Saturday, May 18, 2002
Annette Phillips
|
The Kingston Whig-Standard
Doors to 20 of Kingston's historic treasures are being thrown open to the public today in a province wide celebration of Ontario's heritage.
Many of the Kingston showpieces are ones you would expect - the Murney Tower Museum, Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Pan Chancho Bakery. One of the most delightful surprises is likely to be the British Whig building, which has been closed to the public since this newspaper's operations moved to the Woolen Mill in 1996.
Certainly the public has watched as the building's new owner carefully restored the facade to authentic period detail. The copper cornices and unique urns have been hand-crafted to duplicate the originals and the woodwork redone in cherry wood. But until today, the treasures unearthed behind those walls and the developer's painstaking restoration plans have been largely unknown.
Kim Donovan owns the British Whig building. He is president and CEO of Kincore Holdings Ltd., a heritage devotee and man on a mission to restore as much of the downtown to its original state as possible. The company name is an abbreviation of "Kingston's Core" and underscores the long-term commitment Donovan is making to the downtown and the larger community. "Nurture the heart and the rest will take care of itself," Donovan says simply. "We believe the downtown should be nurtured as a special place and a source of pride for Kingston."
He sells nothing. The company that Donovan established here in 1995 buys, restores, owns and leases retail, commercial and residential space. Its expansion has been slow but steady. Kincore, for example, has signed long-term leases with the city for properties on Queen Street, but Donovan won't rush into development until the market grows for fear that new Queen Street businesses will draw customers and money away from the rest of the downtown. It's a delicate balancing act, Donovan says, and one of the reasons why restoration of the British Whig Building seems to proceed at a somewhat leisurely pace.
The British Whig Building is the Kincore flagship, a soon-to-be showpiece of modern retail on the ground floor and office space on the upper floors in what was once called the "handsomest newspaper building in Canada." Donovan has also left open the possibility of residential space, not unlike the trendy apartments he has built overlooking his recently rediscovered Brock Street carriageway, or Brock Street Common.
Reconstruction of the Whig will begin soon, but stepping inside the building today, at the end of the deconstruction phase, is like being catapulted back to 1895. Today, visitors to the King Street building will have an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to view the British Whig as it was more than a century ago.
The British Whig was built in 1895 on the site of the original, wooden, St. George's Cathedral. Kingston architect Joseph Power designed the building for Edward Pense, owner and editor of The Daily British Whig. In 1925, the Whig was purchased by Rupert Davies and amalgamated a year later with The Kingston Daily Standard.
Deconstruction of the building's interior has taken the better part of two years and has entailed an intricate, careful dismantling to expose the original grandeur underneath. "Deconstructing is not demolishing," Donovan is careful to say. "You are dismantling it piece by piece. Carefully." When Andrew Dobson, Kincore's vice-president, design and construction, started to peel back the interior walls - in some places six layers of wall had been built - he uncovered original brick and limestone walls. Where the brick has fallen away, walls will be patched with limestone. Where limestone is missing, brick will fill the gaps. (The rare brick on the building's interior and exterior is imported from the Credit River Valley.) This "shadowing" is a deliberate attempt to be true to the heritage nature of the building and to delineate the old from the new, says Donovan. It would be much less costly to simply build brick walls, or limestone. It would also be cheating. "It wouldn't be appropriate," Donovan said. "There is a peace, a comfort, that comes from being surrounded by authenticity. "Of course, that's a subjective feeling," he adds.
Original advertising art, painted on the walls before the turn of the last century, has been uncovered and will be left exposed. Authentic restoration extends far beyond making a building look nice. It takes research. Behind the modern walls, for example, Dobson found some of the building's original leaded glass windows. The company is still trying to track the origin of the glass to replace it. That it may not be possible is a small disappointment for Donovan, although his plans for rebuilding make it seem a minor setback.
The grand entrance to the lobby is built from cherry wood, as is the future retail storefront. The lobby itself will be crafted from cut limestone flooring, wrought iron and cherry paneling. A grand "floating" staircase will be the focal point, with airy windows looking over historic Market Square. The open roof will be turned into "green space," an experimental arboretum-like space with grass, flowers and a spectacular view of the city for the building's tenants.
