Issue No 130    November 6, 2008

FEATURE STORIES:

1. Remembrance Day at Fort York
10. MPP Steve Peters Writes to Minister of Culture Regarding Inaction on OHT Designation Recommendations
11. FCM Resolution Supports Ongoing Efforts by HCF to Stop Canada's Landmarks from becoming Landfill
12. E.R.A. Architects have resigned from the Hamilton City Hall Project
20. Award Winning Distillery District Website

IN THIS ISSUE:

EVENTS    submit an event

1. Remembrance Day at Fort York
2. Municipal Cultural Planning: Implications for Arts and Heritage Organizations
3. Groundbreaking Event at Evergreen Brick Works
4. Mark Osbaldeston speaks on "Unbuilt Toronto"
5. Story of Ancaster's Wynnstay Estate
6. From Red House to Wychwood Park: Arts and Crafts Architecture in Britain and Canada
7. Toronto: An Illustrated History of its First 12,000 Years - Book Launch
8. THA'S 3rd Annual Workshop

NEWS | ACTION    submit a news or action item

9. Bailey Bridge Arrives at Historic Ontario Mill!
10. MPP Steve Peters Writes to Minister of Culture Regarding Inaction on OHT Designation Recommendations
11. FCM Resolution Supports Ongoing Efforts by HCF to Stop Canada's Landmarks from becoming Landfill
12. E.R.A. Architects have resigned from the Hamilton City Hall Project

LINKS    submit a link

13. Hamilton Spectator: Cost drives city hall concrete decision
14. Hamilton Spectator: Council chooses Concrete for City Hall
15. Hamilton Spectator: Council will now direct heritage staff
16. Globe and Mail: Toronto Monument to War of 1812
17. Globe and Mail: Review Unbuilt Toronto
18. Daily Commercial News and Construction Record: Wesley Building and King Parliament Square win 2008 Heritage Toronto awards
19. Daily Commercial News and Construction Record: Toronto mayor David Miller gives push for plan to retrofit of post-war towers
20. Award Winning Distillery District Website
21. National Post: Post Homes freelance writer Scott Weir won the Award of Merit in the Media category
22. St Catharines Standard: Major Donation for Downtown Cultural Facility
23. St. Catharine's Standard: Discovery of First Entrance to Welland Canal
24. St. Catharine's Standard: Port Dalhousie OMB hearing recess
25. Waterloo Record: Cambridge City Hall marks its sesquicentennial
26. Gravenhurst Banner: Threat to Bala Falls
27. Guelph Mercury: City proposes additions to heritage registry
28. Northumberland Today: Council ignores LACAC in Decision about Victoria Hall
29. Regina Leader-Post: Benefits from saving buildings
30. Halifax Chronicle Herald: Photographer takes viewers to interiors of Toronto theatres
31. New York Times: Loss of Industrial Heritage
32. The Art Newspaper: How did Italy get so ugly?
33. Apollo Magazine: Palladian games
34. Apollo Magazine: Palace in Search of a Role

SUPPORT

35. Support Built Heritage News

CONTACT

36. Contact the Editor

1. Remembrance Day at Fort York

Remembrance Day Service at the first military cemetery, Strachan Avenue Burying Ground west of Fort York.

After the ceremony refreshments and cookies will be served inside the fort.  To get the Burying Grounds by car, enter by Fort York Blvd.

2. Municipal Cultural Planning: Implications for Arts and Heritage Organizations

Arts Consultants Canada and Canadian Association of Heritage Professionals

Workshop Leader: Dr. Greg Baeker, AuthentiCity
Speakers Brian Arnott, Novita, Past-President CAHP | ACECP
Anna Bradford, Director of Culture, City of Hamilton.

Please make cheques payable to Arts Consultants Canada and mail to:
44 Charles Street West, Suite 5005, Toronto, ON M4Y 1R8

Cash and cheques will be accepted at the event - sorry, no Credit Cards

3. Groundbreaking Event at Evergreen Brick Works

Please join Evergreen, friends, supporters, media and distinguished dignitaries as we officially break ground on construction of Evergreen Brick Works. Help us celebrate a momentous step forward for this unique local environmental community centre and global showcase for green innovation and urban sustainability.

4. Mark Osbaldeston speaks on "Unbuilt Toronto"
A History of the City that Might Have Been

5. Story of Ancaster's Wynnstay Estate
The Architecture of John Lyle: Past & Present

The Architectural Conservancy of Ontario, Hamilton Region Branch invites you to a reception and illustrated lecture to celebrate the Hamilton Region Branch's 2008 Exhibition:  The Architecture of John Lyle Past and Present. 

Join us for a glimpse inside the magnificent Wynnstay Estate, a heritage property designed for the Dalley family by John M. Lyle with landscape design by Dunnington-Grubb. 

The site is now Mount Mary Retreat Centre with developers eagerly taking aim. 

Guest lecturer is Sharon Vattay PhD, Associate, Goldsmith Borgal & Co. Architects.  Free.

