1. Expressions of Interest for the Leasing and redevelopment of a historic mill in Unionville
Regan Hutcheson

The Town of Markham is issuing a request for Expressions of Interest for the Leasing and redevelopment of a historic mill in Unionville. We are looking to find someone willing to lease the property (long term) and restore it. For more information contact:

Mr. Regan Hutcheson
Manager, Heritage Planning
Heritage Districts Development Co-ordinator
Development Services Commission
101 Town Centre Boulevard
Markham, Ontario L3R 9W3

905-477-7000, ext. 2080
Fax- 905-475-4739
email: rhutcheson@markham.ca

2. St. Thomas Mayor Blames Province for loss of Alma College
St. Thomas Mayor Cliff Barwick, Catherine Nasmith

In a letter to Bob Foster, a constituent, Mayor Cliff Barwick blames lack of support from the province for the loss of Alma College.

While the blame game is an old one between various levels of government in Canada, Mayor Barwick's letter has the ring of truth. For most smaller municipalities, and even for big ones, the financial challenges in saving buildings like Alma College are daunting. St. Thomas fought with what it had for a very long time, but the real blame for the loss of Alma College goes to 30 years of failed heritage policy in Ontario and in Canada.

The McGuinty government is the first to improve the situation, but will they step up to the plate and start putting the kinds of resources in place to fulfill the potential of their Heritage Act. Without money, we will continue to lose buildings, it is very simple.

It is not too late for the McGuinty government to save Alma, but they will have to act right away.

For the correspondence see below, shared with permission of Mr. Foster.

REGARDING ALMA COLLEGE

Dear Mr.Mayor,
I find it truly unbelievable that our city council & you have done very little to try and save this historical site from being neglected all these years.I've been reading information on your city website and find it conflicting that you seem to be quite proud of your heritage,yet have let this beautiful landmark crumble before your very eyes.You should all be very ashamed for allowing this site to fall apart.I know being Mayor you have probably become quite distant from what the citizens think,and many decision are made behind close doors,but this decision to allow Alma College to be destroyed is not only shameful,but very embarassing to all the citizen's of St.Thomas.Trying to satisfy the citizen's of this great city by sayng you will save the main tower,is a slap in the face.You have thousands of people who have signed a petition asking that the building be saved,and your final decision is to save the tower only.Im sure the road to becoming mayor was a long one,and the people voted you in because we had complete faith that you would look out for everyone's best interest.We have slowly come to realize that this might not be the fact.We asked you to help save Alma College,and we get pushed to the sidelines without being heard.I checked the box beside your name because I believed you would protect this city,and now you have let a part of this great city slowly disappear.Future generations have lost out on the chance to walk the halls of this grand old building..If Alma College falls,The Mayor & City Council of 2008 are to blame...

Robert.F Foster

RESPONSE

Dear Mr. Foster,

Thank you for your recent e-mail regarding Alma College. The City with regard to preservation cannot act alone, we do not have the funds available to us. An estimated cost of $750,000 to $1 million has been given just to secure the building. To make use of the building for any purpose I think the cost would be in excess of $20 million. In all my correspondance with the province and private individual, including the Zubicks no one has offered any money. I am disappointed that the province has also neglected their responsibility and the decision of the OMB is not a city decision they could have in their decision demanded the building be preserved but they did not. I have a responsibility not only for heritage but also to the rate payers for their tax bills and quite frankly our debt is in excess of $26 million with a new police station on the horizon. We can not commit the rate payer to any more large capital expenditures.

I really believe the answer to protecting heritage in Ontario is in a provincial trust similar to the national trust in England. Until this is recognized by the senior levels of government, municipalities can not afford to be the sole financial supporter to maintain heritage.

This in an unfortunate situation but believe me I am as disappointed as you are but I have to face a naked financial reality. If you have any further questions please contact me and once again thank you for your interest.

Sincerely,

Mayor Cliff Barwick

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3. Heritage Canada Foundation Congratulates Former Board Members Appointed to HSMBC
Heritage Canada Foundation

Ottawa, ON – March 4, 2008 – The Heritage Canada Foundation (HCF) congratulates Dr. Harold D. Kalman of Vancouver and Ms. Loree Stewart of Marsh Lake, Yukon—two former members of HCF’s board of governors—who were among five individuals recently appointed to the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada to advise the Minister of the Environment on the designation of places, people and events of national historic significance.

Harold Kalman is a principal at Commonwealth Historic Resource Management Ltd. His extensive knowledge and experience in the conservation and development of historic sites and structures throughout Canada and abroad proved an asset to the Heritage Canada Foundation’s board of governors. He served as representative from British Columbia from 2001 to 2004.

