One would not normally associate Edmonton with the word ‘heritage’, places like Halifax, Victoria, St. John’s, Quebec City usually spring to mind. So it may come as a surprise to some that the City was recently awarded the Prince of Wales Prize for Outstanding Stewardship of the Built Heritage. Sure, we may not have the built history that many older places such as those already mentioned have, but we certainly do have a heritage program worth cheering about.
Our Historic Resources Management Program and Plan developed over that last few decades is in a position where it is able to wield significant influence when trying to ensure that our heritage buildings are saved in some fashion.
As the City of Edmonton has somewhat limiting legislation to protect buildings against an owners wishes, it has had to develop and rely on a variety of incentives and flexibility in its approaches. We arguably have one of the most generous heritage programs in the Country in terms of what is afforded to participating resources. The grants are significant and the Planning system is very accommodating. We give grants, issue variances, buy and resell buildings (to non profits), donate materials/buildings, develop policies and position statements for various plans and incentives, etc. Basically, we try to explore all avenues to meet our mission, which is to “identify, facilitate, protect, manage and promote the preservation and reuse of historic resources..”.
Ideally we try to take the purist approach in any redevelopment, and many owners are willing to go this route. However, our program’s flexibility accommodates new desired changes or expansions, where owners can’t or won’t take the purist route. Consequently, we now have a significant number of buildings whose core heritage values have been retained and will be enjoyed by many more generations. Another significant factor to our success is our Mayor and Councillors have been and are extremely supportive and been great enablers.
As a result the City of Edmonton was awarded the Prince of Wales Prize, in recognition of what the program has done and where it plans to go. We are truly honoured.
The biggest award though was the Prize was actually presented by HRH The Prince of Wales himself. It is not often than one gets to meet Royalty, let alone be invited to meet them. So it was an honour for myself and my colleague, Robert Geldart, to accompany his Worship Mayor Mandel to receive the award on behalf of the City. For those who may not know, HRH is deeply committed to creating better ways of planning, designing and building and, thus, it was no surprise that he was extremely well informed about our program and the issues related to saving and redeveloping historic buildings. (visit the Prince’s Foundation). HRH was very ‘gracious, engaging and very funny’ to quote the Mayor, and certainly something we will remember well. The Prize certainly will enable the City to continue to pursue new initiatives and raise the profile of our significant heritage buildings so that they can be saved and incorporated into new development.
Interestingly, HRH has been and is belittled by many professional associations for ‘interfering’. Well, he is right to do so. This Award is one such way in which Heritage, in this case, and the whole debate around good design practices are brought to the fore as a significant name has been lent to a cause. We need to raise the bar for Edmontonians and keep it there, so that heritage preservation and good design practice is the norm, regardless of the actual architectural styles. We are getting there, the Edmonton Design Committee is encouraging developers to raise their standards, and our Heritage Program looks at the merits of good design and use, regardless of the applicants architectural style preferences. We all want good preservation and design, and I hope that HRH the Prince of Wales’ Prize will raise the profile of Edmonton’s built heritage to enable us to pursue new initiatives and ensure that our heritage resources become an integral part our future. Our Prize will help.