6. From Red House to Wychwood Park: Arts and Crafts Architecture in Britain and Canada
A lecture by Doug Brown, author of Eden Smith, Toronto

7. Toronto: An Illustrated History of its First 12,000 Years - Book Launch

8. THA'S 3rd Annual Workshop

This is THA’s 3rd Free Workshop for Members, and we have planned a program on topics designed to be both interesting and informative to all members.

The Workshop includes a Panel discussion entitled, “Successful Advocacy Strategies”.

Joining us to discuss their greatest successes will be:

David Stonehouse, Director of Site Development at the Brickworks and a former Senior Planner with the City;

Stephen Otto, The Current Chair and Founder of the Friends of Fort York;

Mark Warrack, Chair of Heritage Toronto’s Conservation Committee and a Heritage Co-ordinator with the City of Mississauga.

As well as outlining what made their strategies successful they will address some of the pitfalls they have encountered and provide some advice for the volunteer heritage community in our advocacy efforts.

 A representative of THA’s Insurance Company will be on hand to explain how the coverage for THA’s Members events.

And finally Andrew Peck our WEB Manager, will discuss sending Newsletters by Email and how to provide a link to THA’s Website.

Tea, Coffee and cookies will be served.

9. Bailey Bridge Arrives at Historic Ontario Mill!
Press Release: Alton Mill

On Friday, October 31st, the historic Alton Mill will be adding another piece of history to its property, just north of Toronto.

It will be a sight to command attention when a large truck pulling a massive trailer rolls in from north of Sudbury to deliver a fully-assembled Bailey bridge to the Alton Mill, and with a giant crane, places the bridge into position, providing passage from Queen Street, Alton, over Shaw’s Creek, and directly into the Mill’s parking lot.

Once it reaches its destination, four men will guide the bridge into place, and then three-inch pieces of Hemlock will be affixed to the bridge in two layers to create a six-inch wooden deck on the bridge itself.

Bailey bridges are considered to be one of the greatest examples of military engineering, and were first introduced into military service by the Corps of Royal Engineers in Italy in 1943. The bridge is named after Donald Bailey, a British War Office civil servant, who developed the concept and presented it to his superiors, who immediately saw the merits of the design.

A Bailey bridge is a portable, pre-fabricated truss bridge that can be used to cover expanses of up to 60 metres (200 feet). The magnificence of the design stems from the fact that these bridges require no special tools or heavy equipment for construction, with the individual elements of the bridge small enough to be carried in trucks. Despite the apparent simplicity of design and construction, these bridges are strong enough to carry tanks!

Used extensively during World War II, Bailey bridges also have a special place in Canada. In the years following World War II, the Ontario-Hydro Electric Power Commission purchased a large number of war surplus Bailey bridges and used them extensively throughout the province of Ontario. In 2004, the Royal Military College of Canada (located in Kingston, Ontario) constructed a Bailey bridge on the grounds of the College to commemorate the 100th anniversary of their Engineering Branch.

The fact that Bailey bridges are still being used today throughout the world (many of which are original bridges built during World War II), is a testament to the quality and ingenuity of their design.

A short drive north of Toronto to the historic Alton Mill, will lead you to this magnificent testament to military engineering, the Bailey bridge!

You can become part of this exciting project and feel history come alive in your hands by helping to lay the deck of the bridge itself. Like was done in days gone by, a “worker bee” is being organized and volunteers are being solicited to help lay the deck on this incredible Bailey bridge!

The Alton Mill has undergone a comprehensive restoration over the past number of years, under the stewardship of the Seaton Group. The space created by this restoration is available for galleries, studios, offices and other space for creative pursuits, with half of the available suites overlooking the waters of Shaw’s Creek and the waterfall over the dam. The beautifully restored Alton Mill’s Millrace Room and Waterfall Courtyard are also available for private bookings and provides the perfect venue for your next private function, meeting, workshop or corporate event.

The installation of this Bailey bridge at the Alton Mill is just another piece of history that comes alive at the historic Alton Mill, a designated National Historic Building.

For leasing information or to book space for private functions please contact Margi Taylor Self at 519 940-0935.

For details regarding the Alton Mill/Bailey bridge “working bee” and to become part of living history, please contact Jeremy Grant at 519-766-1440.

For all media enquires, photographs, or to arrange interviews, please contact Marketing Dynamic Solutions at 519-316-0583 or by email at info@mdsolutions.ca.

The Historic Alton Mill
1402 Queen Street
Alton, Ontario L7K 0C3
www.altonmill.ca

Editor's Note: As many readers will be aware, Catherine Nasmith is the architect for the Alton Mill project. The arrival of this bridge is a big occasion for me!

The Honourable Aileen Carroll, Minister of Culture

10. MPP Steve Peters Writes to Minister of Culture Regarding Inaction on OHT Designation Recommendations
Steve Peters, MPP Elgin Middlesex London

The text of the letter is written out in full below:

Dear Minister:

Please find enclosed e-mail correspondence and a copy of an Ontario Heritage Trust letter from Ms. Donna Moore, a London resident who has concerns regarding the historic Moore House located southeast of St. Thomas in the village of Sparta.