The executive director of the Yukon Heritage Resources Board, Loree Stewart has over 20 years experience in heritage planning, historic site development and advising on historical matters in the Yukon. Ms. Stewart was an active member of the Heritage Canada Foundation board of governors from 1999 to 2005 where she sat on several committees and served as vice-chair from 2002 to 2004.

The HSMBC will also be well-served by three other distinguished appointments. They include Ms. Ingrid Diana Kritsh of Yellowknife, Dr. Jean-Claude Marsan of Montréal and Dr. David A. Sutherland of Halifax.

The Heritage Canada Foundation is a national, membership-based, non-profit organization with a mandate to promote the preservation of Canada’s historic buildings and places.

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For further information:
Carolyn Quinn, Director of Communications, cquinn@heritagecanada.org
Telephone: 613-237-1066 ext. 229; Cell: 613-797-7206
Heather Hunter, Communications Officer, hhunter@heritagecanada.org
Telephone: 613-237-1066 ext. 238; Cell: 613-797-7205

4. Christina Cameron receives a Public Service Achievement Award
Heritage Canada

Ottawa, ON – March 7, 2008 – The Heritage Canada Foundation (HCF) congratulates Dr. Christina Cameron on receiving the Outstanding Achievement Award of the Public Service of Canada from Prime Minister Stephen Harper for her exceptional 35-year career with Parks Canada.

In her various roles as the director general of the National Historic Sites program, and secretary to the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Christina Cameron has been instrumental in creating public policies and programs to support the protection of Canada’s historic built environment. She was a central player in the Historic Places Initiative, a unique federal/provincial/territorial collaboration designed to create a culture of conservation across Canada. In her most recent appointment as chair of UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee—which is responsible for implementing an international agreement that aims to protect places that are considered to be of outstanding universal valueshe has advanced Canada’s reputation as a world leader in the protection of natural and cultural heritage.

“National recognition is well warranted for the role Dr. Cameron has played in building Canada’s system of heritage programs, institutions, tools and measures,” remarked executive director Natalie Bull, speaking from HCF headquarters in Ottawa. Dr. Cameron served on the board of directors of the Heritage Canada Foundation from 1991 to 1995.

5. New Landscape Architecture Magazine Launched
Catherine Nasmith

Lorraine Johnson, whom any gardener will know as the author of several books on working with native plants, is launching a new magazine on Landscape Architecture called Ground:The Landscape Architect Quarterly,  a publication of the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects.

The launch took place on Monday at the Gladstone Hotel.

Congrats to all, and if you want to subscribe email: magazine@oala.ca

6. Heritage Lighthouse Bill a Step Closer to Becoming Law
Heritage Canada

Ottawa, ON – March 17, 2008 – The Heritage Canada Foundation is pleased to announce that Bill S-215, An Act to protect heritage lighthouses, passed second reading in the House of Commons on March 11th and was referred to the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans. Bill S-215 could potentially protect hundreds of lighthouses on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, as well as on the Great Lakes and inland waterways.

Introduced as a private members bill in the Senate in October 2007 by Senator Pat Carney, the bill was sponsored by MP Larry Miller (Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound) in the House of Commons. HCF has been actively working towards the success of a bill to protect Canada’s heritage lighthouses for a number of years. Over the last several years we have been working closely with Barry MacDonald of the Nova Scotia Lighthouse Preservation Society to see this bill come to fruition.

The bill will be debated at the Fisheries and Oceans committee in early April. HCF urges all its members to contact the Chair and Vice-Chairs of the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans (FOPO) and MP Larry Miller to express their support for this bill.

MP Fabian Manning (Chair, FOPO) Manning.F@parl.gc.ca <mailto:Manning.F@parl.gc.ca>
Raynald Blais (Vice-Chair, FOPO) Blais.R@parl.gc.ca <mailto:Blais.R@parl.gc.ca>
Bill Matthews (Vice-Chair, FOPO) Matthews.B@parl.gc.ca <mailto:Matthews.B@parl.gc.ca>
MP Larry Miller (Sponsor of Bill S-215) Miller.L@parl.gc.ca <mailto:Miller.L@parl.gc.ca>

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7. Muskoka Lakes Council votes to De-List Marygrove
Catherine Nasmith

Marygrove, designed in the late 1930's by Horwood and White, is now officially off the Muskoka Lakes Heritage Inventory. At the same time Council removed other lost properties from the Inventory.

