not closing'

Environment Minister Peter Kent said definitively today Riel House will not be closing.

Kent was on the defensive in Question Period under questioning from NDP MP Pat Martin and Liberal Denis Coderre.

"Riel House is not closing," Kent said. "Visitors will still be able to enjoy self-guided tours. The house will remain open."

He later added there will even be a staff member on site.

The Free Press is seeking additional information from Kent's office about the comments, including how the house will operate since it is cutting the $56,000 funding given annually to the St. Boniface Historical Society to run the museum....

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26. Winnipeg Free Press:Warwick Apartments Winnipeg
Christian Cassidy

How the Warwick changed Winnipeg

The push to get people living downtown has gained a lot of momentum lately, but this process has been going on ever since there was a downtown.

Take the Warwick Apartments on Qu'Appelle Avenue.

It's hard to imagine this old block changed the way Winnipeggers lived, but after the building opened in May 1909, that's exactly what happened.

Prior to the Warwick, apartment blocks in Winnipeg were small, walk-up tenements meant to warehouse the working class. As Winnipeg experienced a population explosion, from 42,000 souls in 1901 to 118,000 in 1908, new housing solutions were needed for the growing middle and upper classes....(more)

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27. Winnipeg Free Press: New life for heritage gem

Biz owner lured by 'energy' of the area

ONE of the city's hidden gems, and a shining example of the Chicago-style architecture of early Winnipeg, is the latest building to be swept up in the wave of downtown redevelopment projects.

The North West Commercial Travellers' Association Building is a narrow, two-storey building sandwiched between a parkade and another building on Garry Street, south of Portage Avenue. What sets it apart is its striking terra-cotta facade, featuring six lions' heads topped by a massive shield and crest on the parapet....

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28. Winnipeg Free Press: Historic Louis Riel House closing due to budget cuts

Riel House closing down Historic home falls victim to budget cuts

Historic Riel House, where Louis Riel lay in state after he was hanged, is closing its doors.

The national historic site, located in south St. Vital, will cease all interpretive services and likely warehouse its historic artifacts after this summer.

As part of federal budget cuts, Parks Canada has decided to terminate its contract with the St. Boniface Historical Society, which hires and trains the four or five costumed interpreters who kept the 131-year-old house open between May and August for school tours, summer tourists and events.

After September, only self-guided tours around the small site will be available.

"It's really a slap in the face, basically," said Robert Allard, vice-president of L'Union nationale métisse Saint-Joseph, the oldest Métis organization in Canada....

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29. Winnipeg Downtown Places Blog: Winnipeg's Union Station turns 100

123 Main Street - Union Station

On June 24, 2012 Winnipeg's Union Station turned 100. Here's a look back at the building's history.

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30. West End Dumplings: Winnipeg's Most Endangered Buildings
Christian Cassidy

Im often asked what I think are Winnipegs most endangered buildings. Here's my top five list.

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31. cjme.com: St.Mary's school Saskatoon at risk

St.Mary's school set to come down just before it turns 100

cjme.com: St.Mary's school Saskatoon at risk

It's the end of an era for yet another historic Saskatoon landmark.

St. Mary's school is being torn down in favour of a new facility. It's part of a larger plan to revitalize the Pleasant Hill neighbourhood.

Few would deny the need for a new school, but many would argue strongly for the keeping the old one for heritage purposes.

"This is the first Catholic School in the city, and one of the first in Saskatchewan," said former Student Maria Fortungo.

The old school would have turned 100-years-old next year. ...(more)

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32. Edmonton Journal: Hemingway Centre (Coronation Pool) now heritage site

Futuristic pool now heritage site

The dramatic, swooping glass, steel, and heavy timber structure at 135th Street and 111th Avenue, next to Ross Sheppard Composite High School, opened in 1970, as Coronation Pool.

It was renamed in 2005 for its lead architect, the late Peter Hemingway. Even today, 42 years after it opened, it looks too contemporary, too original, too futuristic to match most people's idea of a heritage building.

But this Friday, the pool, designed by Hemingway and Laubenthal Architects, will be honoured by both the Heritage Canada Foundation and the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada as a national landmark, and awarded their Prix du XXe siecle, as one of Canada's most important buildings of the 20th century.... 

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33. Fort Saskatchewan Record: Fort Saskatchewan's history

Grand vision of Fort Saskatchewan's history laid before council

The Historical Resources Advisory Board has a vision for showcasing the citys past and making it an integral part of the citys future.

The group presented its 10-year plan to city council, envisioning further construction on the NWMP Fort, adding an interpretive centre, placing a native peoples historical component, creating better linages of all the historic area with the downtown and wrapping the master plan in a marketing campaign.

This guiding document is a guide to the future of our past, said Norma Leader, vice-chair of the board.

