Planning Pool

The old New York Penn Station was demolished in 1963, sparking a new consciousness of heritage value and preservation. This 1962 photo is in the public domain.

In Canada, we’re fairly new to this whole heritage business. It’s taken some time, but we’re finally beginning to understand the intrinsic value of heritage buildings. If a building is in good repair and it “looks old”, it stands a good chance of being protected, at least in the major cities.

But what about the buildings that don’t look old? Across the country, stories have popped up of communities rallying around historic buildings constructed as recently as the 1960s. This begs the question: where does “old” stop and “new” begin?

These days, buildings from the 1950s and 60s don’t get very much … Continue Reading

Hundreds of Edmontonians came out to City Hall last Monday to support the second reading of the new draft growth plan, The Way We Grow. Thanks to Mastermaq on flickr for the wonderful Creative Commons photo!

Thanks largely to a local alliance of citizen advocates, the City of Edmonton, Canada, is moving forward with a draft Growth Plan that gets serious about food security. The Greater Edmonton Alliance, composed mostly of churches and unions, has played a key role in shaping the draft plan, entitled The Way We Grow. (A giant PDF file lurks behind the link, but is definitely worth a read.)

Edmonton is located at the northern edge of North America’s wheat belt and is surrounded by a wealth of productive farmland, especially … Continue Reading

Amity Gardens Shopping Center, 2007 via Groceteria

Amity Gardens Shopping Center was a popular shopping center in Charlotte, NC, during the 1950s. Now, the blighted strip mall is slated to be bulldozed and replaced with a Walmart with the hopes of revitalizing the area.

According to Groceteria:
The Winn-Dixie at Charlotte’s Amity Gardens Shopping Center opened in November of 1958, right in the middle of the most thriving retail strip in the city. The center also included Woolworth’s and a Barclay Cafeteria. By 1961, it also included Charlotte’s first (and only) branch of Clark’s, an early “supercenter” with both general merchandise and groceries.

Mike’s post about silver linings to bad economic times struck a chord in my mind.  One upside, as he pointed out, can be necessary structural change. A second kind of silver lining might be the preservation of buildings or land uses that in good times would be uneconomical.  These could be valuable for cultural, community or heritage reasons.

Maybe I am just feeling philosophical because I spent the evening attending St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in Gastown. This well loved heritage district in Vancouver has plenty of character, and is home to architecture dating mostly from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This makes it one of the oldest neighbourhoods in an absurdly young city.

Gastown photo by Sea Turtle

From the 1930s to the 1960s, … Continue Reading