Celebrate Our Heritage

Heritage Day is an opportunity to celebrate the architectural heritage and historic places of Canada. The Heritage Canada Foundation promotes the third Monday in February each year as Heritage Day and has long advocated adopting this date as a national holiday.

This year, HCF is celebrating Heritage and the Environment: Saving Places Built to Last. A number of useful resources are now available to assist communities to develop a program around this theme—whether it is to celebrate the inherently green credentials of historic buildings, highlight how they have been upgraded to more environmentally friendly standards, or to offer information on how to “green” a heritage building.

Fact and Stats – How sustainability and heritage fit together:

• Facts and Stats sheet

“How To” – A series of articles on upgrading and repairing historic windows:

• Windows in Historic Buildings: Sustainable, Repairable by Susan Turner, presents an overview on maintaining and upgrading wood windows.
• Repair or Replace: Arriving at a Sustainable Solution by Craig Sims and Andrew Powter, examines the myths associated with window replacement, the durability of traditional window systems and the standards by which window performance is measured in Canada.
• Maintenance and Repair of Historic Wood Windows by Craig Sims and Andrew Powter, describes the common maintenance and repair techniques for typical traditional wood window problems.
• Improving Thermal Performance of Historic Windows by Craig Sims and Andrew Powter, describes the basics of window thermal performance and a range of strategies for optimizing the thermal performance of traditional windows.

“How To” – A two-part series on preserving wood siding on historic buildings:

• Keeping Wood Siding on Historic Buildings by Andrew Powter,describes the advantages of retaining historic siding materials and identifies some of the disadvantages of installing modern materials like aluminium or vinyl over the original siding. It also describes the repair and refinishing of wood siding.
•  Repairing Wood Siding on Historic Buildings: Runciman House by Andrew Powter, is a case study of siding repair methods used in the restoration of the 200-year-old Runciman House in Annapolis Royal, N.S.

Heritage Conservation Briefs

• Climate Change
• Durability & Energy Efficiency
• Energy & Waste Conservation
• Smart Growth
• Sustainable Development

Examples of “Green” Heritage Initiatives:

• Saving Heritage is Key to Sustainable Development by Susan M. Ross, Heritage Magazine, spring, 2006 looks at the challenges in trying to meet both heritage conservation and sustainability goals using the Winnipeg’s Red River College project as a case study.
• Reusing Our Industrial Heritage by A.B. McCullough, Heritage Magazine, winter, 2002 examines how new uses can extend the lives of industrial buildings by drawing on examples from across Canada.
• Sustainable Development Using Municipal Heritage Incentives by Eric Hanson, HCF Conference Proceedings, Heritage and Sustainability: Canadian Communities and Kyoto, 2005 uses Peterborough, Ontario’s historic downtown as a case study.
• Heritage and Sustainability – Lessons Learned in America by Donovan Rypkema, HCF Conference Proceedings, Heritage and Sustainability: Canadian Communities and Kyoto, 2005.
• Ecological Building by Dr. Mark Gorgolewski, HCF Conference Proceedings, Heritage and Sustainability: Canadian Communities and Kyoto, 2005 focuses on the huge impact buildings have on the environment.

Coming Events

Climate change. Green building. Economic renewal. Affordable housing. Old buildings have answers for the biggest questions of our generation. Join us in Toronto for HCF’s annual conference:

The Heritage Imperative: Old Buildings in an Age of Environmental Crisis
Toronto, Ontario
September 24-26, 2009
Fairmont Royal York Hotel

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