Newsletter
In our DECEMBER 2008 issue you'll find…
-> Grande Prairie’s Central Park School Out of Limbo?
-> "Historic preservation is not the answer to
every urban problem. But it is part of the answer to most of
them."
-> "Building a Future for our Past - Main
Street and Municipal Forum
-> New Designations
Grande Prairie’s Central
Park School Out of Limbo?
On March 19, 2007, the roof of the Prairie Art Gallery’s south wing collapsed due to an overload of snow and ice. Now over a year and a half later, the future of the remaining structure remains uncertain, despite engineers’ reports indicating the viability of the building and the efforts of local citizens’ groups to save it.
The two-storey red brick building was built in 1929 in response to the growing need for secondary education in the region. One of only two Provincial Historic Resources in Grande Prairie, the school was designated in 1984 at the request of the city. Although the school closed its doors to students in the 1960s, the building lived on and became home to the Prairie Art Gallery. Since then, it has been a centre for cultural life in the growing municipality.
Culture and community have both grown in Grande Prairie in recent years. Before the roof collapsed, the city had already announced its plans to construct a state of the art building, the Montrose Cultural Centre, to house the city’s library as well as part of the Art Gallery’s collection. Now, with the second storey of the school’s south wing in ruins, the city council has put forward a request to demolish the remaining building.
The city has some understandable and reasonable concerns that have brought them to this decision, particularly regarding the costs and actual ability to restore the site as a functional building that meets current building codes and retains future functionality. Furthermore, it is already investing in a new cultural centre nearby. The temptation to close the door on the past and step boldly into the future with new construction is immense.
Prior to the release of a letter from Minister Blackett indicating the Province’s preference for preserving the building, Lois Harper, Recreation & Culture Manager with the City of Grande Prairie stated that as the school "is a designated Provincial Historic Resource, Council may revisit its position". Grande Prairie City Council is now anticipated to present a paper with the various options for the building early in 2009.
Robert Steven, Executive Director of the Prairie Art Gallery has stated the Gallery and its Board have always supported the preservation of the building and points out that they had instigated its designation in 1983. "However, we are an art gallery, not a preservation group. As a "Category A" collecting institution, we must ensure that our Gallery meets certain technical requirements – largely humidity and temperature controls – and it is not clear to us if this would be possible. We have been fundraising for the new centre for some time, and we have little left after that to contribute to the preservation effort other than our insurance settlement, so the extent of the preservation and the possibility of meeting those requirements are beyond our control and depend on the City and Province’s contributions." Mr Steven goes on to remark that the Art Gallery has placed its trust in the city to make the best decision for all involved.
Not everyone shares this opinion, however. The nebulous situation with the school has spurred the Grande Prairie High School Reunion/Preservation Committee to action. Over the years the committee has raised thousands of dollars for the maintenance of the school based on its status as a designated historic resource.
Committee Chair, Roy Bickell comments "In our region, there are practically no heritage buildings, this was one of the very few. It is a good building, unique to the area, and with maintenance and restoration, it could last another 100 years. It could continue to serve as the home to the art gallery, as a civic museum, part of the new library or even a conference centre." The Committee has written to both Minister Blackett and the local MLA, Wayne Drysdale, to express their concerns.
"We are hoping they will do what’s right and save the building" says Mr. Bickell, "if it’s torn down, it’s gone forever."
"Historic
preservation is not the answer to every urban problem. But it is
part of the answer to most of them."
When it comes to advocating the benefits of built heritage, there are few individuals as out-spoken, experienced and illuminating as Donovan Rypkema. An ongoing consultant to the National Trust for Historic Preservation and its National Main Street Center, Mr. Rypkema has undertaken assignments in 49 states as well as in the District of Columbia.
Mr. Rypkema was the keynote speaker at the re-launch of Alberta Main Street and at the second annual Municipal Forum held in Calgary on November 21. In addition, he presented a free public lecture on "The Value of Historic Places in an Energy and Information Economy" at Calgary’s Uptown Stage and Screen on Thursday, November 20.
I spoke with Mr. Rypkema between his engagements and am pleased to offer some excerpts from our discussion (Mr. Rypkema’s response in italics).
On November 20 you spoke to a gathering of Alberta Main Street Program coordinators and municipal representatives. What does a successful Main Street program look like to you?
It has an active committee framework encompassing all four of the elements of Main Street – Organization, Design, Economic Restructuring, and Promotion. It has become an influential community voice, certainly for the downtown area, but on other areas of local concern as well. It has become an alternative path to broader community leadership. And it has reached a level of instutionalization that it doesn't have to beg and borrow just to stay in business for one more year.
What are the main stumbling block communities come across in the program and what can be done to best avoid them?
The largest stumbling block is the erroneous idea that the downtown area can be "fixed" and once it is Main Street (or other downtown revitalization efforts) are no longer needed. Downtown is a business. And the inventory of that business is the businesses, buildings, and public spaces within the downtown. Businesses need ongoing management. Take the most successful business in any Canadian city; take away its management for a year and what will you have? A business in bankruptcy. Downtown is the same way. It needs ongoing management or future failure is almost inevitable.
On your blog, you write that "all preservation is local" – what do you mean by that and what role do you see preservation taking in municipal planning?
