HomeMy WebLinkAboutDSD-2025-037 - Kitchener's Great Places Awards Program Update - Mike and Pat Wagner Heritage AwardsStaff Report
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Development Services Department www.kitchener.ca
REPORT TO: Heritage Kitchener
DATE OF MEETING: February 4, 2025
SUBMITTED BY: Janine Oosterveld, Manager, Customer Experience & Project
Management, 519-783-8942
PREPARED BY: Oluseyi Ojurongbe, Project Manager (Planning), 519-783-8941
Deeksha Choudhry, Heritage Planner, 519-783-8906
WARD(S) INVOLVED: All
DATE OF REPORT: January 24, 2025
REPORT NO.: DSD -2025-037
SUBJECT: Kitchener's Great Places Awards program update with respect to
the Mike and Pat Wagner Heritage awards
RECOMMENDATION:
That Heritage Kitchener endorse program amendments to the Kitchener's Great
Places Awards with respect to the award recipient selection for the Mike and Pat
Wagner Heritage Awards as recommended in DSD -2025-037.
REPORT HIGHLIGHTS:
• The purpose of this report is to inform and seek Heritage Kitchener's input on the
proposed amendments to the Kitchener's Great Places Awards (KGPA) program with
respect to the selection process for the Mike and Pat Wagner Heritage Awards.
• The key finding of this report is that staff are recommending a change in the process
for selecting the successful recipients of Mike and Pat Wagner Heritage Awards
which integrates a jury panel. The intention of this change is to streamline and align
this award category with the other KGPA selection processes.
• This recommendation will be accommodated in the KGPA capital budget.
• Community engagement included posting this report with the agenda in advance of
the Heritage Kitchener committee meeting.
• This report supports the delivery of core services.
BACKGROUND:
In 1997, the City of Kitchener established the Mike Wagner Heritage Awards to pay tribute
to property owners, businesses and individuals who have contributed to the conservation of
the City's cultural heritage resources. The program was named after former City Councillor
Mike Wagner who served on City Council from 1989 to 1997, and who was a strong
advocate for heritage, culture, and the arts. In 2017, the heritage awards were renamed the
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Mike & Pat Wagner Heritage Awards in recognition of the many contributions of Pat Wagner,
who was a long-time member of Heritage Kitchener and a recipient of the Lieutenant
Governor's Ontario Heritage Award for Lifetime Achievement.
In 2015, Council endorsed the establishment of a new comprehensive planning awards
program celebrating a broad range of categories. Known as the Kitchener's Great Places
Awards (KGPA), the program honours outstanding development projects that show a
commitment to design excellence and innovation in urban design, sustainability and
heritage conservation and contribute to a built environment to enhance quality of life.
Since inception, the program has brought people together, fostered community pride and
the recognized projects have contributed to the quality -of -life in Kitchener. Over the years,
the award ceremony has recognized projects across 9 categories as listed below:
1. Future Design Leaders
2. Master Planning
3. Mike and Pat Wagner Heritage Awards
4. Neighborhood Design
5. People's Choice
6. Placemaking
7. Schmalz Award for Design Leadership
8. Sustainable Kitchener
9. Urban Design Excellence
The last KGPA event was held in 2023. Staff received six (6) nominations for the Mike and
Pat Wagner Heritage Awards. At its June 6, 2023 meeting, Heritage Kitchener was given a
summary of the award nominations, and then voted to select the winners which were
subsequently endorsed by Council. The 2023 Mike and Pat Wagner Award winners were:
• Preservation / Restoration: The Legion Building, 48 Ontario Street North
• Preservation / Restoration: 87 Scott Street
• Rehabilitation / Adaptive Re -Use: American Hotel Building, 1 Queen Street North
• Rehabilitation / Adaptive Re -Use: Hog and Hen Barn Restoration, 883 Doon Village
Road
REPORT:
Building on the success of previous editions and as part of the KGPA program going forward,
staff are requesting the Committee's and Council's endorsement to update the program for
the Mike and Pat Wagner Heritage Awards to establish a heritage jury panel to select award
winners.
Staff are seeking to refine the selection process of the Mike and Pat Wagner Heritage
Awards to align with how winning projects are chosen similar to other categories.
Attachment A provides an overview of the Mike and Pat Wagner Heritage Award including
existing eligibility requirements, award categories, nomination criteria, and the proposed
jury panel composition. Staff propose that the jury panel for this category will include a
representative from the Heritage Kitchener Committee, the Director of Development &
Housing Approvals and up to four other professionals with expertise in heritage
conservation, urban planning, urban design, architecture and landscape architecture. The
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jury plan will review nominated projects and may select up to four winning projects in a
program year outlining reasons why projects were selected.
This change in process will allow a more comprehensive review of the nominations for the
award among experts in heritage and other related fields. The representative from the
Heritage Kitchener Committee will be selected by the Committee.
The Committee will be informed of the progress through regular updates including:
• The call for nominations and jury panelists and the request for a committee
representative on the jury panel;
• The announcement of the People's Choice Award community voting;
• The invitation to the award event; and,
• A post event summary of winning projects.
