Industrial Strength conference well attended
The first Industrial Strength conference, devoted to the Canadian industrial heritage, took place from Oct 21-24 in Hamilton. A hundred and fifteen delegates from all over the country took part in two days of paper sessions, preceded by an opening reception at the City’s 1858 pumphouse on the Wednesday evening, and followed by a day of bus-touring.
You can download the conference program In English here or in French here.
During a side meeting initiated by Ian McGillivray (McGillivray Architects Toronto) and chaired by Janet Wright (Parks Canada Calgary) Co-Chair of the conference organizing committee, it was agreed to maintain the web site put in place for the conference, and to develop it as a portal for Canadian industrial heritage sites, projects and information exchange. (www.industrialstrengthconference.ca)
In another sign of the steady maturation of this field, ICOMOS members attending the conference were told at their AGM, held after the conclusion of the paper sessions on Friday, that ICOMOS Canada is acting as the lead to produce an integrated draft of the proposed ICOMOS-TICCIH Guidelines for the Conservation of Industrial Heritage.
On Saturday simultaneous bus tours went to Toronto, to the Distillery District. For history visit www.distilleryheritage.com and various sites along the Niagara Escarpment and in Hamilton, including Morningstar Mill (for some details, go to www.morningstarmill.ca and the De Cew generating station, built 1898 and presently being refurbished to continue operating. We went also to the City of Hamilton’s central waste recycling depot, and to the Siemens plant, where gas turbines are manufactured. (Very impressive, but no cameras allowed.)
