1. Death of Herb Stovel
Catherine Nasmith/Dinu Bumbaru

It is with great sadness that I am forwarding this note from Dinu Bumbaru announcing the death of Herb Stovel yesterday from a heart attack. Already tributes are appearing on websites around the world. He leaves an irreplaceable gap in Canada's and the World's heritage preservation circles.

I saw him last when he gave his testimony in favour of preserving the views of the Ontario Legislative Assembly in Toronto. He also wrote an excellent Heritage Impact Assessment on the subject for the City of Toronto. That fight continues, and becomes more important to win as a Toronto testiment to his work.

Below is the note from Dinu Bumbaru on behalf of ICOMOS Canada.

In addition you can find another tribute at the link below.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/850

CN
ICOMOS ANNOUNCEMENT
It is with a very great sadness that we learned this morning that our dear friend, colleague and, for many, mentor and guide Herb Stovel had passed away. Our immediate thoughts are with Herb's family, to whom we offer our heartfelt condolences.

Herb was an outstanding colleague and a genuine leader in the field of conservation, dedicated to the cause, its values and ideas as well as the community of people and institutions who make it happen.

In ICOMOS, Herb brought reform and progress either as an active member, as President of ICOMOS Canada or Secretary General of the whole organisation. He brought major and lasting reforms to ICOMOS, particularly in the way it accomplishes its role as an advisor to the World Heritage Convention, which is celebrating its 40th Anniversary this year.

Herb’s thoughts on the role of communities, on authenticity and values as well as his commitment to education and the next generation in the conservation community constitute a lasting and inspiring legacy. His immense contribution to the progress of conservation and its community in Canada and around the World was acknowledged by many countries and institutions. This stature was commemorated with his being awarded the Jacques Dalibard Award from ICOMOS Canada and the prestigious ICCROM Award.

ICOMOS Canada members will be invited to pay special homage in memorial to Herb on the occasion of the upcoming Annual General Meeting, on March 23rd, 2012 at Carleton University in Ottawa, where he was a much appreciated member of the Faculty.

In the name of ICOMOS Canada members, we will also inform the international ICOMOS family of his loss, and invite them to join with us on this occasion to express gratitude for his many outstanding contributions and to keep the guiding light of Herb's ideas and inspiration alive.

Dinu Bumbaru, C.M.
President of ICOMOS Canada
Member of the International Executive Committee

Notes from Others

Guy Masson:

I totally agree with your and Dinu's comments.
I am very sad but he will remain a source a inspiration for all.

Robert Shipley

Herb conducted a workshop years ago in Goderich which I think was one of my introductions to heritage. I will miss him also and think of him on the days when I pick up my sword and shield and go…

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility;
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger. . . .

He was a tiger.

Shipley
Isabel Rigol, Havana
Dear Dinu:
I was absolutely shocked by the news on Herb Stovel´s passing away. Though I knew he was ill, I had the hoped he would survive thanks to his strength of character and optimism. Unfortunately, he did not.

All the members of our Cuban National Committee who had the privilege to meet him could always appreciate his sympathy and profound interest regarding our Latin American and Caribbean heritage.

I will always remember Herb as an excellent professional, a wonderful colleague and a faithful friend. I cannot forget that I owe him several unforgettable opportunities as, in example, representing ICCROM during UNESCO´s World Heritage Periodic Reporting process for Latin America and the Caribbean in 2003-2004.

This is indeed a very sad loss for all the ICOMOS community.
Please transmit my sincerest condolences to his family and to ICOMOS-Canada members.

Yours,
Isabel Rigol

2. Heritage Canada: Herb Stovel
Press Release

Heritage Canada Foundation Mourns the Passing of Herb Stovel

The board and staff of the Heritage Canada Foundation join the international conservation community in marking the loss of Herb Stovel, esteemed architect, teacher, writer and leader in the field.

Through his early work as Director of Education for Main Street Canada, through training courses for the Federal Heritage Buildings Review Office, and as a professor at major academic institutions, Herb Stovel inspired generations of heritage practitioners. Cultural sites in Canada and around the globe have benefited from his expertise and enthusiasm during the course of a distinguished career that included positions at the Ontario Heritage Trust, the Heritage Canada Foundation and ICCROM in Rome, as well as policy development for Parks Canada and advice to World Heritage sites.

Deeply engaged in shaping heritage conservation theory and practice, Herb Stovel played leadership roles in every major institution in the heritage field, including Secretary-General of ICOMOS International, President of the Association for Preservation Technology International, President of ICOMOS Canada, and Governor-at-Large on the Heritage Canada Foundation's board.