As you are aware, the Moore House was at risk last year after its owners applied to the Municipality of Central Elgin for a demolition permit so that they could construct a new home on the same footprint of the existing heritage structure. Built in 1823, the Moore House is one of the oldest homes in all of southwestern Ontario and there is a great interest within the community to preserve this heritage building.

Your predecessor enacted the 60-day stop order through the Ontario Heritage Act last fall and eventually a compromise between the municipality and the owners was established to preserve part of the structure of the Moore House in a new facility. While the compromise saved part of the heritage nature of the Moore House, many people who either live in the community or have a close personal connection to the site, including Ms. Moore who is a direct descendent of the original home builder, are unhappy that more was not done to preserve the entire existing structure.

Upon receiving a copy of the Honourable Lincoln Alexander's letter, I have one basic but important question that begs to be answered: why the advice of the Ontario Heritage Trust, advice that your ministry sought in accordance with the Ontario Heritage Act, not followed? The chairperson of the Ontario Heritage Trust could not have been more straightforward in his letter to the previous minister. This marks the third time to my knowledge that the Ministry of Culture has not followed the advice of the Ontario Heritage Trust that recommended immediate designation of a built heritage site as provincially significant. The other two occasions, as you are aware, are the Lister Block in Hamilton and Alma College in St. Thomas. One can imagine what might have come to pass if your ministry chose to follow Mr. Alexander's advice in Alma College's case before the tragic fire in May led to its destruction. One can also imagine that a more suitable solution to the Moore House situation would have also resulted if advice from the very entity your ministry is supposed to heed had been followed. 

Minister, I would appreciate your revisiting these matters, reviewing further options you have under the Ontario Heritage Act to help preserve built heritage in this province and responding directly to Ms. Moore. 

As always, thank you in advance for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Steve Peters, M.P.P.

Editor's Note: This letter was sent to BHN by Donna Moore.

11. FCM Resolution Supports Ongoing Efforts by HCF to Stop Canada's Landmarks from becoming Landfill
Heritage Canada Press Release

Ottawa, Ontario – October 29, 2008 - The Heritage Canada Foundation (HCF) applauds the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ (FCM) National Board of Directors for adopting an important resolution calling for federal financial incentives in support of the rehabilitation of heritage buildings.

In a recent letter informing Finance Minister Jim Flaherty of the board’s decision, FCM president Jean Perrault reminded the Minister that the vast majority of Canadian urban municipalities offer financial incentives for heritage buildings, and that Canada remains the only G-8 country lacking a national system of funding policies and programs to preserve its heritage properties.

The resolution, SOC08.3.07 – Federal Tax Incentives for Heritage Places <http://www.heritagecanada.org/eng/services/advocacy.html> , calls on the Government of Canada to establish financial tax measures for the rehabilitation of heritage properties which would encourage private sector investment. The U.S. Historic Preservation Tax Incentives Program introduced some 25 years ago has leveraged $36 billion in private sector spending from $7 billion in federal tax credits. The results include the rehabilitation of more than 32,000 commercial heritage properties, the creation of approximately 350,000 housing units and thousands of new jobs.

In Canada, over the past 30 years more than 20 per cent of the country’s pre-1920 buildings have been lost to demolition.

HCF’s backgrounder <http://www.heritagecanada.org/eng/news/archive.html#backgrounder> on key issues related to fiscal incentives is available online.

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

To be removed from the mailing list, send us an email <mailto:dlocke@heritagecanada.org> with the word “unsubscribe” in the subject box.

12. E.R.A. Architects have resigned from the Hamilton City Hall Project
Edwin Rowse, Michael McClelland and Robyn Huether, E.R.A. Architects Inc.

“E.R.A. decided to resign as heritage consultant for the Hamilton City Hall Renovation project when a large majority of City Council voted in favour of replacing the book-matched marble cladding on the building with precast concrete, against the advice of the A.B.E. consortium team who is carrying out the project.

The retrofit and conservation of the 1960s heritage-designated building necessarily requires a balance of heritage, functional and financial objectives. When the Council vote rejected even a compromise recommendation using limestone, E.R.A. decided that the integrity of the design of the building by Stanley Roscoe, at that time the City Architect, and its heritage value, recognized by the City’s own designation, would be too devalued for the firm to continue in its consultant role.

The pride of the citizens of Hamilton in their City Hall has been let down by the Council decision and by just how much will emerge as the precast concrete weathers and soils without the dignity of natural stone.”

Edwin Rowse, Michael McClelland and Robyn Huether, E.R.A. Architects Inc.

Editor's Note: It is doubtful Hamilton will be able to find another heritage consultant willing to work on this project. The situation is tragic for Hamilton- citizens voted overwhelmingly for marble on the Mayor's internet referendum - the Mayor supported marble, but was voted down by the Council. Perhaps this resignation will create a moment for sober second thought.

