Heritage preservation is in trouble in Hogtown.
Developers filling the sky with cranes to erect ever-taller glass condo towers seem to care enough about heritage to go to great expense to save the facades of notable buildings and incorporate others into their designs. It’s at least a nod to the value of our architectural history.
But our entire planning system is more geared to the idea that bigger is better than to preservation. Heritage concerns are typically excluded from the broader planning and development process. At the political level, elected officials are largely unaware of the environmental benefits and economic value of protecting Toronto’s built past.
We have heritage policies, but they’re frequently not enforced.
These problems and others, like the need for more funding for Heritage Preservation Services and strengthening the Ontario Heritage Act, were identified in Heritage Toronto’s and the Toronto Historical Association’s Heritage Voices report released a year ago last month.
The rush to intensification makes those concerns more pressing today.
Not everything that’s old can be saved. The loss of fantastic buildings to make room for development will continue, and we’re all going to miss them.
But increasing development pressure is posing an even greater threat. That’s to our main streets, where lands are being assembled for future development.
What will happen to long stretches in the older areas of Toronto, along Spadina, for example, or parts of College and Yonge already zoned to encourage high-rise development?
Businesses there are surviving month to month, but the operating principle from a heritage perspective is to save landmarks only where feasible.
Catherine Nasmith, president of the Toronto Architectural Conservancy, says main streets are our old-growth forests. They breathe life into the fabric of our city.
Replacing huge chunks of them with updated retail spaces at higher rents that only big brands can afford would push out the mixed uses that contribute to economic vitality and make our streets walkable.
The real danger of undervaluing heritage? The loss of spaces that encourage enterprise and innovation.
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