Herb was recently honored with the prestigious ICCROM Award in recognition of his importance in the development of seminal texts that guide professionals in the field.

In addition to his professional contribution, Herb will be sorely missed for his warm and generous spirit and his contagious passion for heritage.

Herb is survived by his wife, Meryl, his two children, Colin and Ginny as well as his three siblings, Grant, Margaret and Leslie.

In lieu of flowers, a scholarship is being created in his name.

The family will hold a reception at the offices of the Heritage Canada

Foundation (190 Bronson Ave) on Saturday 17 March from 2 to 4pm.

A memorial service will be scheduled at a later date.

Facebook Event Page: http://www.facebook.com/events/339925839392503/
Please direct any questions to Colin Stovel - Herb's son - cstovel@gmail.com

3. Willowbank ANNOUNCES MAJOR Campus Expansion
News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, 22 March 2012

Willowbank Executive Director Julian Smith announced today that Willowbank has committed to the purchase of the Laura Secord Elementary School property in the village of Queenston. “This is a major milestone for Willowbank” said Mr. Smith, “It marks a coming-of-age, a strong move towards long-term sustainability. It creates a true campus, allowing immediate expansion of our educational and outreach programs. At the same time, it generates new opportunities for the historic Willowbank estate. And it involves us more directly with the village of Queenston”.

The property is being sold to Willowbank by the District School Board of Niagara, with the Town of Niagara on the Lake acting as intermediary. The elementary school was closed in 2011. The purchase is made possible by $1 million in investment capital being made available to Willowbank by RBC Royal Bank. Mr. Smith thanked Willowbank Board Treasurer Frank Racioppo for his key role in arranging the financing and overseeing the negotiations with DSBN and the Town, and RBC Royal Bank’s Denise Mateyk for her genuine interest and support throughout the process. He also thanked the Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake's senior staff and Council for their active engagement in the process.

“This is a major initiative” said Frank Racioppo, “building on accomplishments over the last few years that have made Willowbank a significant national and international institution. As a builder who has an appreciation for quality design and craftsmanship, it is wonderful to be part of Willowbank’s efforts to cultivate these skills in a new generation.”

Willowbank will retain the heritage school and its surrounding landscape as a venue for classrooms and workshops, and as the home of its new Centre for Cultural Landscape. A permanent pubic park will be created in the central part of the property.

With the news of the purchase, Willowbank is delighted to announce “Honouring the Past, Embracing the Future: The Campaign for Willowbank”. This is a $1.5 million capital campaign for campus upgrades and estate restoration. Important to the campaign are immediate naming opportunities for the new school complex itself, various rooms within the school including the auditorium, and various rooms in the historic Willowbank estate that will be restored as part of the capital investment program.

A small group of private donors, including Board President Vikki Broer and local residents Jonathan and Elizabeth Kormos, and Rainer and Nancy Hummel, have already pledged an initial $250,000. "The success of the quiet phase of the capital campaign demonstrates the community's commitment to helping us grow as an institution, building our capability to offer unparalleled educational programming," says Willowbank Director of Development Shelley Huson.

RBC Royal Bank opened its doors in 1864 and has grown to become one of North America's leading diversified financial services companies providing banking, wealth management, insurance and capital markets services on a global basis. RBC believes in the power of communities and the individuals who live in them. The Willowbank investment reflects this belief.

Willowbank, established in 2002, is an independent and innovative educational institution in the cultural heritage field, operating within a dramatic historic setting. It is at the cutting edge of a global shift towards a more ecological and sustainable approach to heritage conservation. It is an approach that is dynamic rather than static, and that celebrates the creative continuity of all cultural traditions.

Willowbank has always been a magnet for the creative spirit, and the generosity of early supporters demonstrates the community's desire for a world class institution housed within a dramatic historic setting. As Willowbank enters the public phase of the campaign, it hopes that even more people in the community will support the creation of an increasingly dynamic institution, one that naturally draws people and students into Willowbank and encourages them to experience and engage with historic places in new ways.

To learn more about Willowbank and the Campaign for Willowbank visit willowbank.ca or call 905-262-1239.

Willowbank . 14487 Niagara Parkway . Box 212 . Queenston . ON. Canada . E: willowbank@willowbank.ca . T: 905-262-1239 W: Willowbank.ca

4. Downsview: Good and Bad News
Catherine Nasmith

There was some kind of encouraging news regarding the future of the former Canadian Forces Base Downsview Plant No.1, Downsview Park last week. In response to a letter from the North York Community Preservation Panel inquiring about the future of the building. While the property had heritage protection when it was owned by the federal department, the heritage designation was removed when it was transferred to the PDP.