13. Hamilton Spectator: Cost drives city hall concrete decision
Eric McGuinness

Marble was never really in the running. Council's choice for the outside of City Hall came down to a rock -- limestone -- and something harder -- concrete. It chose sandblasted white concrete at an estimated price of $66 per square foot over Adair blue-grey limestone at $127 a square foot to avoid adding $2.5 million to the renovation project now expected to cost $73.9 million. Councillor Scott Duvall made it clear that white Georgia marble costing $192 a square foot hasn't been in the budget since 2005, even though that was the year council designated City Hall under the Ontario Heritage Act, listing marble as one of the features making it worthy of designation. Heritage planners made a case for new marble, but the construction consortium in charge proposed substituting the sort of limestone used on the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C., quarried in Wiarton. It said limestone also symbolizes quality and permanence and has natural veining like the marble and is less likely to show stains from industrial air pollution and vehicle exhaust.

click here for the URL

14. Hamilton Spectator: Council chooses Concrete for City Hall
Eric McGuinness

Marble loses  its concrete for City Hall

HAMILTON — White concrete panels will replace marble on the outside of the renovated Hamilton City Hall, now set to be finished by July 1, 2010.
Council voted 10-4 in favour of concrete cladding rather than replacing the Georgia marble at an estimated extra cost of $6 million to $8 million or using limestone from Wiarton at a premium price of $2.5 million.
Because council designated City Hall under the Ontario Heritage Act in 2005, and listed marble as one of the heritage features, council had to vote itself an exemption over objections from the Municipal Heritage Committee and city planning staff.

Cost was the deciding factor for councillors already faced with finding an extra $5.4 million in the 2010 capital budget.

In answer to a question from Councillor Terry Whitehead at a special committee of the whole meeting this afternoon, acting city manager Joe Rinaldo said financing $2.5 million for limestone and $450,000 for stainless steel in place of aluminum window trim would cost $257,000 a year in interest for 20 years, for a total of more than $5.1 million.

Tonight, Whitehead said: “Using concrete in a fiscally prudent time is representative of us not living above our means.”

click here for the URL

15. Hamilton Spectator: Council will now direct heritage staff
Eric McGuinness

Hamilton heritage planners will now take their marching orders from city council, not the appointed Municipal Heritage Committee. A new process for designating buildings under the Ontario Heritage Act was approved by council Wednesday night, overriding a tie vote by the economic development and planning committee last week. The main effect is that staff will now do quick screenings of buildings considered candidates for designation, then submit them to council, which will decide whether to proceed with full cultural assessments and assign a low, medium or high priority for the work. A low priority could postpone further study for several years, because the staff now does only five or six assessments a year.

click here for the URL

16. Globe and Mail: Toronto Monument to War of 1812

Brilliant toy soldiers

Vancouver-based writer and artist Douglas Coupland's Monument to the War of 1812 is a rare achievement in contemporary public statuary, one that makes vividly the point that the British and Canadians won the three-year war against American aggressors - thereby escaping annexation - yet does so with humour and good grace.

The monument shows a golden toy soldier dressed as a member of the 1813 Royal Newfoundland Regiment, standing over a fallen silver toy soldier representing the 16th U.S. Infantry Regiment. Nobody, not even the passing motorists at a busy Toronto intersection, can mistake the message. Historical revisionists in the U.S. have tried to portray the war's result differently. As Mr. Coupland said: "I wanted to come up with an elegant and simple way of saying, No, the British won."

Mr. Coupland's monument, commissioned by the condominium developer Malibu Investments, is a brilliant addition to Toronto's garrison district. It should draw the attention of local residents and visitors to the often overlooked Fort York National Historic Site. It also serves as a bookend to another great (and also overlooked) War of 1812 monument, commissioned in 1905 from Walter Allward (who later designed the Vimy Monument in France), which sits in nearby Victoria Memorial Square.

click here for the URL

17. Globe and Mail: Review Unbuilt Toronto
John Barber

Ghosts of a city that might have been

The challenge of writing a book like Unbuilt Toronto, Mark Osbaldeston's new guide to the paper cemetery of grand civic schemes floated on hope and wrecked on reality, is not any shortage of material. Indeed, this invisible terrain is so burgeoning with corpses it has become a palpable presence in the mentality of Toronto the Good Enough, ever-haunted by what could have been.

Future historians with similar interests, digging through today's news stories as Mr. Osbaldeston did yesterday's, will remark on how many new schemes are introduced not with enthusiasm but with a blunt reminder of the notorious failures that preceded them. The waterfront, centuries-old focus of such dreams, dares not speak its name in 2008.

And the ghosts multiply: To add to the 33 abandoned visions documented in Unbuilt Toronto, the Toronto Society of Architects asked its members to empty their own bottom drawers "to uncover visions of the Toronto that could have been." A selection from both sources will be exhibited at the Royal Ontario Museum, beginning this week.

