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General Waterloo Region Heritage
#1
A thread for issues relating to our heritage that may not merit a new thread of their own.

Schneider Haus is proposing to demolish the two houses between it and Schneider Ave to expand its grounds and enhance its programming.  The two houses that would be demolished have been owned by the city for years.  They have the heritage designation of the neighbourhood, but seem to have no special heritage value in and of themselves.  You can follow the links through this CBC piece on the plan if you would like to comment on the proposal.  

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-...-1.4190117
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#2
Seems like there might be more opposition to tearing down the two neighbouring houses than I would have anticipated, going by Etherington's blog.

https://franketherington.ca/2017/07/05/h...ugat-site/
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#3
It's an interesting debate. If you knock the two houses down, it suggests that Heritage does imply something more than just "older building." The Schneider Haus is a very legitimate site, while the other two houses are so far out of the heritage neighbourhood core, and so unspecial within the heritage realm. If you don't knock down the houses, it suggests that Heritage implies nothing more than halting that which is new and different (in a manner not so estranged from anti-refugee rants), and the ability to preserve what is truly heritage and make it accessible (because what's the point in preserving heritage if it's not accessible for us to take public ownership and appreciation of?) doesn't matter at all.
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#4
The complicating factor here is that it's the whole neighbourhood, rather than the houses themselves, that's heritage designated. Personally, I'd favour the enhancement of the national historic site over the preservation of two houses of no special heritage value, but others would see it the other way around. I am sceptical about concerns over the "precedent" that demolition might set, since the proposal is so specific to Schneider Haus and its unique status in the neighbourhood. On the other hand, if in future, Schnieider house wanted to take out more houses for some reason, I'd likely have more concern.
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#5
There's a topic on Engage Waterloo Region for this now, which links to this pdf with more details.

   

   
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#6
Looks like they plan on taking down the massive spruces currently obscuring the house - a good idea.
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#7
(07-06-2017, 03:54 PM)KevinL Wrote: Looks like they plan on taking down the massive spruces currently obscuring the house - a good idea.

They are apparently not "heritage accurate".
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#8
Meanwhile in the deep south:

https://www.therecord.com/news-story/741...een-light/
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#9
Seems like a fun project:
Dear Kitchener Kick-off
Thursday, July 13, 2017 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM
Central Library Theatre

Join Taylor Jones, our Guest Librarian and Kitchener’s memory curator and creator of the popular Dear Photograph book and blog, as he launches his new Dear Kitchener (www.dearkitchener.com) project. Learn how you can participate in this photographic essay with your own photographs, history, and memories of Kitchener and Waterloo Region.

http://www.cbc.ca/kitchener-waterloo/fea...index.html
"Time capsules from a bygone era, they take on new resonance when juxtaposed against a present-day backdrop.

That’s the concept behind Dear Photograph, the brainchild of Waterloo, Ont. resident Taylor Jones. It’s a hugely popular website whose tagline reads “take a picture of a picture, from the past, in the present.”

Dear Photograph, which celebrated its second birthday on May 26, has been featured in international media, named one of Time’s best websites of 2011, and spawned a hardcover book.

CBC reached out to Taylor Jones to give the Dear Photograph treatment to landmarks in Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo. We spoke to him about Dear Photograph, and his latest venture Dandy, a crowdsourced app-development startup that he runs with Matt Scobel and Karl Allen-Muncey."
Everyone move to the back of the bus and we all get home faster.
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#10
The region is recommending demolishing the two houses next to Schneider haus.
Everyone move to the back of the bus and we all get home faster.
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#11
I found this article about the demolition of one of Terry Good's former houses on George Street in Mary-Allen very interesting. I live adjacent to this neighbourhood and have a lot of friends there, and find it a bit of a hotbed* for people who expect the neighbourhood to stay static and won't accept any kind of change or development.

Some of the quotes were interesting to me, as is the fact of the article. I know that "Many residents happy to see unmaintained house torn down for new development" is not a headline newspapers tend to print, but I have to imagine that would be equally as true as the headline they did print. I also take exception to the term "heritage advocates." Is a person a "heritage advocate" just because he or she wants the existing (all existing) preserved in his own neighbourhood?

*I'm sure, like most neighbourhoods, there is a good mixture between anti-development types and those willing to accept that neighbourhoods inevitably change...but Mary-Allen really often seems to skew towards the former more than most.
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#12
It's the same kind of attitude folks have towards the incredibly reasonable proposal for the ODC site, which bends over backwards to be visually obstructive to no one, and still seemed roundly pilloried for not being a half dozen single family homes.
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#13
I would say this is different. The ODC site is going to be higher density than the surrounding neighbourhood (which is a good change, in my opinion, but change nevertheless). The Mary-Allen development replaces a decrepit old house with a new house and a semi, forms that already exist in the neighbourhood.
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#14
I'd say it's not as drastic, as everything fronting the streets is 3-storey, and the entire site proposal has exactly one neighbour on Roger.
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#15
I've also noticed that there has been some houses upsized in the streets east of Westmount in the Westmount neighbourhood. It will be interesting to see how many builders are inspired to create something different rather than bland. For instance, there is what looks to be a fairly modernist house under construction at the moment which is visible from Westmount near Lourdes (the actual street name escapes me at the moment).
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