The Canadian Air and Space Museum has been given notice to vacate and are fighting to stay on, but no good news to report on that. 

The letter outlined the significance of the building and the concern with the lack of information on its future:

"65 Carl Hall Road, formerly known as  has heritage value for architectural reasons, for its association with Canada’s air force and aircraft production, and as the site of the Canadian Air and Space Museum. During WWII, Canada trained 73,000 Canadian pilots at 231 locations across the country and tens of thousands of pilots from member nations of the British Empire, costing Canadians $1.6Bn. The use of the property by the Canadian Air and Space Museum is fitting as a memorial and sanctuary in recognition of Canadians’ investment in lives, money, and time associated with the former air base, and with the building of aircraft during WWII.

It is our understanding that 65 Carl Hall Road was to be demolished as part of a scheme for a private hockey arena. The Panel has recently been informed that this may have changed but the current status of plans for the site is unclear." 

Chair David Socknacki responded by email as follows:  

• The entire purpose of requiring vacant possession of 65 Carl Hall Road was to provide the opportunity for a proponent or investor to repurpose or restore as many of the heritage aspects of that building as possible. Even if basic repairs were done, it would still require millions, a sum well beyond the finances of the Park and the building's tenants, and still leave a building inaccessible for the handicapped and non-compliant to the building code. As a result, the Park sought a single proponent who would be able to undertake repurposing, and in return would be able to use the building.

• As we stated to every media outlet, the building is not to be demolished.
  
  
• We also point out that Downsview Park has been very active in preserving our heritage. We have repurposed the hangar into an athletic complex, and the engine plant into Park offices and a discovery centre. Even when no one else was interested in old terminal buildings on neighbouring property, we offered to swap land so that those buildings would not be demolished.
  
  
• Our efforts with respect to 65 Carl Hall Road are to preserve as much as possible, and to maintain the viability of that building over the long term.

Sort of says they hope to preserve, but maybe not if they can't find an investor. And the mayor has said he is staying out of it. Stay tuned.

5. Save Canada's Lighthouses
Heritage Canada Foundation

Heritage Canada Foundation is calling on Canadians to help save Canada's lighthouses. A simple action can have a lasting impact! Sign HCF's petition and show the Federal Government that our lighthouses are worth saving: http://www.savecanadaslighthouses.ca/

6. Heritage Canada Foundation Call for Nominations to Top Ten Endangered Places List
Heritage Canada Foundation

Ottawa, ON March 13, 2012  The Heritage Canada Foundation is accepting nominations to Canadas Top Ten Endangered Places List. The list is released annually to bring national attention to sites at risk due to neglect, lack of funding, inappropriate development and weak legislation. It has become a powerful tool in the fight to make landmarks, not landfill.

HCF uses three primary criteria to determine the 10 final sites for inclusion on the list:

"Significance of the site
"Urgency of the threat
"Community support for its preservation
If you know a site that should be included on our list, tell us about it today.

Click here for the 2012 Top Ten Endangered Places List Form.

Nominations should be received by Wednesday, May 18, 2012. The 2012 list will be announced in July.

Feel free to contact us if youre considering a nomination or have any questions.

By email: heritagecanada@heritagecanada.org or phone: (613) 237-1066.

The Heritage Canada Foundation is a national registered charity dedicated to the preservation of Canadas historic places. Your support is vital to our work. Please join or make a tax-deductible donation today.

Contact:

Carolyn Quinn

Director, Communications and Editor, Hritage Magazine

cquinn@heritagecanada.org

613-237-1066 ext. 229; cell 613-797-7206.
.

7. Standards and Guidelines Update
Parks Canada

As many of you probably know, a second edition of the Standards and Guidelines for the Conservation of Historic Places in Canada is now available on the Web under www.historicplaces.ca. We invite you to consult or download the document. Instructions are available under Standards and Guidelines/Document in the event you would like to print your own paper copy.

If you cannot download the document due to a slow internet connection in your area, we will be happy to send you a bilingual CD copy of the document. Just write to us at this e-mail address. Happy reading!

8. Toronto Star: Toronto Island Airport, former terminal building

Old island airport terminal moved to make way for tunnel construction

Workers had to move aside a 73-year-old building to begin work on the future of Toronto’s Billy Bishop airport.