It's tempting to think of the new efforts as the other side of the coin minted by the late William Dendy in Lost Toronto, which documented the monuments demolished to make way for those new visions that did achieve concrete reality. But rather than haunting us with a sense of loss, the unbuilt catalogue is strangely familiar. One way or another, the visions left their marks.

click here for the URL

18. Daily Commercial News and Construction Record: Wesley Building and King Parliament Square win 2008 Heritage Toronto awards
PATRICIA WILLIAMS

The overall project was considered to be an excellent adaptation of an older industrial and commercial building to a contemporary use, Heritage Toronto ...

click here for the URL

19. Daily Commercial News and Construction Record: Toronto mayor David Miller gives push for plan to retrofit of post-war towers
IAN HARVEY

Renewing the city's aging stock of apartment towers could be the Cinderella story of Toronto's 21st century possibly worth $95 billion by 2030 and create 838,000 jobs, says a report written by a panel of experts. Dr. Ted Kesik, professor in the Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto who has been studying the issue with colleague Ivan Saleff, says the dream of renovating the exterior and interiors of high rise buildings in the post-war building boom is not just a feel-good project.

click here for the URL

20. Award Winning Distillery District Website

Subscribe to the Distillery District Newsletter

The Distillery District puts out an excellent newsletter, full of interesting events and always a wonderfully researched article by Sally Gibson. Just go to the link below to check it out, and to subscribe.

The website has been honoured by both CAHP and Heritage Toronto. 

click here for the URL

21. National Post: Post Homes freelance writer Scott Weir won the Award of Merit in the Media category

At a gala event at the Carlu event space on Monday, Heritage Toronto honoured recipients in its 2008 Heritage Toronto Awards.Post Homes freelance writer Scott Weir, an architect with conservationists E. R. A. Architects, won the Award of Merit in the Media category, for his series on Toronto residential architecture, which was published as a series last year. Post Homes editor Shari Kulha, who assigned and edited the series, was a co-recipient of the award.

click here for the URL

22. St Catharines Standard: Major Donation for Downtown Cultural Facility
Samantha Craggs

Marilyn Walker donates $15 million to Brock School of Fine and Performing Arts

A downtown performing arts school is a step closer to reality now that Brock University has a personal pledge of $15 million — its largest donation yet.

Local artist and philanthropist Marilyn Walker donated to a new school of fine and performing arts Wednesday, a significant boost for the hope of a downtown presence, president Jack Lightstone said.

“It’s a huge step forward in us being able to realize our dream of building a school downtown,” he said at an event at Sean O’Sullivan Theatre.

Walker said the donation is intended to benefit the region, as well as the school.

“A community is not complete without a vibrant cultural component,” she said. “We expect this gift to provide our community with an opportunity to develop a stable and vibrant relationship with the arts.”

Brock is partnering with the City of St. Catharines to build a school of performing arts, adjoining the city’s centre for the arts. Brock’s commitment to the estimated $80-million project is about $30 million. A feasibility study for the project, which proposes locating the school in the former Canada Hair Cloth building, is expected in early December.

click here for the URL

23. St. Catharine's Standard: Discovery of First Entrance to Welland Canal
Don Fraser, forwarded by Carlos Garcia

Newly discovered ruins of 1829 canal sparks call for restoration and heritage site

Imagine what a restored entrance to the first Welland Canal might look like.

At the northwest corner of Lakeside Park in Port Dalhousie, an 1829 canal pier is re-created.

Nearby, there are excavated or rebuilt timber canal walls, a working lock, a replica schooner.

Inside an interpretive centre, displays explain how the Welland canals were a lifeblood for the pre-Confederation colonies.

Murals depict the lively marine social scene of that time.

Now, thanks to a dig led by local archeologist Jon Jouppien and a possible federal heritage designation, there are a world of possibilities like these.

That excavation two weeks ago exposed timber beams and supports of the first canal's channel.

Jouppien's thrilled crew discovered ruins that are beautifully preserved.

"We know the first lock walls exist there now and that is really exciting," said Jouppien, who is writing a report for the provincial Culture Ministry and the City of St. Catharines, which contracted the project.

The report will likely be released by January and include recommendations about how the heritage value of the old canal area can be exploited.

"Realize that this was one of the very first canal arteries in Canada," Jouppien said.

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"At one time, everything going west in Canada had to come through that Great Lakes chain and right through here."

The canal discovery is a significant one, said Port Dalhousie Coun. Bruce Williamson.

"It draws our attention to the other Port canal entrances and possibly restoring them and bringing them back to life."

The cluster of the first three Welland canals becomes a more high-profile tourism attraction and a better educational tool, he said.

Williamson recently suggested the city lobby Ottawa and the province to get funding to preserve the first canal portion of Lakeside Park.

Williamson and others hope it will soon be designated as part of a Welland canals national historic site.

"This is too good to let slip by," he said.

Williamson, who has a strong interest in Port Dalhousie and canal history, would like to see a reconstruction, as authentically as possible, of what was there.

"Hopefully, it would have operating lock gates, maybe somewhat of a channel in behind the carousel," he said.

As for the original wood-and-stone piers, "You'll need some kind of an entrance without impinging on the beach too much."

click here for the URL

24. St. Catharine's Standard: Port Dalhousie OMB hearing recess
Mathew Van Dongen

Final Port Place arguments to begin at hearing Nov. 10

The final round of the Port Place battle is about to begin at an Ontario Municipal Board hearing.