In the previously rejected designation report , Marygrove is described as being "a rare example in this district of the work of Horwood & White, a highly respected Canadian architectural firm. The building is a unique example of the Streamline Moderne style, highly unusual for Muskoka, and it reflects the New York influence on the architectural firm’s work. The low-slung lines, horizontally streamlined fenestration, and flattened geometric ornament are all characteristic of this style which was more widely used in large urban centres during the 1930s." 

More information is posted on the ACO's Building at Risk listings.

http://www.arconserv.ca/buildings_at_risk/show.cfm?r_id=2

Council's refusal in 2006 to designate this property resulted in a mass resignation of the Muskoka Lakes Municipal Heritage Committee.

The building sits on 126 acres of prime Muskoka waterfront property, currently zoned for a children's camp. The best hope for its survival is for a buyer to step forward who is interested in its preservation.

The Chief Building Official issued a demolition permit prior to Christmas, but did not get the required written 60 day notice from the owner. When she learned of the issuance of the demolition permit, ACO Muskoka Branch President and architectural historian, Liz Lundell contacted the Mayor to express concern. She requested that Council revisit the Designation Report, and at a minimum ensure enforcement of the 60 day notice requirement to give time for sober second thought. 

Even after heavy lobbying of the Council members the Branch was unable to find a seconder for a new motion to designate, even though Councillor Ian Wallace and the Mayor indicated interest in saving the building, and Councillor Wallace said he would move a motion to designate. 

After going into an in-camera meeting to get legal advice, Muskoka Lakes Council unanimously decided instead of recognizing the building through designation, to take the property off the Inventory.

In this case, the evidence of the building's importance would have stood up to any challenge, the architects were one of the most important ever to practice in Ontario, the building is in good condition, and the interior well preserved. But no amount of expert evidence could convince this Council of its heritage value.

The heritage community has done an excellent job of persuading the public of the value of nineteenth century work. Saving 20th century work is much harder.

8. New York Times: Reusing Utility Buildings
C. J. HUGHES, forwarded by Stephen Otto

Homey New Uses for Old Utilities

AS long as lights go on when switches are flipped, and water runs when faucets are turned, most people don’t think much about where these essentials come from. But what if you lived, shopped or sipped drinks inside a former power or water plant?

Developers have recently taken an interest in reusing these large-scale industrial relics, even if converting them may require cleaning soil, adding floors and removing smokestacks.

Originally, said Seth Handy, a director with Streuver Brothers, Eccles & Rouse, the impressive architectural scale of such buildings was intended to persuade skeptical customers that newfangled electricity could be trusted. Mr. Handy’s company is converting an old electrical plant in Providence, R.I., into Dynamo House at Providence Point.

When completed by 2010, this $150 million project will have 340,000 square feet across seven floors and include a Smithsonian-affiliated museum, a 168-room hotel and a conference facility, Mr. Handy said. And the building, decommissioned in the 1980s, will retain six 120-foot chimneys, which will be lighted from within, he said.

Along with the relocation of nearby Interstate 195, the project should also prompt housing development on a one-acre parking lot next door as well as in the nearby Jewelry District, he said.

Click here for Link

9. Globe and Mail: Conserving Cabbagetown Main Street
TENILLE BONOGUORE

CRUNCH TIME FOR CABBAGETOWN IN THE REACH FOR RICHES... ...SHOULD THEY KEEP IT REAL?

As the BIA pushes for gentrification on the main drag and Regent Park is transformed, some residents believe this is the critical moment to strike for an inclusive future. Tenille Bonoguore reports. Photography by Tibor Kolley

Danny Marks is perched on a stool in the Cabbagetown Deli, digging into a tub of freshly cut watermelon and analyzing the gaits of the pedestrians outside. A tall man lopes past a shuffling older gent. A pinch-faced bottle-blond woman scuttles through the snow. "Crack user," the musician says, the unprompted aside dropping into his freewheeling conversation.

Mr. Marks, late 50s in body but rocking 20s in spirit, is a long-time local. His father ran the Markowitz Deli in what is now the Pear Tree Restaurant. Mr. Marks moved back to the neighbourhood in 1974, and has uprooted himself only once, to go from the east side of Parliament Street to the west. His boundless enthusiasm for the neighbourhood comes forth in boisterous

hellos, spontaneous hugs and a bouncing swagger.

This is his realm, and he's worried about it.

Click here for Link

10. Toronto Star: Liberty Village Misses the Planning Mark
Christopher Hume

Liberty Village highlights poor planning

It is the best of neighbourhoods; it is the worst of neighbourhoods. Despite its successes, Liberty Village illustrates everything that's wrong with planning in Toronto.

The former industrial district, which then became a favoured area for artist studios, is now being gentrified at a fast and furious rate. Although some of the individual projects are excellent, the city has failed to ensure that they add up to a genuine neighbourhood.

