Event

Ontario Place: Towards an Inclusive Preservation Dialogue

An On My Watch Event

This event is part of the On My Watch series and took place virtually on Thursday, January 7, 2021, at 12 PM (EST). See below for more information on the discussion, including the event recording, description, and speaker information. 

Event Description 

Once a shining example of government support for the arts, education, and recreation, today, Ontario Place is endangered by redevelopment plans. Included on the 2020 World Monuments Watch, the site is challenging architects, urban planners, and community organizations to reimagine its role as a public space within a broader strategy for urban revitalization and community gathering around the arts.  

WMF in collaboration with Architectural Conservancy Ontario and the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of Toronto launched The Future of Ontario Place project last summer to build public knowledge of the heritage values of the site, and to imagine its future as a public cultural asset for all Ontarians.

On Thursday, January 7 at 12 PM EST, join us for an online discussion on the future of Ontario Place and the challenge of reimagining Modernist heritage in competing public and private spaces within a broader urban landscape. The conversation will feature Aziza Chaouni, architect and professor at the University of Toronto; Ken Greenberg, local Torontonian, urban designer, and member of the group “Ontario Place for All;" and Charles Stankievech, Canadian artist, Director of Visual Studies and Associate Professor of the Daniels Faculty of Architecture. Moderated by WMF Program Manager Javier Ors Ausín

Date: Thursday, 7 January
Time: 12 PM (EST) 


About the Speakers

 

Aziza Chaouni

Architect and professor at the University of Toronto

Aziza Chaouni is founding principal of Aziza Chaouni Projects and Assistant Professor at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, where she leads Designing Ecological Tourism (DET) — a collaborative research platform that investigates the challenges faced by ecotourism in the developing world. She holds a Master of Architecture with distinction from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Science with Honors in Civil Engineering from Columbia University. Chaouni’s personal research is focused both on developing world design issues and on methodologies to integrate architecture and landscape, and more particularly through investigating the potential of green technologies in arid climates.

 

Ken Greenberg

Local Torontonian, urban designer, and member of the group “Ontario Place for All"

Ken Greenberg is an urban designer, teacher, writer, former Director of Urban Design and Architecture for the City of Toronto and Principal of Greenberg Consultants. For over four decades he has played a pivotal role on public and private assignments in urban settings throughout North America and Europe, focusing on the rejuvenation of downtowns, waterfronts, neighborhoods and on campus master planning, regional growth management, and new community planning. Ken Greenberg’s work sits at the intersection of urban design, architecture, landscape, mobility, social and economic development. He is the recipient of the 2010 American Institute of Architects Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Design Excellence and the 2014 Sustainable Buildings Canada Lifetime Achievement Award.

 

Charles Stankievech

Director of Visual Studies and Associate Professor in the Daniels Faculty of Architecture 

Charles Stankievech is a Canadian artist whose research has explored issues such as the notion of “fieldwork” in the embedded landscape, the military industrial complex, and the history of technology. His diverse body of work has been shown internationally, including at the Louisiana Museum, Copenhagen; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; and the Venice Architecture and SITE Santa Fe Biennales. He was a founding faculty member of the Yukon School of Visual Arts in Dawson City, Canada and is currently Assistant Professor in the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto.  Since 2011, he has been co-director of the art and theory press K. Verlag in Berlin.

 

Javier Ors Ausín

WMF Program Manager and lead for the Future of Ontario Place project

Javier is an architect with experience in architecture, urban planning, and project management. He joined WMF in 2017 and manages the Modern Architecture initiative and Jewish Heritage program. He also helps coordinate WMF’s Crisis Response Program. Javier has developed his career as an architect and heritage specialist in Spain, India, and the US, including work at the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Washington DC. He has presented research at the Royal Geographical Society, the Society of Architectural Historians, and ICOMOS. Javier holds a Master in Architecture from the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia in Spain, and a Master in Critical Conservation from Harvard University.


About On My Watch

On My Watch is a series of conversations inviting architects, urban planners, preservationists, local stakeholders, and WMF project managers to explore the political, cultural, and technical issues around the preservation of at-risk cultural heritage sites on the World Monuments Watch around the world. 


This event is hosted in partnership with the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

This program has been approved for AIA 1.5 LU / HSW credits. ​​​​​​