Architect Jonathan Yardley received five awards and notices of recognition at a ceremony held by Heritage B.C. earlier this month.
Yardley’s work in partnership with Commonwealth Historic Resource Management earned him Heritage B.C.’s highest honour for 2010. He was awarded the Outstanding Achievement Award for the Woodward’s Project in Vancouver, which involved restoring the iconic department store built between 1903 and 1908, creating new mixed use for the space and helping revitalize the Downtown Eastside.
Yardley’s work on the five-year project began with assisting Commonwealth Historic Resource Management to devise a heritage conservation plan for the development. He later became the conservation architect for the heritage building.
Yardley described the project as the kind of “win-win thing where you’ve actually saved some of the building but you’ve also used that to allow new things to happen.”
Complicated seismic upgrades within the existing unsupported masonry walls have allowed the original building to retain its look while becoming safe enough to house a daycare facility on its roof. Some of the space within the building has been dedicated to lease to nonprofit groups.
Other restorations saw the building’s red paint, applied during the 1940s or ‘50s, removed while leaving the original signs, painted on the walls around 1918, intact. The team removed the iconic W sign, which it put on display on the main level, and restored the original one in its place.
Yardley received another Outstanding Achievement Award for his work on the Abbotsford Sikh Temple, built in 1911. The temple is the oldest one in North America and has been recognized as a National Historic Site.
Working with the Sikh community was a highlight of the project for Yardley, who noted the “incredibly good relationship” he had working with the temple’s directors.
His contribution to restoring the Salt Building in the Olympic athletes’ village earned Yardley a Heritage B.C. Award of Honour. The building was constructed in 1930 to house salt shipments that arrived by freighter from San Francisco. A particular challenge of the project was to bring the uninsulated warehouse building up to an energy efficiency LEED gold rating and still leave its essential character intact.
“There’s a lot of things you can do to an existing building without destroying it,” Yardley said.
The restoration team insulated the building’s exterior and then covered the roof with asphalt shingles, allowing the distinctive tongue and groove decking to be visible from the interior. With the Olympics over, the building is being developed as a brew pub, cafe and coffee outlet.
Two of Yardley’s other projects from the past year received recognition from Heritage B.C. These were two small schoolhouses on Vancouver Island, one in Brentwood Bay (West Saanich School) and the other in Westholme (on the way from Crofton to Island Highway).
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/arts-and-society/31115-architect-honoured-for-heritage-achievements.htmlReference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=31115
More information on these and other heritage projects can be found at
Annual Awards - Heritage BC.
BCLocalNews.com - Architect honoured for heritage achievements 
Our Donation Goal
: Why Donate? : Donate Today! : Donate Anonymously (ਗੁਪਤ) : Our Family of Supporters 
Linear Mode