If it is integrated into the capital budget, it will bring life to our rich history. ...

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34. Edmonton: Happy birthday to a beloved downtown building
David Staples, Edmonton Journal

Happy birthday to a beloved downtown building

....Its not often we build something that attracts people downtown, but Edmonton City Hall accomplishes that. Its architect Gene Dubs gift to Edmonton and its no small success.

Consider that when Edmontons previous city hall  a modernist, nine-storey layer cake of a building erected in 1957  was just 20 years old, it was already seen as a failure that had to be torn down.

Thats not happening with the current city hall, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Instead, after a rocky start where the building got much criticism over its $50-million price tag and its design, it has won over Edmontonians. Its become such a hit that Dub was named as one of Edmontons top 100 citizens of the 20th century....

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35. Daily Commercial News and Construction Record: How to renovate energy-guzzling tall buildings?
DON PROCTER

B+H ARCHITECTS - A closer look at the revitalization of the TD Centres facade
B+H ARCHITECTS - A closer look at the revitalization of the TD Centres facade

Many Canadian office buildings constructed in the 1960s and 1970s have something in common with the automobiles of the time: they are energy-guzzlers.

But unlike the big GM, Ford and Chrysler cars of the day, those towers can’t simply be tossed in a scrap yard.

The alternative? Renovate.

“It’s a huge market in the coming decade,” says Douglas Birkenshaw, principal, B+H Architects.

B+H is the project architect for the recladding of the 72-storey First Canadian Place and is overseeing the retrofit of the TD Centre’s original 56-storey and 46-storey towers built in the 1960s.

At the TD Centre, high-efficiency glazing replaces 45-year-old windows as part of an upgrade package to dramatically reduce heating and cooling loads.

“We think there is a fantastic resource in these types of large structures in the modernization of cities the world over,” says Birkenshaw.

Last year, B+H published a white paper on highrise renewal titled The Second Life of Tall Buildings. The 43-page booklet reviews retrofit options and looks in-depth at the First Canadian Place and TD Tower renewal process.

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36. Globe and Mail: Canadian World Heritage Site
Canadian Press

Early Acadian settlement in Nova Scotia recognized as world heritage site

from Parks Canada website
from Parks Canada website

An important Acadian landmark in Nova Scotia has been recognized by UNESCO as a world heritage site.

The decision was announced Saturday by UNESCO’s world heritage committee in St. Petersburg, Russia.

“It’s a big day for Acadie,” Rene Legere, president of the National Acadian Society, said in an interview.

“This decision recognizes the beauty and heritage of Grand Pré, and also, an important (part) of the history of the Acadian people.”

The National Historic Site of Grand Pré, situated in the province’s picturesque Annapolis Valley, was settled by French colonists in the 17th century who came to be known as Acadians.

The area is home to some of the most extreme tidal ranges in the world, and early Acadian settlers used a complex system of dykes to make the land arable.

It became an area of great importance to Acadians after thousands were forcibly removed from the Maritime provinces between 1755 and 1763.

 

Editor's Note:

wonder if Parks Canada is able to keep this site open with all the cutbacks?

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37. Globe and Mail: Order of Canada
Erin Andersson

The Order of Canada: An accolade that demonstrates why waving the flag just isn

To be a conscientious Canadian (or give a fair impression of one) is a relatively sweat-free activity these days. You may start by rolling your compost bin to the curb on pickup day. Or make a stand for a tolerant society by clicking “like” on the Facebook page for the new gay-friendly Oreo cookie with the rainbow filling.

If you stopped to wonder what all the other kids on the notorious bus ride in New York state were doing, while their thuggish peers verbally assaulted the grandmotherly bus monitor, there was good to be done. You could toss a few dollars to the victim’s vacation-turned-lifetime-retirement fund started online by a well-meaning Toronto nutritionist.

And for a demonstration of patriotism this weekend, don the red and white, and post a “Happy Birthday, Canada” update, once again online. You can manage it between zombie attacks on Minecraft.

Then along comes the Order of Canada, with its exhortations to national service, and celebration of lifetime achievement, to give pause to the flag-waving revelry, and point out that real change requires more. If the Order of Canada celebrates anything, it is effort – the kind given to the benefit of others, often at inconvenience to one’s self. The latest 70 recipients, selected by special committee from a batch of nominations, are named officially by the Governor-General, who has made philanthropy, both of the treasure and talent variety, a platform of his tenure.

Editor's Note:

In reading the list I am struck by the lack of heritage sector nominations. It is easy to nominate someone for Order of Canada, just google, download the form and fill in, mail in. It takes a couple of years for the committee to evaluate a nomination, but if there are no nominations, there are no awards. So many accomplished professionals, dedicated volunteers. So take the time to nominate somone whose work you think is worthy. 

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