Final arguments will begin Nov. 10 after Port Dalhousie Vitalization Corp. on Monday finished rebutting opposing evidence given throughout the marathon hearing.

The applicant wants to revamp Port Dalhousie's commercial strip with an 80-unit condominium tower, a 70- room hotel, a 415-seat theatre and a retail centre.

Project architect Michael Kirkland defended his 17-storey design one more time Monday, arguing "you can't decide the fit of something based on one consideration," even if some people "obsess about it."

Under cross-examination, Kirkland sparred repeatedly with Jane Pepino, lawyer for anti-tower citizens' group PROUD (Port Realizing Our Unique Distinction).

The architect argued with Pepino over the visibility of the condo tower through trees in winter, the accuracy of photos taken with a wide-angle lens and even the original builders' vision for Austin House, now My Cottage.

"I take it you haven't had a seance to connect with the original architects," Pepino said.

"No, what I have is the benefit of a wealth of architectural experience," Kirkland replied.

The back-and-forth chatter over competing site photos and massing models eventually prompted hearing chair Susan Campbell to intervene.

"Come on, move on from this," she said.

The OMB hearing into the Port Place project began Feb. 20, broke for a four-month recess June 5 and resumed in October.

click here for the URL

Cambridge City Hall

25. Waterloo Record: Cambridge City Hall marks its sesquicentennial
Peter Lee, Record staff

In a town with grand old buildings by the score, historic City Hall stands alone.

Conceived in controversy and saved from the wrecker's ball in the 1960s by public uproar, it's now part way through a restoration that will cost $5 million by the time it's finished in two years.

The building turns 150 today, a rare survivor among the hundreds of town halls built across Ontario in the 1800s, said Sean Fraser, conservation manager at the Ontario Heritage Trust.

click here for the URL

26. Gravenhurst Banner: Threat to Bala Falls
Karen Longwell

Township responds to Bala Falls heritage petition

A petition requesting a heritage designation for Bala Falls will probably
not produce the desired result for local protesters.

The Save the Bala Falls group, which is protesting a hydroelectric facility
at the Bala north dam, sent the 40-page petition, with 20 signatures on
each page, to the township.

In response, council voted on Oct. 21 in favour of supporting heritage
impact studies on the falls.

The motion, however, was not exactly the result the protesters were hoping
for. The group requested “the township . . . designates the Bala Falls area
as heritage,” in the petition.

Brad Burgess, spokesperson for SavetheBalaFalls.com, now a not-for-profit
corporation, called council’s resolution “disappointing.”

“We have a mayor who is a historian,” said Burgess, adding that he expected
more.

Mayor Susan Pryke said the township has no experience with designation of a
cultural heritage landscape, which is what the falls would fall under. This
designation is different from a heritage building designation. There is a
step-by-step process to follow, involving studies and experts, she said.

“As much as people would like us to designate it, you can’t just do that
today,” said Pryke. “Ultimately, the decision could take a year or more.
When the citizens of Bala asked that the Burgess Memorial Church be
designated, that designation took about three years to become a reality.”

Burgess admitted he did not know how long heritage designations take.

Pryke sought advice from the township’s heritage consultant Liz Lundell on
the matter. Lundell weighed in on the issue, giving suggestions on what
council could do in this situation.

Lundell recommended the township support a heritage impact study, among
other suggestions.

“Designation is not the only way a heritage property can be protected,”
said Lundell. “It can also be protected through the official plan.”

Council passed two resolutions in response to Lundell’s advice and the Save
the Bala Falls petition. The resolutions recommend the Ministry of Natural
Resources and Swift River Energy include both the heritage value and Bala’s
economy in the environmental screening for the hydro project. The
resolution also addresses safe snowmobile movement around the construction
site during winter.

“In the interim, a heritage impact study pretty much identifies all the key
elements anyway,” said Pryke. The cultural heritage landscape designation
doesn’t prevent development next to the falls, she added.

It was a unanimous decision from council to support the resolutions.

Councillor Dianne Davidson asked if the township had any authority to
request the heritage impact study since Swift River Energy is planning to
use district land.

“It is not like we want to designate a land or building that we own,” said
Davidson.

Pryke agreed, but said the township can request the study.

“It is not our property, but we have every right to request a heritage
impact study,” said Pryke.

Councillor Mary Grady said this is an important initiative to support. She
said the community in Niagara Falls was able to affect the esthetics of the
falls during a similar but much larger hydroelectric project.

click here for the URL

27. Guelph Mercury: City proposes additions to heritage registry
Thana Dharmarajah

Blair Cleveland wouldn't wish his fight to demolish a building on his Alice Street property on any other city resident. But he foresees many other residents having similar headaches if the City of Guelph goes through with a proposal to expand its Municipal Register of Cultural Heritage Properties to include another 1,900 properties. Cleveland's property isn't on the municipal register, but is in the city's heritage inventory and one of the 1,900 properties that would be added. He didn't know that when he bought his 47 Alice St. home in 2004. Neither his real estate agent nor his lawyer told him the designation would restrict his property use. "Look at what it's done to me," Cleveland said yesterday. "I had a very unpleasant surprise. Had I known, I would have been able to make more of an informed decision." He only learned about the heritage inventory when he went to city hall to find out about demolishing a building on his property, which was formerly used as a shoe workshop. Cleveland wanted to turn it into a garage. But the city has put forward a proposal to designate the former shoe workshop as a heritage property, which he wouldn't be allowed to demolish.

click here for the URL

28. Northumberland Today: Council ignores LACAC in Decision about Victoria Hall
Editorial

Shabby and unwise to bypass LACAC

People may think taxes in Cobourg and Port Hope are high now -- but there's no doubt they'd be much higher without volunteers.

