After more that 40 years as a registered non-profit organization, the directors of the New Westminster Heritage Preservation Society felt it was time to refresh our brand.

A visible past inspires a more thoughtful future.

by Jill Davy, Director, Heritage New West

A few words about our new name and our new logo. We needed a snappier name and a new look. “Heritage New West” sounded the note we liked. Next was a graphic that helped communicate the idea that preserving our built heritage is a big part of the equation in the challenge of “going green”.

This came in part by the observation that, during the public consultation around creating the Queen’s Park Heritage Conservation Area, the thing people most commented on was the desire to preserve existing streetscapes and green space. They were generally already in favour of protecting old houses but they were also interested in protecting the way they were originally sited on the lots, the setbacks (or lack thereof) and, very importantly, how the mix of various styles and eras of homes, along with the canopy of mature trees, shrubs and boulevard plantings, all added to the collective character of their neighbourhood. So that’s the idea we took to our logo designer. You can see the visual translations of these ideas in our new logo with its silhouette of roof lines set against a backdrop of green.

Along with a new logo, we needed a tag line. That’s the one-liner that best sums up what you’re about. For me, the hands-down winner was “Saving the Good Stuff” which appeared in AustinOT‘s article about Preservation Austin. Really wanted to steal that one.  Another top contender was a quote from the legendary Jane Jacobs: “Old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings.” Or, from  Carl Elefante “the greenest building is the one that is already built.”

Logos and tag lines are selling tools, meant to make your message more effective. We hope our latest efforts will succeed because we need to sell the idea that old buildings are more than just curiosities of the past. We need to show that they fit right into modern life, that they are part of creating a healthy, diverse housing stock.

To me, the most important thing moving forward is to keep our society and our values relevant. It’s a fast-moving world and, in the face of an ongoing housing crisis, there are huge pressures around creating more density in urban areas. Those of us who are keen on old architecture know it’s not enough to say, “Oh, we have to preserve these wonderful old houses on these wonderful old streets because we like the way they look”.

We have to make the case that heritage retention is fundamental to building sustainable cities. And there is a great need for that argument. 
The architect and preservationist Carl Elefante, writing for the Journal of the Nation Trust for Historic Preservation* makes just that point. He’s talking about the role our built heritage plays in creating sustainable cities of the future when he says:

“The accumulated building stock is the elephant in the room: Ignoring it, we risk being trampled by it. We cannot build our way to sustainability; we must conserve our way to it”.

and

“To fully capture the value of the existing building stock requires merging two disciplines: historic preservation and green building. It requires an understanding of how to respect and renew what is already here and a vision for where and how to transform the legacy of the past into the promise of tomorrow.”

Heritage New West is proud to share this vision and invites you to respond with your feedback with your comments below or to newwestheritage@gmail.com.