The historic airport terminal building was in the way of construction on the new pedestrian tunnel that will connect the airport with mainland Toronto.

The tunnel will run under Lake Ontario, allowing travellers to walk from the foot of Bathurst St. to the airport.

“Right now we’re just moving it to the other side of the island to make room for some of the construction related to the tunnel,” said Suzanna Birchwood, spokeswoman for the Toronto Port Authority.

The blue and white terminal was built in 1938-39 to serve airport passengers. After a similar terminal was demolished at Pearson airport in the 1960s, this is believed to be the last surviving building of its kind in Toronto.

The building’s fate has been up in the air since July 2011, when it was formally decommissioned. The port authority has been trying to find a suitor for the historic property.

Click here for Link

9. Toronto Star: Sustainability of High Rise Construction
Chris Hume

Are Toronto condo towers slums in the making?

Are today's condominiums tomorrow's slums?

What does a 75-storey flophouse look like? According to some, we won’t have to wait long to find out.

As residential towers in Toronto grow ever taller, and living units ever smaller, the prospect of a new sort of slum tower looms ever larger.

There’s nothing new about highrise poverty, here or in almost any other city. Since the end of World War II, the idea of housing the poor in towers has been popular with planners, politicians and developers alike — everyone but the poor themselves.

Torontonians may not like to talk about it, but there are more highrise residential buildings here than any other city in North America except New York. Those constructed in the inner suburbs between the 1950s and the ’70s have largely failed to keep up with the times. They are the remnants of a dysfunctional form of urbanism based on flawed notions about how people inhabit space and interact with their surroundings.

Click here for Link

10. Toronto Star: Review Battle of York Exhibit
Raju Mudhar

Battle of York soldiers remembered in War of 1812 exhibit

In our peace-loving society, there are many people who don’t know that Toronto was once the site of war, and one that changed everything about this city’s history.

The Battle of York is a seminal event in the history of this city, as well as this nation, but many Torontonians do not know very much about it. The city of Toronto is hoping that will change with a number of events observing the bicentennial anniversary of the War of 1812.

“Finding the Fallen: Battle of York Remembered” at the St. Lawrence Market Gallery opened March 3, and in addition to maps, artifacts and written excerpts of soldiers’ letters and reports from the battle, the centrepiece of the exhibit is a book of remembrance filled with the names of the battle’s fallen combatants, including casualties from the American, British, First Nations and Canadian sides.

On April 27, 1813. Toronto (then known as the Town of York) was captured and burned by invading American forces.

Click here for Link

11. This Strange Eventful History: Book Review The Natural City
David Wencer

The Natural City: Re-Envisioning the Built Environment
Edited by Ingrid Leman Stefanovic and Stephen Bede Scharper
University of Toronto Press, 2012

The Natural City explores, with particular attention to Toronto and its environs, the relationship between urban and so-called “natural” environments. Structurally, it is a collection of eighteen essays, written by contributors whose areas of expertise include urban planning, environmental studies, philosophy, engineering, and theology. Each essay uses a different perspective to explore an aspect of “nature” in cities.

Click here for Link

12. Raise The Hammer: All Saints Church Demolition
Gerard Middleton

In memory of All Saints

All Saints Church may not be with us (in its present form) much longer. This article offers some documentation of its state in 2012.

This article provides photographs of All Saints Church, and of two other churches with similar masonry: Carisma (Church of St Thomas) and the Hughson Street Baptist Church. All three buildings were among the earliest constructed in Hamilton, using Eramosa dolomite rather than Whirlpool sandstone.

All Saints Church may not be with us (in its present form) much longer. In view of the diminished congregation (some 60-70 attended each Sunday) and the need for expensive renovations, the decision to demolish the church seems inevitable.

The parishioners are making serious efforts to preserve some aspects of its heritage. This article offers some documentation, however inadequate, of its state in 2012.

...

Click here for Link

13. Niagara at Large: ACO gains Niagara Branch
Doug Draper

Niagara Heritage Group Joins Forces With Ontario-Wide Conservancy

A Niagara, Ontario citizens group dedicated to protecting and preserving our region’s heritage resources is hoping to strengthen its hand by joining forces with the 79-year-old Architectural Conservancy of Ontario.

Niagara Heritage Alliance President Val O'Donnell
The two-year-old citizens group, called the Niagara Heritage Alliance and made up of volunteer individuals and groups across the region, feels that signing on as a branch of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario (ACO) will benefit is efforts in a number of ways, says its president Val O’Donnell.