Bringing these information reports forward at different points throughout the process will
ensure that the Committee stays informed and involved.
At the time of writing, timelines for the KGPA are still being finalized but staff anticipate a
nomination period to be open this spring with the award event to be held in the fall. Pending
Council's endorsement of the change in process for the Mike and Pat Wagner Heritage
Awards along with other program updates, the timelines will be finalized. Once the timelines
are finalized, as mentioned above, staff will inform the Committee regarding next steps in
the process.
STRATEGIC PLAN ALIGNMENT:
The recommendation of this report supports the achievement of the City's strategic vision
through the delivery of core service.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS:
N/A
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT:
INFORM - This report has also been posted to the City's website in advance of the Heritage
Kitchener committee meeting.
PREVIOUS REPORTS/AUTHORITIES:
CSD -18-046: Re -naming the Mike Wagner Heritage Award to the Mike & Pat Wagner Heritage
Award
CSD -15-083: Urban Design Awards Program Update
REVIEWED BY: Garett Stevenson, Director of Development and Housing Approvals
APPROVED BY: Justin Readman, General Manager, Development Services Department
ATTACHMENTS:
Attachment A - Overview of the Mike and Pat Wagner Heritage Awards
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Attachment A: Overview of the Mike and Pat Wagner Heritage Awards
Eligibility Requirements
The Mike & Pat Wagner Heritage Awards are open to all individuals, businesses, organizations
and institutions that have conserved cultural heritage resources or have demonstrated
commitment to the conservation of cultural heritage resources within Kitchener. For the award
program, cultural heritage resources are defined as:
• properties designated under the Ontario Heritage Act;
• properties listed as a non -designated property of cultural heritage value or interest on
the Municipal Heritage Register; or
• properties identified on the Heritage Kitchener Inventory of Historic Buildings.
Award Categories
Up to 4 heritage awards may be presented in a given award year, and nominations may be
received in one of three categories as follows:
Preservation / Restoration of Cultural Heritage Resources
Preservation projects involve protecting, maintaining and stabilizing the existing form, material
and integrity of a cultural heritage resource while protecting its heritage attributes and values.
Preservation projects generally relate to cultural heritage resources that are intact and do not
require extensive repair, extensive replacement, alterations or additions.
Restoration projects involve revealing, recovering or representing the state of a cultural heritage
resource or of an individual heritage attribute as it appeared at a particular period in its history, as
accurately as possible, while protecting its heritage value. Restoration projects are based on
physical and documentary or oral evidence.
Rehabilitation / Adaptive Reuse of Cultural Heritage Resources
Rehabilitation and Adaptive Reuse projects involve the sensitive adaptation of a cultural heritage
resource or of an individual heritage attribute for a continuing or compatible contemporary use,
while protecting its heritage value. This may be achieved through repairs, replacements,
alterations and/or additions.
Individual Contributions to the Field of Heritage Conservation
Awarded to individuals, businesses, organizations, institutions who have made exceptional and/or
long lasting contributions to the conservation of cultural heritage resources.
Nomination Criteria
Nominations for a Mike Wagner Heritage Award must demonstrate that
• The conservation project involves a cultural heritage resource;
• The conservation project conserves the heritage attributes and values associated with
the cultural heritage resource;
• The conservation project is located within the City of Kitchener;
• The conservation project is complete;
• The conservation project obtained all required approvals such as Building Permits and
Heritage Permits;
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The conservation project has not received a previous Mike Wagner Heritage Award for
the same work; and,
The individual, business, organization or institution nominated has made exceptional
or long-lasting contributions to the conservation of cultural heritage resources within
the City of Kitchener.
Eligible Mike & Pat Wagner Heritage Award nominees in the Preservation / Restoration of
Cultural Heritage Resources and Rehabilitation /Adaptive Reuse of Cultural Heritage
Resources categories will also be eligible to be nominated and receive an award under two
other KGPA award categories:
1. People's Choice Award: given to a project that receives the greatest number of votes
from the community through a variety of polling options. Projects for consideration will be
short-listed to a group of up to 10 projects from those eligible in the Urban Design,
Neighbourhood Design, Placemaking, Mike & Pat Wagner Heritage and Sustainable
Kitchener award categories that contribute to making Kitchener a great city.
2. Schmalz Award for Design Leadership: given to an exceptional project that achieves
overall excellence in meeting the City's objectives in two or more categories - urban
design, heritage conservation, and sustainable design. It represents the best overall
project of the awards program. Named after W.H.E. Schmalz, the architect who designed
Kitchener's first City Hall and clock tower (which is now a landmark in Victoria Park) along
with numerous other buildings in the city. His father, W.H. Schmalz, was mayor when the
Town of Berlin became a city.
Jury Panel
Award winners will be selected by a jury panel comprised of the following:
• A Heritage Kitchener committee member
• Director of Development & Housing Approvals (or designate)
• Up to four professionals which represent such expertise as heritage conservation, urban
planning, urban design, architecture and landscape architecture
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