Wandering the streets of Liberty Village, one is saddened to encounter one huge parking lot after another; they suck the life out of the precinct and give that hardscrabble look you might expect in an industrial park.

Click here for Link

11. St. Thomas Times-Journal: Alma order quizzed
Kyle Rea

Who will pay to keep the clock tower at Alma College, let alone carefully document the historic Moore Street landmark? Those are question St. Thomas city council wants clarified by the Ontario Municipal Board in its response to the board's order issued on Jan. 15, 2008 concerning the historic school for girls. In a 6-2 vote on Monday -- with Ald. Heather Jackson-Chapman and Ald. Lori Baldwin-Sands voting against -- aldermen directed Barry Card, the city's solicitor, to respond to the OMB and Alma Heritage Estates, who own Alma College.

Click here for Link

12. St. Catharine's Standard: Port Dalhousie OMB Hearing
Marlene Bergsma

Hearing resumes with smart growth

Mark Brickell may be an expert in smart growth principles but he doesn't know much about planning, he admitted Monday.

Under cross-examination by St. Catharines city solicitor Annette Poulin and PROUD lawyer Jane Pepino, Brickell, who is vice-president of smart growth and partnerships for Niagara Economic Development Corp., repeatedly said the planning and urban design merits of the proposed 17-storey condo tower and commercial development in Port Dalhousie would be better argued by others.

But on Day 11 of the 15-week Ontario Municipal Board hearing being held to decide the fate of the Port Place proposal, Brickell reiterated what he saw as the economic benefits of the development, saying it's a good example of smart growth.

Part of Poulin's cross-examination focused on whether taxpayers should subsidize smart growth redevelopment such as the Port Dalhousie Vitalization Corp. proposal. Brickell said taxpayer support is meant to make such projects "as worthwhile as greenfield development."

Poulin also asked Brickell if smart growth principles "trump" planning or heritage principles, and Brickell said they don't.

Click here for Link

13. Saving the Dunlap Observatory
forwarded by Penina Coopersmith

For updates on the campaign to save the Dunlap Observatory go to the site below. The campaign is being spearheaded by the

Click here for Link

14. Windsor Star: Martin house rehab urged
CRAIG PEARSON

Hope has blossomed again for one of Windsor's most historically significant homes, the Low- Martin House, once the retreat of a former prime minister but now in disrepair. At a Windsor Heritage Committee meeting on Wednesday, officials proposed contributing $ 100,000 for repairs " what would be Windsor's biggest ever contribution for a private dwelling in the city" pending the successful purchase of it by a potential buyer who wants it to shine once more. But it's far from a done deal, the agent who represents the potential buyer said Thursday. "The repairs - and that's not talking about renovations- are estimated at $500,000," real estate agent Rob Gruich said. "Our biggest concern is the Pandora's Box that could be opened in terms of repairs."

Click here for Link

15. Peterborough Examiner: Eb Zeidler's Post Office Converted to Apartments

Peterborough post office was well-travelled

During the lifetime of Peterborough, the post office has moved several times. It has migrated from its most northerly location, at the northeast corner of Brock and George streets, to its current location several blocks south.

The post office first opened in the Morrow Building in 1878, and operated where currently a European-style cafe is located. It existed in this spot for 10 years before moving into a wonderfully ornate building at the northwest corner of Hunter and Water streets. This building had a clock tower that rose about four stories high and triangular gables that faced Hunter and Water Streets (photo at right). The place looked more like a church than a post office. An impressive piece of downtown architecture, this building stood on the corner until 1955. In a move that now seems regrettable, the building was demolished and replaced with a much blander structure when a new post office opened on Charlotte Street.

Click here for Link

16. Brantford Expositor: BCI's new look; Trustees back $23.9M project
Cheryl Bauslaugh

Brantford Collegiate Institute will be reborn on Brant Avenue. After years of trying to decide what to do about the 97-year-old high school, public school board trustees voted unanimously to rebuild and renovate the historic building. It was music to the ears of BCI supporters, who greeted Monday's decision with enthusiastic applause. "This is a good compromise solution," said Aliki Mikulich, a member of the BCI school council. "The school is going to look like BCI and it's going to be on Brant Avenue." The design has been downsized from a plan presented last March, which would have cost more than $30 million. But the premise is still the same: much of the school will be demolished and replaced, and the gymnasium and tech wings will be renovated. The school's historic 1910 facade will be maintained and an atrium will connect the old and new parts of the building.

Click here for Link

17. Exchange Morning Post: Success story of Kaufman Lofts Continues

Originally called the Kaufman Rubber Plant the building was designed by Albert Kahn, famed architect of Henry Ford and "foremost industrial architect" of the early 20th century.

