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SYMP AT HET I C D E C O NS T RU C T I O N:
THE TIMELESS MATERIAL COMPANY BY CHRIS TIESSEN When I was a kid growing up in Kitchener,
often enough our excursions would take on an
my dad used to pile my brother and me into
almost elegiac tone, given that my pops would,
the back seat of our ancient 1971 Mercury
without fail, also grieve those empty lots
Marquis Brougham (a true ‘land barge’) and
where a good number of our region’s most
drive us downtown. Not to hit up the park for
impressive edifices had been demolished. He
ice cream. Or to go to the movies. Instead,
drew our attention to ‘buildings gone missing
he’d tour us around the outskirts of the core
like teeth,’ as Winnipeg band The Weakerthans
– pointing out the old factories and historic
would come to sing.
buildings that had once played a prominent role in the city’s rise to fame as an industrial powerhouse. To
be
lament profoundly affected my sense of a community’s identity and my understanding
sure,
pilgrimages
Looking back, I see how these excursions of
these
generally
semi-regular hit
a
urban
of how delicately intertwined its history is with
somewhat
its architecture. In fact, these tours made me
celebratory note. Of past glory. Of grand
acutely interested in architectural history and
industrial architecture. And occasionally they
preservation – and in the historical dynamics
acknowledged future potential, too. However,
that shape amazing adaptive re-use projects
