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Track 5/Volet 5

CS5.2: Active Engagement

Friday, November 15, 2024
10:30 AM – 12:00 PM EST
CE: 1.5

General Admission/Adminsion générale Simultaneous Interpretation Available/Interprétation simultanée disponible AIA CES Approved

This session has qualified for 1.5 LU Credits

Succesful preservation and adaptive reuse interventions bridge the knowledge gap between new insights and ongoing challenges in historic preservation, climate resiliency, and social equity. When the state of the economy, development industry, government policies, and community concerns are coordinated, they create a “climate” for conservation and reuse, which shapes what is possible.
In many places however, heritage conservation is seen as:
- a cost versus an investment,
- a barrier to reuse,
- an elitist NIMBY tool shielding affluent areas from increased urban density.
- misaligned with goals for sustainability.
This session will focus on the following key questions:
1 - How can the promotion of heritage values, standards and processes be a part of a wholistic approach to a more resilient and equitable built environment?
2 - Where do the opportunities lie in both urban and rural heritage conservation work to have broad societal impact?
3 - What are the ‘systemic barriers’ to building conservation and reuse that if removed, could better level the playing field with new construction, make heritage conservation expertise more accessible and address the lack of trades skilled in conservation techniques?

Topics will range from lessons learned in balancing intensification with heritage retention, to the practice of “facadism” as a conservation strategy in redevelopment, the barriers to future capacity building of traditional craftsmanship and trades, and the specific challenges of the conservation of heriatge interiors through a Quebec-based web-portal providing information on twelve recent Montreal projects that are the result of collaboration between artisans, architects, historians, designers, and students.
All presentations will conclude with an assessment about whether the lack of public value/investment in heritage (‘systemic barriers’) is a lack of social value for buildings representative of a non-inclusive historical narrative? And if so, what are the means and methods to address this?

Learning Objectives:

  • Upon completion, participant will be able to : Identify three systemic barriers to reuse and conservation of heritage buildings in our current socio-economic context and approaches to mitigating these.
  • Upon completion, participant will be able to : Compare the benefits and challenges of a redevelopment approach that retains only the façade of a building versus the entire structure in the context of the planning and design phase of a heritage architectural reuse project.
  • Upon completion, participant will be able to : Explain how the extent of conservation trade skills and expertise impacts the project management of a heritage conservation reuse project. Identify changes in policy and project management approaches to manage lack of availability of trades skilled in conservation.
  • Upon completion, participant will be able to : Identify the criteria in the development of a heritage interiors conservation project that are useful to document and disseminate to support success in similar future projects.

Presentations:

  • 10:30 AM – 10:50 AM EST
    (CS5.2) Heritage Masonry: Investigating the value of traditional building crafts in Canada and opportunities for capacity building

    Speaker: Nadia Grogan, MSc (she/her/hers) – Capital Conservation Services

    Session Chair: Sonya R. Jensen, MArch MSc OAA OAQ CAHP (she/her/hers) – DFS Architecture & Design

  • 10:50 AM – 11:10 AM EST
    (CS5.2) Heritage interiors: a digital space with tools dedicated to the documentation and promotion of heritage interiors and the local expertise necessary for their sustainability.

    Speaker: Mélissa Mars – Franchir les seuils

    Session Chair: Sonya R. Jensen, MArch MSc OAA OAQ CAHP (she/her/hers) – DFS Architecture & Design

  • 11:10 AM – 11:30 AM EST
    (CS5.2) Facadism: Heritage at Face Value

    Speaker: Janet Li, MArch (she/her/hers) – EVOQ Architecture

    Session Chair: Sonya R. Jensen, MArch MSc OAA OAQ CAHP (she/her/hers) – DFS Architecture & Design