Click here for Link

14. New York Times: Havana Architecture

Havanas New York Accent

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Cuban capital was spectacularly rich, Newport-rich, with a large cadre of highly trained local designers. In 1902 The Real Estate Record and Guide gave some idea of the sophisticated level of regulation; cornices, balconies, ornament and even colors required approval, and the architect had to present an elevation drawing of the entire block, to make sure the house was aesthetically agreeable.

One of the earliest buildings by a New York architect was Bertram Goodhue’s Episcopal cathedral, designed in 1905 and architecturally optimistic on a very Roman Catholic island. Goodhue, a recognized master of ecclesiastical architecture, was firmly a Gothicist, but for Havana developed a Churrigueresque design, a flowery version of the Spanish colonial. Where it stood is unclear, but it is gone now.

Editor's Note:
Pretty patronizing article from Americans, but interesting nonetheless

Click here for Link

15. History of Lakefield website

Had a nice note from Gord Young, the editor offering himself as a public speaker on topics of interest in Lakefield,

" Am willing to do most of southern Ontario for gasoline costs and say a motel night.....nothing more. Will talk on the Peterborough and Kirkfield lift locks....and show folks the descendents of some of the men who built these lift locks. One came from Vermont, and, one from Iowa. Can talk about the Quaker Oats explosion and fire, and the consequences. Can talk about the development of the streetcar in Canada by Edison Electric-Edison-GE here in Peterborough. Or, other non-built heritag topics, such as how the circus caused WW-1 and, WW-2. 25-years in the heritage-history industry"

That looks like a good offer to me! You can contact him at the number below or at "Gord Young, Editor, Lakefield Heritage Research" lkfd_her@cogeco.ca

Gord Young
Editor
Lakefield Heritage Research
705 - 745 - 8572

Click here for Link

16. Globe and Mail: Historic Properties for Sale in Montreal
Marlene Bergsma

The Locavore's Dream Home

The 100-mile diet showed how difficult, yet rewarding, it can be to eat locally produced food. Now the Architecture Foundation of B.C. is trying to do the same thing – and start a movement toward local sourcing for home building – through a design contest that is sparking interest around the world.

Where do you get ultra-local building materials?
The goal? To “explore, rethink, question and experiment” with home-construction ideas, and find new ways to build houses from manufactured or recycled material from within 100 miles of Vancouver.

Editor's Note:
Interesting just how much of this is like traditional construction.

Click here for Link

17. Globe and Mail: 100 Mile House
Mark Hume

The Locavore's Dream Home

The 100-mile diet showed how difficult, yet rewarding, it can be to eat locally produced food. Now the Architecture Foundation of B.C. is trying to do the same thing – and start a movement toward local sourcing for home building – through a design contest that is sparking interest around the world.

Where do you get ultra-local building materials?
The goal? To “explore, rethink, question and experiment” with home-construction ideas, and find new ways to build houses from manufactured or recycled material from within 100 miles of Vancouver.

In a way it’s a return to an old idea, because in the past all homes were locally sourced. Log cabins and sod house were built by pioneers with materials found nearby. And natives lived in homes built from wood, bark, animals skins and, in the Arctic, snow.

Editor's Note:
New idea looks a lot like the old idea....

Click here for Link

18. You Tube, Karachi's Vanishing Heritage
sent by Andrew Faiz

My Vanishing Karachi

Apparently in Karachi, Sindh there are about 48 old heritage buildings, and some of them are almost 200 years old buildings. But sadly most of them has been treated very badly by the corrupt and uneducated people from Sindh heritage department.

This is another small trailer of My Vanishing Karachi by Amar Jaleel.
In this trailer Amar Jaleel is pointing out about these buildings.

Click here for Link

19. A.G. Kirkwood Architect
Cherri Hurst

I am trying to do some research on the former Federal Post Office in Weston. It is now empty and since the “for sale” sign is down I believe it has probably been sold too.

It was built in 1963 and designed by architect A. G. Kirkwood who worked for the Federal Government at the time. I have been to the Federal Archives site, emailed the Federal Post Office specifically and asked the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario for any information on him, to no avail. Have you ever heard of him and would you mind telling me about it if you have.

Cherri Hurst
Weston Historical Society and Conservation District

Gary & Cherri Hurst bobbackland@ica.net

20. Does Anybody Know The History of this fragment outside of the Ogden Street School in Toronto
Catherine Nasmith

This photo was sent to me recently. Does anyone know where this fragment came from? If you know the answer, or can suggest someone who might, email cnasmith@builtheritagenews.ca