Since June 2007, twenty-one units have resold from Phase 1, and the prices they are garnering are impressive. Waterloo Region - The success story of the Kaufman loft development by Andrin Homes in Kitchener's downtown is a well known one in this community. When the factory conversion project first hit the market back in the spring of 2005, loft units sold out in a matter of months and the developer was honoured with the 2005 Best Small Scale Project Brownie Award in the Heritage/Adaptive Reuse category from the Canadian Urban Institute. But the developer of this real estate achievement isn't the only one smiling. Original buyers of these units, whether they acquired them as investments, or to reside in them, should be feeling very good about their purchase.

Click here for Link

18. Vote for your Favorite New Building

OAA People's Choice Awards

The OAA is holding a People's Choice Award. Vote for your favourite at the address below.

Click here for Link

19. Hamilton Spectator: Province flexible on how city uses Lister Block grant
Eric McGuinness

The Ontario government says the $7 million it is offering to save the Lister Block can be used by the city either to buy or lease the downtown landmark. The province is also extending its deadline, telling Hamilton and the Laborers' International Union of North America they have until June 30 to reach a deal.

Click here for Link

20. Hamilton Spectator: Province 'bending backwards' for Lister
Andrew Dreschel

Confusion. Uncertainty. Lack of communication. Just another day on the Lister Block file. Here's the latest bend in the twisty tale. As expected, the Ontario government has now given Hamilton council permission to use the $7-million provincial grant to offset the cost of buying the Lister rather than just leasing it. The catch is, councillors only have until June 30 to finalize a deal with the developers. Or do they?

Click here for Link

21. National Post: Shades of Pompeii in Steeltown - Stone temples hold promise amid inaction
Peter Kuitenbrouwer

The GO express bus pulls into Hamilton and cruises down Main Street, the driver calling out "City Hall!" as he passes architect Stan Roscoe's 1960 International Style edifice. The only problem is, City Hall is vacant, desolate, with snow unshovelled around it, and a wire construction fence blocking it. "We've moved!" reads a sign. "City Hall services will be temporarily relocated to the Hamilton City Centre (formerly Eaton's Centre) at 77 James Street North. Please monitor local news reports." Hamilton's City Hall suffers from the same woe that afflicts First Canadian Place in Toronto: porous marble cladding falling off its sides. But in Hamilton, the empty city hall (with no approved plan to restore it) serves as an emblem for a city centre so decrepit and bereft it is hard to see how it could fall any further.

Click here for Link

22. Canwest News Service: History buffs fight back as DND lays siege to Halifax fort
Charles Mandel

The Department of National Defence has a different kind of fight on its hands - it's over plans to demolish a dilapidated building that some insist has historic significance.

Click here for Link

23. Globe and Mail: Few Sites survive from the Founding of Canadian Democracy
John Ralston Saul

Canada, 160 years later

Inheriting one of the oldest democracies is a responsibility

Today is the 160th anniversary of Canadian democracy. This makes Canada the oldest continuous democratic federation in the world.

We are neither a new nor a young country, as our ahistorical political leaders keep telling us (or rather as their speechwriters keep telling them). Canadians are among the most experienced voters in the world. We know as much as anyone about how to use our vote to get some approximation of what we want. Or at least of avoiding what we don't want. What we are best at is voting to avoid the sort of impossible crises - civil wars, cessions, coups d'état, megalomaniac emperors or dictators - common in the democratic history of our allies.

After all, Britain has only just finished a low-grade civil war centred on Ireland. Spain is in the middle of one. The United States is still dealing with the outcomes of slavery, cession and a civil war. And France over the past 70 years has had a coup, a dictatorship, a new republic, a civil war, the collapse of a second republic, and an attempted coup. And then there are the experiences of Italy, Germany and Japan.

What happened on March 11, 1848? Actually, it happened first on Feb. 2, in Halifax, when Joseph Howe and James Uniacke were asked to form a government. Five weeks later, in Montreal, the Governor-General, Lord Elgin, asked Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine to form a Canadian government with his ally, Robert Baldwin.

At school, we were taught that this arrival of "responsible government" was a technical event. But 1848 was much more than that. Democracy comes in two great parts - choosing and governing. First thousands, indeed millions, of people must decide how to use their votes to produce some sort of statement of causes and representatives. Then the representatives must pick leaders who can deal with the people's myriad of causes and govern effectively.

Editor's Note:
A very interesting read, one paragraph pointing to our failure to preserve the important sites of our democracy. Are these failures due to Canadian modesty? John Ralston Saul points to how much pride we should take in Canada's achievements.

