From the one day of sessions I attended (Saturday), a message emerged:
the goal of the
Architectural Conservancy of Ontario needs to be preserving communities, not just buildings.
The two keynote speakers I heard –James Lindberg, Director of Preservation Initiatives for the American National Trust for Historic Preservation, and Jennifer Sumner, Assistant Professor at OISE, talked about ways to preserve rural communities.
Lindberg's emphasis was more on building preservation, realizing that it's hard to save isolated barns, much easier to preserve them if they become reused in some way. He talked about two of PreservatioNation's
Rural Heritage Pilot Programs in the Kentucky Heartland and Arkansas Delta. Building preservation is but one element of a comprehensive approach.
Sumner wrote a book about the impacts of globalization on rural communities, and has continued to do reseach on organic farming. Organic Farming started as a values-based movement in Britain in 1926. Practitioners espouse environmental and economic values; some also believe in social justice, which raises concerns about huge organic factory farms which employ lowly paid migrant labour. Fair Trade Organic Farms are starting to emerge in B.C.
She interviewed 41 organic farmers across Canada, ranging from large corporate enterprises to one-acre plots. She concluded that organic farmers make substantial contributions to the social and economic development of communities -- they tend to get involved in community organizations and events, local politics, etc. Thus, this sector could really assist in the preservation of rural heritage.
I attended a fabulous workshop convened by Ontario Heritage Trust
Preservation through Transformation: Highgate United Church as a case study in adaptive reuse.
This church will be deconsecrated in July. The community is actively seeking ways to keep the architecturally significant, round, Romanesque Revival Nonconformist church open (one of few remaining, very well preserved, examples of the Akron plan for Sunday School rooms).
In the morning a panel of consultants -- James Knight, Heritage Engineer, Mark Warrack, Heritage Planner, Barry Stephenson, WLU Professor of Religion and Culture -- shared their starting points when approaching an adaptive reuse project like this. They listed questions a community like Highgate should ask professionals like themselves.
In the afternoon, Mike Marcalongo, a community economic development expert at
OMAFRA, and three heritage architects: Peter Stewart of George Robb Architects, and Michael McClelland and Andrew Pruss for E.R.A, shared ideas about sources of assistance, and possible approaches, based on their experience with other adaptive reuse projects.
It was a fascinating day, and I was really impressed with the Ontario Heritage Trust staff who organized and ran the workshop: Beth Hanna, Sean Fraser, Erin Semande.
The Ridgetown conference had a very different focus, and feel, from the 2009 event in Peterborough. Both were great, and I fully intend to attend next year's Ontario Heritage Conference in Cobourg's restored Victoria Hall.
