Ontario Old Mills

This week the Heritage Resoruces Centre got an e-mail asking for examples of sucessful adaptive reuses of old mills in Ontario. I thought I would share our answer to the e-mail:

The Landmark Group has several successful restaurants in old mills, including the Ancaster Old Mill, The Elora Mill  the Cambridge Old Mill.

Toronto also has a restaurant and spa in their old mill while the Alton Mill has been turned into an arts centre.

You might also find some useful information in our study The Lazarus Effect: An Exploration of the Economics of Heritage Development in Ontario

This facebook group on Old Mills in Ontario might also be of interest.  

A twitter chat on Built Heritage!

Yesterday was the first built heritage chat on Twitter. There were over 100 pariticpants from all over North America.

Details on the chat can be found here

The full transcript of the chat can be found here

The next one will take place on April 6th at 4pm. Follow the hashtag #builtheritage for updates and to participate.

New Use for an Old Cannery

An interesting article about adaptive reuse: A 19th-century cannery in coastal Delaware is shipping a new product these days: beer.

Read the full story here

Doors Open Hamilton: Studios at Hotel Hamilton

The Studios at Hotel Hamilton:

Originally built in 1887 as a commercial building and expanded in 1905 to a hotel for soldiers. The building has been revitalized to include 19 studios, a ground floor café, gallery and more. Historical elements that still remain from its colourful past include the hand-laid terrazzo floor and custom plaster ceiling in the ground floor café, exposed brick walls, original fire doors, and high ceilings.
Photos by Kayla Jonas

Learn more about the Studios at Hotel Hamilton

Stay tuned this week for other Doors Open Hamilton Buildings: MacMaster University Buildings.

Doors Open Hamilton: Stinson School

Stinson School:

Once upon a time schools were important-looking buildings, with baronial architecture, imposing stone walls, arched entrances and grand wooden interiors. Constructed in 1894, Hamilton's Stinson School is amongst the last of its kind. By good fortune the building has been designated historic and is now in the process of conversion into unique residential apartments.
Photos by Kayla Jonas

Learn more about the Stinson School
Follow the progress at the Stinson School Journal


Stay tuned this week for other Doors Open Hamilton Buildings: The Studios at Hamilton Hotel and MacMaster University Buildings.

Innovative Program to Encourage Adaptive Reuse in Pheniox

The City of Pheonix has an innovative way to encourage adaptive reuse of buildings. They have created a special office within their Development Services Department to ease the process of adaptivley reusing buildings. According to the article:

The program streamlined processes, focusing on eliminating certain rules or codes to make it cheaper and simpler to renovate and reuse older buildings, according to Mark Leonard, director of the development department. And entrepreneurs also are allowed to use the building codes that were in place when the structure was built, as long as safety isn't compromised.

Read the whole article

LEED and Historic Buildings

The National Post recently wrote about LEED Certification for two historic building that have been adaptively reused.

Interestingly, it appeared in the business section.