Click here for Link

24. Winnipeg Free Press: Trend gives new leases to old spaces - Grain Exchange building virtually full
Murray McNeill

The vacancy rate in the century-old Grain Exchange Building has plummeted to its lowest level in more than two decades as demand for space in older downtown office buildings shows signs of perking up. Doug McGregor, vice-president of leasing for Artis Real Estate Investment Trust, which owns the 250,000-square-foot heritage building at 167 Lombard Ave, said Public Works and Government Services Canada has signed a deal to lease the entire third floor, a total of 25,363 square feet. That leaves only about 7,500 square feet of empty space in the 11-storey structure, McGregor said, and reduces the building's vacancy rate to a mere 2.8 per cent.

Click here for Link

25. CBC Winnipeg: Historic Osborne Village church won't be demolished

The owner of the First Church of Christ, Scientist in the Osborne Village area of Winnipeg has withdrawn his request to demolish the building. The owner of the 92-year-old church at 511 River Avenue had applied for a demolition permit for the building, prompting an evaluation by the city's historic buildings committee. The committee recommended that the building be listed as a Grade II heritage building, which would have meant it could not be demolished.

Click here for Link

26. Globe and Mail: Fort Garry Situation Down to the Wire
Joe Friesen

Battle raging over site of Riel's uprising

4Civic groups are fighting to preserve the remains of the old fort while the city is set to sell the surrounding land

WINNIPEG — It's the site of a pivotal moment in Canadian history, where Louis Riel's provisional government launched the Red River Resistance of 1869 and where Riel ordered the execution of Thomas Scott the next year.

But today all that remains of Upper Fort Garry is a lonely, forgotten stone gate that sits between a gas station, a dilapidated curling club and an old civic building. It was largely ignored by the people of Winnipeg for the past 100 years, until the city decided to sell the adjacent land and a developer proposed building a 14-storey apartment within metres of the historic site.

Now a huge public battle has erupted over the future of the former fur-trade hub. The group that wants to preserve and enhance it as a historic site was given four months to raise $10-million. If it fails to do so by March 31, construction crews will break ground.

"This is literally the birthplace of this province, and we have said all along this is our chance to reclaim our birthplace and do something significant with it," Jerry Gray, chair of the Friends of Upper Fort Garry, said.

He also has the support of David Chartrand, president of the Manitoba Métis Federation, who wants the site preserved for future generations.

"Riel is the father of Manitoba, the leader of the Métis people. That connection for us is so strong," Mr. Chartrand said. "I would find it quite troublesome that you could take away the opportunity to tell a story for generations to come of your ancestors just to slap up a couple of apartments."

Click here for Link

27. Victoria Times-Colonist: Historic buildings worth protecting

The threat to the two historic buildings downtown should jolt Victoria council out of its long inaction on derelict buildings. The current fight over the future of the Janion Hotel building and Christopher Morley's soda water factory could well have been avoided if the city had made a more effective effort to encourage the buildings' reclamation.

Editor's Note:
The story of loss due to demolition by neglect goes on all across Canada, both a cultural and environmental disaster.

Click here for Link

28. Victoria Times Colonist: City ponders fate of threatened historic buildings
Carolyn Heiman

The owners of two prominent historic buildings want to develop the properties, their lawyer said yesterday, adding fuel to growing concern by Victoria politicians, business representatives and heritage advocates that the downtown icons are under real threat. "My clients would really like to do things with [the Janion building and Morley's Soda Factory sites]," David Houston said. ";We want to do something that will complement the neighbourhood and revitalize it ... hopefully using some reclaimed materials." Houston wasn't specific about what kind of development plans the owners have in mind, saying it would depend on how the city responds to their application to demolish the Janion, built in 1891, and the Morley, built in 1884. Both buildings have been empty for decades.

Click here for Link

29. Victoria Times Colonist: Owner's plan to demolish buildings takes heritage advocates by surprise - Council dusts off rarely used powers to keep wreckers away for 60 days
Carolyn Heiman

They were symbols of Victoria's economic boom just before the turn of 20th century, but two notable downtown buildings -- the Janion and Morley's Soda Factory -- might not survive current prosperity. Heritage advocates, city politicians, businesspeople and residents reacted with dismay this week to learn that the owner of the historic properties has applied to demolish them. "The Janion building could be an exquisite piece of heritage redevelopment," said architect Frank d'Ambrosio. He said almost every architect who comes to the city has fantasies of what could be done to the building, prominently located at the edge of the Johnson Street Bridge.