The volunteers who work through churches, minor sports, service clubs, charities and committees make life immeasurably better in our communities -- at no cost -- and they are entitled to derive some sense of satisfaction from the contribution they make.

Municipal councils should be among the first to recognize this fact.

However, and not for the first time, Cobourg council seems intent on denigrating the contribution of volunteers, especially those who serve on its own council-appointed committee, the Local Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee (LACAC).

Like many Ontario communities, Cobourg and Port Hope have made a good thing out of heritage. They have put heritage to work in the service of tourism, to beneficial effect.

People who serve on LACAC, without compensation, have an obligation to be, or become, well-informed on heritage issues, specifically those that affect the restoration, modification and adaptive reuse of heritage buildings, like Victoria Hall and Port Hope's Town Hall.

Older buildings present challenges. Mainly, they were erected before the advent of such modern conveniences (necessities) as electric lighting, central heating and indoor plumbing.

In today's world, too, access for physically challenged persons has to be taken into account. No longer do we relegate such persons to their bedrooms, as our Victorian ancestors were prone to do.

A number of years ago, Port Hope's LACAC worked diligently with the municipal council of the day to revamp Town Hall to accommodate a level access, elevators and wheelchair-accessible washrooms without destroying the Victorian ambience of the building.

Victoria Hall, too, has benefitted from the commitment of numerous volunteers over the years who refused to let the 19th-century gem deteriorate and were determined to adapt and augment its amenities for use in the modern world.

Now, Cobourg council wants to install an emergency generator to power the grand old lady in the event of power failure. Great idea.

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29. Regina Leader-Post: Benefits from saving buildings
Frank Korvemaker

Recently, there have been letters concerning the proposed demolition of two outstanding historic buildings: Scott Collegiate in Regina and the former mental hospital in Weyburn. Both are architectural treasures and were designed by the most prominent architects of their day: Storey and Van Egmond designed Scott Collegiate, and Maurice W. Sharon, provincial architect from 1916 to 1929, designed the Weyburn hospital. These buildings are among the most impressive examples of their design talents, and were the pride of their communities when constructed. They were well constructed, employing the best materials available. Both are faced with the distinctive T-P Moka brick made at the Claybank Brick Plant, now designated as a National Historic Site. These two landmarks have stood for over three-quarters of a century and can easily stand another 100 years or more if properly maintained and upgraded to meet modern requirements. However, both buildings are now vacant. Will they be renovated and continue in use for another similar or new community purpose? Or, as has so often been the case, will they be demolished, and most of the nonrenewable historic building materials hauled to our overflowing landfills?

Editor's Note: You can read more about:

1. Storey and Van Egmond and Scott Collegiate at,

(i) http://www.tpcs.gov.sk.ca/StoreyVanEgmond

2. Maurice William Sharon at,

(i) http://esask.uregina.ca/entry/sharon_maurice_william_1875-_1940.html

3. Claybank Brick Plant at,

(i) http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/pm.php?id=story_line&fl=&lg=English&ex=00000163&sl=2600&pos=71

(ii) http://www.claybank.sasktelwebsite.net/Historical%20Overview.html

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30. Halifax Chronicle Herald: Photographer takes viewers to interiors of Toronto theatres
ELISSA BARNARD

ADRIAN FISH'S photographs of empty theatres can affect one aesthetically and emotionally. However, the Halifax-based artist and teacher is more interested in architecture and "the etymology" of space. Fish, who teaches at NSCAD University, took photographs of the interiors of Toronto theatres whose designs span nine decades. However, he says all the theatres share a design that goes back to the Theatre of Dionysus at the foot of the Acropolis.

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31. New York Times: Loss of Industrial Heritage
Kareem Fahim

Preserving New Yorks Industrial Past

Dutch Mustard CompanyLike other industrial sites, the Dutch Mustard Company was torn down to make way for new developments. Above, the site of the former factory in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in 2007. (Photo: Robert Stolarik for The New York Times)

The building booms in Brooklyn neighborhoods like Red Hook, Greenpoint and Williamsburg have made preservationists worry for the future of the city’s industrial heritage.

They point to several historic buildings and industrial structures that have been lost: a Civil War-era graving dock in Red Hook was paved over and is now a parking lot for Ikea; the old Dutch Mustard Company building in Williamsburg was torn down and turned into condominiums; and the Greenpoint Terminal Market, a former rope factory, was destroyed by fire.