Donovan originally envisaged a taller building. He applied to the city for permission to build a full fifth storey. A sixth level would have been built around the necessary utility structure, camouflaging the traditional grey maintenance building and allowing more rental space. Citizens and city staff opposed the move and Donovan withdrew his application in the face of public outcry. The building will remain four stories with the utility penthouse on top. That the proposal drew criticism is a measure of both the public's interest in authenticity and the onerous requirements placed on owners of heritage properties by provincial and municipal governments.
Although Kincore faced a significant challenge on the height of its building which faces historic Market Square, another company has permission to build a 14-storey apartment building less than three metres from the Whig building's back door.
It's no secret that Donovan's nouveau-heritage properties are some of the trendiest accommodations in town. They also command top dollar. "I think we all understand that," he says of the sky-high prices. "I'm not making an apology for that. Simply, it's more expensive to deconstruct and reconstruct."
Kincore continues to uncover and rebuild the former carriageway between Brock Street Common and the Rochelieu Courtyard at Chez Piggy. As his corporate logo - four squares with rounded corners with interconnecting lines - shows, his vision is to uncover, or encourage others to uncover, the network of old carriageways that run through the four-block area bounded by King Street.
It was a proposal call for the same four blocks that first drew Donovan to Kingston in 1995. At the time, the St. Thomas native was working for the Matthews Group, a land development company that was looking to build a high-end housing development on Wolfe Island. A change in provincial government ended a commitment to improve ferry service and brought the housing development to a halt. The Matthews Group moved on. Donovan didn't.
He has bought a number of properties inside the four-block radius, including an abandoned fish market that, while still smelly, has potential heritage value. The company is now caught in a dilemma: The tiny, triangular Princess Street building may be too valuable to tear down but too smelly to fix up.
The principles of heritage conservation and commercial interests are not incompatible, Donovan wrote in a 1989 article for Businesskeeper Magazine. "There may be some specific case where conservation and development seem at odds, but perhaps that is less a matter of incompatibility than of the lack of appropriate methods and techniques to make a project profitable." Yet the rehabilitation of heritage properties is hindered substantially by federal and provincial legislation that make it less expensive to demolish and rebuild than to renovate, even though renovation results in twice as many jobs per dollar spent, Donovan said. The rehabilitation of old buildings also helps strengthen the tax base of the local economy without requiring an increase in density, or in municipal services.
Donovan sits on a number of local boards and organizations dedicated to preserving Kingston's heritage and boosting its economy. He is the campaign chair for the Market Square redevelopment project and chair of the first Doors Open event, which Kincore is sponsoring. He sits on the boards of Hospice Kingston and the Kingston Symphony Association and is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Kingston Economic Development Corporation, the downtown business association. Donovan is also chairman of the corporate division for the 2002 United Way campaign.
DOORS OPEN KINGSTON
What: Guided tours, part of a province wide celebration of Ontario's heritage buildings
When: Today, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Where: 20 historic buildings are open to the public:
- British Whig Building, 302-310 King St. E. (Built in 1895)
- Agnes Etherington Arts Centre, 36 University Ave. (1879)
- Frontenac Club Inn, 225 King St. E. (1845-46)
- Kingston City Hall, 216 Ontario St. (1842-44)
- Murney Tower Museum, City Park at King Street (1846)
- Pan Chancho Bakery, 44 Princess St. (1833)
- The Merchant MacLiam, 12 Princess St. (1830)
- The Woolen Mill, 4 Cataraqui St. (1881)
- St. George's Cathedral, King at Johnson (1792, 1825, 1891)
- Brock Street Common, Carriageway on lower Brock Street (1864-65)
- Masonic Temple, 126 Wellington St. (1864-65)
- Tourist Information Centre; 209 Ontario St. (1885)
- Barriefield Walking Tour, Barriefield Village (1814)
- St. Mark's Anglican Church, 268 Main St. (1844)
- Museum of Health Care, Ann Bailie Building, George Street (1845)
|
| |
 |
Unearthing Local Treasures: Old Whig Building Among Highlights of Doors Open Kingston |
|
|
|