Click here for Link

30. Victoria Times Colonist: Hidden charms of Morley's Soda Factory include Klondike-era courtyard at back -0 Owner's spokesman says city tax breaks aren't enough
Carolyn Heiman

The Morley's Soda Factory building would not turn most heads when people walk by. Two-storey-high red brick and windowless walls block any sense of what's behind -- although one Victoria resident says he recently spied a newish car parked behind the only door on Waddington Alley, a street paved with wood blocks. To heritage champions, the building is one of the last remnants of the industrial fabric that lined that part of Victoria before 1900.

Click here for Link

31. Victoria Times Colonist: Publisher eyed Janion building for his business - Many people have approached owner about properties, without success
Carolyn Heiman

Shane Kennedy wants to move part of his Edmonton-based publishing business to Victoria, and is looking for a downtown heritage building for it. Within the last year he wrote to the owner of the Janion building, asking if there was any interest in selling the building, but he's heard nothing back. The building is owned by Oak Bay resident Clara Beatrice Kramer under the umbrella of her holding company, Sky Blue Properties. Kennedy is among a long list of people who have courted Kramer with interest in buying the Janion or Morley's Soda Factory, both properties she owns that have sat empty in Victoria's downtown for decades.

Click here for Link

32. Canadian Consulting Engineer: Adjeleian Allen Rubeli receive prestigious U.K. award

Adjeleian Allen Rubeli received the Heritage Award for Buildings from IStructE, the Institution of Structural Engineers in the United Kingdom. The Ottawa firm of structural engineers won the prestigious award for their work on the refurbishment of Canada's Library of Parliament in Ottawa. They received the award at a dinner and ceremony on 14 November in Lawrence Hall in London

Click here for Link

33. Rocky Mountain Outlook: Heritage house moving to make way for mansion
Cathy Ellis

Glen Sather, the general manager of the New York Rangers hockey team, is removing one of Banff's most treasured heritage homes from his riverside holiday property to make way for a massive new luxury house. The Town of Banff has issued a development permit for Sather to build a fancy new house at 505 Buffalo Street, but has yet to approve the necessary permit for the relocation of the existing house, known as the famed Walter Painter Residence. Sather is under no legal obligation to save the A-ranked heritage house, and he has turned down all attempts to incorporate the historic home into the design of his new 5,000-square foot house. But he has found a home at The Banff Centre's Leighton Studios for the building. "I didn't want to demolish it. We've had the house since 1974," said Sather, whose family spends most Christmases and few occasions in the summer at the Buffalo Street home.

Click here for Link

34. Banff Crag & Canyon: Family donates home to Banff Centre
Kevin Duncan

A significant contribution by Glen and Ann Sather will go a long way in supporting professional artists at The Banff Centre's "sacred place." The Sather's are donating their A-ranked heritage home, known as the Walter Painter Residence, to the Centre's Leighton Arts Colony. This means that the house now situated at 505 Buffalo St. will travel a short way up the road and around surprise corner to be situated amongst the eight studios currently in the colony. "It's incredibly appropriate that it's going to be used by artists. How charming that it';s already named Painter Residence," said Mary Hofstetter, president and CEO of the Banff Centre . . . The Painter Residence was built in 1913 and designed by architect Walter S. Painter. He was also responsible for designing the Cave and Basin Bathing Pavilion and the 1914 additions to the Banff Springs Hotel.

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35. University of British Columbia Public Affairs: Oldest UBC Building Gets Extreme Makeover

As the University of British Columbia celebrates its first Centenary, the oldest building on its Vancouver campus reopens today with new state-of-the-art research and learning facilities and its historic charms intact. The renewal of the Chemistry Building is the latest project of UBC Renew, a $120-million partnership between UBC and the provincial government designed to breathe new life into older buildings on B.C.’s oldest and largest university campus. Construction of the Chemistry Building began in 1914 but halted due to World War I and didn’t resume until 1923 . . . In addition to preserving a heritage landmark, the Chemistry Renew project incorporated sustainable practices that saved $15.9 million in costs, diverted 323 tons of solid waste from land fills, and prevented 1,155 tons of carbon emissions from being released into the atmosphere, compared to constructing a new comparable replacement building.

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36. Chicago Tribune: Why Wrigley Field's landmark status should be preserved
Blair Kamin

The brouhaha over Sam Zell's plan to sell the naming rights to Wrigley Field obscures a far more significant issue: By arguing that the City of Chicago should "relax" landmark restrictions on the ballpark, proponents of a deal that would have a state agency buy and renovate the park would undermine decades of carefully structured protection for Chicago's architectural treasures. The deal would almost surely embolden some property owners of landmark building throughout Chicago -- there are 259 individual landmarks and 49 landmark districts across the city, encompassing more than 9,000 properties -- to go back and challenge landmark status that the City Council had previously approved; And that would wreak havoc with legal protections for the city's architectural and historical treasures that were set up 40 years ago to safeguard such structures as Louis Sullivan's former Carson Pirie Scott & Co. store or Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House.

