The Arts and Letters Club of Toronto Foundation’s Award for Architectural Conservation This award honours Richard Moorhouse, Founding President of the ALCTF and former Chair of the National Trust for Canada. The $1000 award is open to students or recent graduates working on applied research, or projects making a tangible contribution to architectural conservation in Canada.
Jury:
Arlene Dedier, Julia Gerzovitz, Marilyn Mirabeli, Allan Teramura
Winning Submission:
Facadism – a critique of the increasingly common practice of the preservation of the exterior walls of historic structures while constructing entirely new and much larger buildings behind them.
Jury Comment
Janet Li’s proposal makes a significant contribution to the field of architectural conservation by critically addressing the widespread practice of facadism in Toronto. It offers both a theoretical framework and empirical analysis that reveals how facadism prioritizes superficial preservation of façades at the expense of authentic heritage values, including social, cultural, and environmental dimensions.