Whose Neighborhood is it anyway?

What is your vision for your neighbourhood? If it includes a strong sense of community and buildings that respect the past while keeping construction and renovations within the scope and scale of the rest of the neighbourhood then your vision is a shared vision.

Preserving the heritage of a community goes beyond protecting its bricks and mortar. True preservation encompasses not only architectural resources but also the shared experiences of living in a community. It’s just that heritage buildings symbolize these values so well because they are tangible symbols of these ideals. Alone, an older building may signify the development of a city and a neighbourhood. It may represent a unique architectural style or method of construction which is important in itself. But it is when the building is put in the context of its community that it attains the highest and most meaningful value.

How many of your memories are tied to your neighbourhood? Did you or members of your family attend school there? Have coffee at the local coffee shop? Dine and dance at the Stardust? Play tennis? See a movie at the Paramount? These experiences are shared and part of the collective memories of a community.

Many urban centers across this country are under tremendous pressure to manage their growth. Our own city’s history is full of examples of the destruction of our heritage buildings every time there was a “boom” in our economy and today is no different. Massive projects are built in neighbourhoods that were never built with the infrastructure to support them. Perfectly good buildings are torn down at the developer’s whim to make room for faceless condos or luxury units.

In many cases, the public is “green washed”. This new term describes the rationalization that some developers use to tear down buildings in an effort to create energy efficiency by replacing them with new buildings. The cost of removal, the effect on our landfills, and the loss of energy that was expended to create the building in the first place is conveniently absent in their presentations.

Ironically, the prize for a recent CMHC (Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation) competition for the most energy efficient house was awarded to a group of designers and environmentalists who retrofitted a 60 year war time house (originally known as a Victory House). See it for yourself at www.nowhouseproject.com/ .

Passivity and complacency is the enemy. Too many neighbourhoods in cities and towns everywhere have lost their heritage buildings to the wrecking ball that made way for condos or monster “McMansions”.

Good design does not cost more than bad design. Good design takes the environment, the scale of the buildings around a proposed project, and the “feeling” of a neighbourhood into consideration. Bad design does not.

This is an important issue that we need to become aware of and act collectively. Our elected officials need to know how important heritage is to its residents. Awareness of this issue is an important first step.