An American politician once said that all politics is local. And at least in the States, and I strongly suspect in Canada, that principle applies to preservation as well. The buildings and places that we, individually, care about are the ones that have played and are playing an ongoing role in our daily lives; the buildings and places that are part of our individual memories. In any country there are a handful of exceptions, of course, buildings, structures and places of national importance to which there is a national commitment. But the overwhelming number of heritage buildings that are worthy of preservation are those that daily touch the lives of the citizens in that community. I don't care, frankly, what happens to the buildings in your town, nor do you care about what happens to the buildings in mine. We care about those buildings important in our own lives that we can touch. That's why all preservation is local.
Your lecture on November 20 was entitled "The Value of Historic Places in an Energy and Information Economy" - a particularly relevant issue for us here in Alberta as we are a relatively young province, having just celebrated our centenary in 2005, and also one of the main engines of the Canadian economy. Without wanting you to repeat it all, why does heritage matter?
Today both energy and information are globalized commodities, moving rather rapidly from one part of the world to another. At the beginning of the "internet age" there was much speculation that since we could all be instantly internationally connected, the importance of our particular physical place would fall in importance. In fact the opposite has been true. Information exists in a nebulous space; people exist in a physical space. And when we have almost unlimited choices where we can be, the place where we choose to be needs to be a place of quality and a place of differentiation. Heritage buildings are one of the most important components that give a community both quality and differentiation. It will be an increasingly expensive mistake to lose them.
At a point when global recession appears imminent, can heritage preservation be an economic priority?
Not only can it be, it needs to be. Preservation has been a counter-cyclical activity – remaining active when the rest of the construction industry is dead. Further preservation overwhelmingly creates local jobs and local income, an important factor during any recession. And there are very few economic activities that – dollar for dollar – generate the combination of local jobs and local household income than does heritage conservation. The evidence of this is a hearing next March at the European Parliament in Brussels entitled, "Heritage Conservation as Counter-Cyclical Economic Development during Financial Downturns."
If you are interested in finding out more about Donavon Rypkema, check his blog at http://www.placeeconomics.com/blog.html. In addition to his biography, you can read about some of his travels and talks, as well as how heritage conservation can be a leading tool in foreign relations. Click the following links for PDF copies of Rypkema's presentation at Alberta Main Street and his Evening Lecture.
Building a Future for our
Past - Main Street and Municipal Forum
On November 20 and 21, the staff of the Municipal Heritage Program (MHPP) descended on Calgary for two significant events marking the augmented role of built heritage in Alberta: the re-launch of the well-known Alberta Main Street Program (November 20), and the second annual Municipal Heritage Forum (November 21). The two events are the culmination of almost a year’s work by MHPP.
Now marking its 20th year of operations, the Alberta Main Street Program has undergone significant changes to enhance the program’s focus on conservation and to protect its considerable investment of public and private funds. Following several months of intense consultation and analysis, the revised program was formally unveiled to representatives of 21 Alberta municipalities, including the Main Street alumni communities.
As Matthew Francis, head of Municipal Heritage Services stated in his address to the attendees "It’s not just about paying tribute to our historic places – these places have to live and that is what the work we have done on the new main street program is all about."
Although Main Street continues to emphasis the development of historic commercial areas within Alberta’s municipalities, program eligibility and certification criteria have been augmented to address outstanding concerns regarding community engagement and to encourage community-driven heritage management. These changes include a mandatory Municipal Heritage Inventory for any communities considering participating, and a "critical mass" of historic places within the proposed area, as well as the community‘s commitment to fund and maintain a program coordinator. Full program details will be available on the Alberta Main Street Program’s website.
The next day saw almost 70 people attended the second annual Municipal Heritage Forum at the historic Loughheed House - almost twice the number that participated in the first Forum in 2007. The event was created to empower municipalities through networking opportunities with their peers from across the Province and to offer workshops on common challenges facing Alberta’s diverse heritage sector.
Keynote speaker Donovan Rypkema offered an engaging look at the economics of heritage preservation, the event also included presentations on engaging the community in heritage planning by David Plouffe and Darryl Cariou (City of Calgary Heritage Planning) and the adaptive reuse of historic places of faith in Alberta by Camille Girard-Ruel (Heritage Canada Foundation) and Tom Ward (Head, Heritage Conservation Advisory Services).
The sessions provided the catalyst for intense discussion among participants as they probed the session leaders and each other to find individual solutions to common problems. Ultimately, this inter-connectivity is the goal of the forum as Alberta’s built heritage spans the breadth and width of the province, including urban and rural environments and the challenges inherent with such a diverse geography. Already, plans are being draw up for the 2009 Forum which will build on the success of this year’s event and further support the future of historic places in Alberta.
Pictures from the November 20 re-launch of the Alberta Main Street Program are here. Photos of the 2008 municipal forum are available here.
New
Designations
The designation committee has been quite busy and several sites have been designated as Provincial Historic Resources and are listed on the Alberta Register of Historic Places as well as the Canadian Register of Historic Places. Follow the links below to the appropriate entry on the register.
- Alberta Wheat Pool Grain Elevator, Paradise Valley
- Canadian Pacific Railway Station, Paradise Valley
- Canadian Northern Railway Station, Fort Saskatchewan
- Strathcona Collegiate Institution, Edmonton
- Alberta Wheat Pool Elevator and Bow Slope Stockyards, Scandia
- Isolation Hospital, Lethbridge
- St. Ambrose Anglican Church, Redcliff
If you have questions, comments or something that you would like to see included in a future issue of RETROactive, please contact:
Richard Horne, Communications Coordinator
Historic Places Stewardship
Alberta Culture and Community Spirit
To read our archival newsletters, please click on the issue below: