The Willowbank Lecture Series is an annual activity that provides a forum for discussing current issues in the conservation of historic places.  The lectures take place on Saturday mornings in the Bright parlour, and are relaxed events in which speaker and audience are encouraged to interact and discuss topics of interest.


2011 Lecture Series: 
Intersecting the Contemporary and the Traditional 
           Seven Creative Approaches


Willowbank’s 2011 Lecture Series explores an important cultural shift occurring in the early decades of the 21st Century. This shift is from a somewhat static view of historic resource conservation, as a museological approach to keeping traditional artifacts and practices alive, to a more dynamic view of conservation as part of a creative and sustainable approach to broader design and development issues. 

The Lecture Series features seven highly creative individuals who are integrating traditional places and patterns into their contemporary practices. These are people who delight in the fitting of new layers into the richly-layered historic places and traditions of earlier generations. They understand the possibility of intimate connections between past and present, and how these connections provide the true measures of sustainability. 

Join us in the parlour at Willowbank National Historic Site as these seven people, each from a different discipline, share their experiences and insights. Each one will speak about recent projects and the lessons they have learned. 

Sandy Smallwood is a developer from Ottawa who specializes in the maintenance and adaptive reuse of significant historic properties. He has been a key figure in the heritage conservation field for many years, buying derelict properties and adapting them for new uses, acquiring classic historic complexes and providing them with ongoing and sensitive care, and acting as a community activist in the cause of effective heritage conservation. He is a Board member of the Ontario Heritage Trust and recipient of the 2008 Corporate Sector Award from Heritage Canada. 

Michael McLelland is an architect from Toronto, principal of ERA Architects, who specializes in the revitalization of historic properties and districts. He is particularly known for his sensitivity to contemporary design in historic contexts, and was instrumental in shaping the successful evolution of Toronto’s Distillery District. In 1999 he was awarded a certificate of recognition from the Ontario Association of Architects and the Toronto Society of Architects for his outstanding contribution to the built environment and in 2006 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. 

Greg Smallenberg is a landscape architect from Vancouver, principal of PFS Planning + Urban Design + Landscape Architecture. He is one of the most highly recognized landscape architects in Canada, and has been primarily responsible for the firm's national and international work. He has a special reputation for his contemporary design interventions in highly sensitive historic sites, including Parliament Hill, Rideau Hall, the Canadian Embassy in Rome, and the Vimy Memorial in France. He is very interested in the intersections of culture, history, and placemaking. He sits on Waterfront Toronto's Design Review Panel. 

John Leroux is both an architect and an architectural historian, from Fredericton. He takes a holistic view of his profession, seeing beyond buildings themselves into the cultural, intellectual and physical landscapes to which they contribute. He has worked with architecture firms in Toronto, Atlanta and Fredericton, and has won awards for both his architecture and public art projects. He has also been a set designer for Theatre New Brunswick. He has published extensively, with a particular focus on the architecture of New Brunswick, and has taught at the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design and St. Thomas University. 

Nat Benjamin is the founder and co-owner of Gannon and Benjamin Marine Railway, a legendary boatyard based in Martha’s Vineyard. Their mission – and passion – is designing, building, repairing, maintaining and sailing wooden boats. Nat is the principal designer, and takes his inspiration from classic yachts and traditional boats to fashion contemporary yachts with the highest quality materials and meticulous craftsmanship. Gannon and Benjamin is the subject of Michael Ruhlman’s well-known book Wooden Boats: In Pursuit of the Perfect Craft at an American Boatyard.

Andrew Steeves is founder and co-owner of Gaspereau Press. Established in 1997, the Press has at its core a commitment to making books that reinstate the importance of the book as a physical object, reuniting publishing and the book arts. Many of its covers are letterpress-printed, feature original artwork, and are printed on fine paper. Gaspereau Press plays an important role publishing contemporary literature by both emerging and established Canadian authors. The Press has been in the news as publisher and printer of the 2010 Giller Prize novel by Johanna Skibsrud, The Sentimentalists. 

Christopher Newton is best known as the Artistic Director who shaped the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake and gave it its national and international reputation. After twenty-three seasons at the helm, he is now Artistic Director Emeritus. He had earlier founded Theatre Calgary and was Artistic Director of the Vancouver Playhouse. He is well known as an actor, and is a wonderful speaker. He is a Member of the Order of Canada, and recipient of many awards, including the Governor General's Award, the Molson Prize, and seven honorary degrees.