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37. New York Times: A City That Sat on Its Treasures, but Didn
AMELIA GENTLEMAN

A handful of antique dealers from around the world have become regular visitors to government junkyards in Chandigarh, the experimental modernist city about 150 miles north of New Delhi, conceived by the architect Le Corbusier in the 1950s

CHANDIGARH, India Every working day for the past 20 years, Suresh Kanwar, a civil engineer in Chandigarh's Forestry Department, has been sitting on the same battered wooden chair, an object he said had "no beauty" even if it was, "for office use, very comfortable." Hazarding a guess as to its value, he suggested 400 rupees, or about $10, "perhaps, at a junkyard." A pair of chairs identical to Mr. Kanwar's, instantly recognizable to collectors as Pierre Jeanneret teak chairs will go on sale at the auction house Christie's in New York this month with a reserve of $8,000 to $12,000.

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38. Washington Post: Frank Lloyd Wright's Park Inn Hotel
Philip Kennicott

Four years ago in Iowa, the crowd at a Howard Dean rally was framed by a picture-perfect Main Street, lined with old-fashioned street lamps, glass storefronts and quaint houses with inviting front porches. It looked like a scene straight out of "The Music Man", the classic musical by Mason City native Meredith Willson. And it was. The Dean campaign was using a spanking new, Disney-like facility, Music Man Square, built to attract tourists, reverse urban decay and pay homage to the town's favorite son. The grand opening ceremony of Music Man Square two years earlier provides a bitter counterpoint in Lucille Carra's "The Last Wright," a film about the only surviving hotel by Frank Lloyd Wright, screening at the Environmental Film Festival this evening. It is part of an emotional argument: Even as the benighted civic leaders of Mason City poured money into a fake, nostalgic, tourist-trap version of Main Street, a genuine Mason City architectural gem, Wright's 1908-1910 Park Inn Hotel, was falling into ruin.

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39. The Guardian: The Carbon Case for Re-using Old Buildings
Huma Qureshi, forwarded by Lloyd Alter

Home is where the heat is: why old can be good as new

Revamping old homes is greener than building efficient new ones, a charity claims.

Many housebuilders claim that newly built, well-insulated homes are between four and eight times more energy-efficient than older properties - but new research to be published tomorrow reveals that the construction of new homes emits nearly three times more carbon dioxide than previously estimated.

The government's Code for Sustainable Homes demands that all new homes in Britain will have to be zero-carbon in emissions terms by 2016, but the new study, carried out by the Empty Homes Agency charity, suggests that developers have overestimated the amount of overall CO2 saved by building energy-efficient homes. Its report, titled 'New Tricks With Old Bricks', says reusing and refurbishing existing and empty properties could actually save more carbon dioxide than constructing new ones.

'The government advocates the building of new homes as a means of creating properties which cut carbon emissions, but the initial construction process alone accounts for a very large proportion of carbon emitted over a building's lifetime,' says Henry Oliver, policy adviser at the Empty Homes Agency. 'We're not suggesting that developers shouldn't build new houses. But we're saying that the refurbishment of existing properties could be a better way of reducing long-term CO2 emissions.'

The Empty Homes Agency compared three new-build homes with three refurbished ones and found very little difference between them in the amount of CO2 given off in normal day-to-day energy use. But while the construction of a newbuild home gives off 50 tonnes of CO2, the refurbishment process of an existing one emits just 15 tonnes of CO2

The agency says it is concerned that some developers and regeneration planners use 'assertions of superior environmental performance' to justify demolishing existing older properties and replacing them with new homes.

For the study go to:

http://www.emptyhomes.com/resources/papers_publications/environment_energy.html#ntfob

Editor's Note:
This article appeared in the Observer on Sunday March 16 2008 on p15 of the Cash section

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40. CambridgeNow: Another rare Landmark Gets a Helping Hand - Anonymous Donation Of $1,000,000 Secures Lamb's Inn
Patti Leather

Thanks to an anonymous donation of more than $1,000,000, this community is one large step closer to realizing the vision for a 913-acre parcel of land right in the heart of our fast-growing community. The vision was first articulated by Matthew Wilks Keefer who donated the land to the University of Guelph. Now owned on behalf of the public by the rare Charitable Research Reserve, the land is home to scientific research that feeds a Chain of Learning, involving even our youngest community members in an education program called Every Child Outdoors.

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