Heritage preservation work can be tricky business, says Fredericton architect
By Bobbi-Jean MacKinnon
Telegraph-Journal
Saint John's CenterBeam Place was showcased to architects from
across the country over the weekend as an example of a successful
heritage revitalization and restoration project.
About
32 architects, who were in Saint John for the New Brunswick Architects
Association's annual general meeting, toured the uptown facility with
lead architect Tom Johnson on Saturday.
"We want our members to
take high-level knowledge home with them for use on heritage properties
in their own communities," said association president Gaye Kapkin, of
DFS Inc. Architects of Saint John.
Any architect who does
business in the province, not just those who call New Brunswick home,
have to be members of the association, she said.
Ed Goguen, of Goguen and Company in Fredericton, was impressed by what he saw.
"It's
a very nice project," he said of the block of historic buildings being
rehabilitated by Irving-owned Commercial Properties Limited.
He
pointed to the installation of elevators, a modern heating system and
ventilation system as examples of work that's been done while still
maintaining the historic integrity of the buildings bound by Prince
William, King, Grannan, and Canterbury streets.
Heritage work
can be tricky business, said Mr. Goguen, an architect for 25 years. The
goals of a client and historic preservationists are often at odds and
the architect is usually "caught in the middle."
It's also very expensive and government funding has been lacking, he said.
Meanwhile,
the latest push for so-called green buildings, or energy-conserving
buildings, has made the work even more complicated, said Mr. Goguen.
Drafty
old windows, for example, are easier and cheaper to replace with new
replicas, but heritage groups prefer that original windows be
maintained.
"I'd like to do more (heritage work), but it's a real challenge," Mr. Goguen said.
Peter Fellows, of Fellows and Company in Fredericton, agrees.
He
recalls bidding on a job on a federally owned building in Fredericton
and "butting heads" with the officials in Ottawa. It was an early 1900s
building with a 1950s extension. Mr. Fellows wanted to tear off the
addition because he felt it had ruined the original building. But new
guidelines prohibited that because the addition showed the evolution of
the building over time.
"I don't think you'd get every architect agreeing on that," Mr. Fellows said.
Even CenterBeam Place, which he described as "well done," didn't follow all of the guidelines. It couldn't, he said.
In
the lobby of 14 King St., for example, four esthetically pleasing
wooden columns probably shouldn't have been covered up, said Mr.
Fellows, who's been in the business for 34 years.
But the original cast iron columns underneath weren't strong enough to hold the new floor loading of the building.
"There has to be more give and take between what the pure people want and what's real, what's feasible," he said.
With
phase one of CenterBeam under his belt, Mr. Johnson, of Thomas Johnson
Architect Inc., admits the work along Prince William Street and half of
King Street has been a balancing act.
"The government is
offering money for conservation, but sometimes, on a big project like
this, conservation is not really how you want to go."
The new brick wall that faces the Grannan Street courtyard, for example, was the "dingy back end, service yard and parking lot.
"Historically
to conserve that would have been pointless. It wouldn't have given it
the lift that it really needs," he said, noting that the courtyard is
the focal point of the project.
"We had to do some things for
the good of the project which were not really what the federal
government had in mind" and didn't qualify for funding.
Still,
Mr. Johnson, who blushed at the applause at the end of the tour, is
clearly proud of the work to date. "It's been a tough job bringing
these buildings back to life, let me tell you."
Phase two, which
includes the second half of the portion of CenterBeam Place facing King
Street and all of the Canterbury Street side, should be ready to accept
new tenants in about four months, he said.
Dianne VanDommelen,
of Architects Four in Moncton, is anxious to apply what she learned
about the project to work her firm is doing for the Association
Regional de la Communaute francophone de Saint-Jean (Saint John's
regional francophone association) on the old Bank of New Brunswick
building at 125 Prince William St.
ARCf hopes to use the
five-storey building, located in the Trinity Royal heritage
preservation area, for a variety of French services, including a
live-music club, a bistro or café-style restaurant, retail space, a
welcome centre, office space and meeting rooms.
Renovations to the 14,000-square-foot heritage building are expected to cost more than $1 million.
Mrs.
VanDommelen, in the business for 22 years, could not say whether ARCf
plans to apply for federal funding, but "there are some basic good
principles to follow" on heritage projects, she said. "It's made me
more aware."
The 74th annual general meeting of the architects
association also included a Building Green in 2006 trade show and
educational workshops.
Architects attending the New Brunswick Architects Association’s annual meeting took a tour of the newly restored CenterBeam Place Saturday. They ended the tour here, in the courtyard on Grannan Street.