Last year, the National Trust for Historic Preservation called Brooklyn’s industrial waterfront one of America’s 11 most endangered historic places.

The fate of those old structures was the subject of panel discussion at the Municipal Arts Society last Wednesday night titled “Recycling New York’s Industrial Past: Inspiration from Home and Abroad.”

Panelists argued that preservation does not just serve nostalgia, but has tangible economic and environmental benefits, creating jobs and reducing the waste from demolition. And they identified several buildings that they said deserved to be saved.

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32. The Art Newspaper: How did Italy get so ugly?
Edek Osser

While the art world celebrates Palladios quincentenary, no-one is pointing out that his famous villas and the sublime countryside around them have been wrecked by hideous urban sprawl

The Veneto is one great construction site that has produced monstrosity after monstrosity over the past 50 years, damaging both people and the environment, says Francesco Vallerani, a geography professor at Venice University On the one hand, you have a region of outstanding natural beauty and extraordinary architecture; on the other, an ugly urban sprawl that has obliterated the countryside. The Veneto has mountains, alpine lakes, romantic hills and rivers, the lagoon and the sea. It has more medieval city walls than any other region in Europe. Most importantly, it has thousands of 15th- to 18th-century villas that are the very symbol of the Veneto. The patricians of Venice bought land, invested in huge estates and commissioned famous architects to build magnificent residences. The Istituto Regionale Ville Venete (IRVV)the regional institute for the conservation of Veneto villashas statutory powers to help 4,270 properties, around half of which are listed, with 30 designed by Andrea Palladio. Unfortunately, however, these powers have always been limited to the buildings, and it has no official remit for the unprotected land surrounding them. In the 20 years since the Veneto Region set up the IRVV, the institute has distributed preferential loans and grants to 1,750 villas for repairs. In 2007 it contributed over ¬3m to 22 restoration projects, and this year the figure will be almost ¬5.5m. Yet there is still a lot more to be done: one obvious example is Palladios Villa Chiericati in Vancimuglio, which is in a dire state of repair, and surrounded by warehouses, a shopping centre and an incredible new Palladian style hotel. Lionello Puppi, an art and landscape historian and member of the scholarly committee of the Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura Andrea Palladio (the international institute for Palladian studies), says: We are celebrating Palladios 500th anniversary with a host of exhibitions and events, including Palladian tourist itineraries, but Im afraid that some important sites will not be visited because of the terrible condition theyre in. Theres Villa Zeno in Cessalto, for example, a Palladian masterpiece built in 1554 to be the centrepiece of a large estate. It is boarded up and in danger of being demolished. The current owners used to run a large farm on the estate, but the villa itself was no use to them and expensive to run, so they abandoned it. New buildings are engulfing Villa Forni Cerato in Montecchio Precalcino near Vicenza.

http://www.theartnewspaper.com/article.asp?id=16497

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33. Apollo Magazine: Palladian games
Gavin Stam

The 500th anniversary of Palladio's birth is rightly being celebrated, but his influence on architects has in many ways been pernicious.

In architecture Palladio is the game!! wrote Edwin Lutyens in a much-quoted letter to Herbert Baker in 1903. Having made his name with romantic vernacular houses, Lutyens was then discovering the possibilities of the Classical language and revelling in the geometrical and formal discipline it could impose. As he would soon demonstrate in New Delhi and elsewhere, he would handle that language with astonishing originality  playing games and bending the rules. But in fact Palladio was not a major influence on Lutyens, and in Italy (which he visited for the first time only in 1909) he was much more impressed by the Mannerism of Sanmichele in Verona. Sanmichele, however, never gave his name to a style. Born 500 years ago  on 30 November  in Padua, Andrea Palladio became one of the most revered and influential architects in history. Thanks to his Quattro Libri dellArchitettura, the Classical language was understood beyond Italy through Palladios drawings and Palladianism became a dominant, not to say ineradicable, taste in the English-speaking world in particular. Whether that legacy did justice to Palladios own creations, and whether, indeed, his influence was benign or pernicious, are interesting questions that may be provoked by the major quincentenary exhibition currently on show in Vicenza, where he built so much. This exhibition will travel to the Royal Academy, London, next year, before moving on to the United States.

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34. Apollo Magazine: Palace in Search of a Role
Andrew Hopkins

Andrew Hopkins visits the newly restored Venaria Reale near Turin, a palatial hunting lodge built for the dukes of Savoy in the 17th and 18th centuries. Its restoration fails to answer the question: what should it be used for?

Ten years ago the series of Savoy residences in and around Turin finally was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list. The reopening in late 2007 of Venaria Reale (Fig. 1), by far the biggest of these at 80,000 square metres, commemorates a decade dedicated to renovating the regions cultural patrimony  marred only by the fire that ruined the chapel of the Holy Shroud. Venaria was always considered the most difficult of the various residences to restore because of its size, its state of abandon and because, until recently, no apparently plausible answer had been found to the most important question: what this gargantuan hunting lodge might be used for.

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36. cnasmith@builtheritagenews.ca