Heritage Conservation Areas: Character-Defining Elements and Values
Identifying and describing character-defining elements are fundamental to heritage conservation. The City of Victoria says, “character-defining elements speak to the specific elements of the area that merit its protection. Such elements may include the physical aspects of the area, such as architecture or landscape design, or they may speak to an activity, an event, or an individual historical connection to the area.” (source)
The Standards and Guidelines for the Conservation of Historic Places (source) states character-defining elements are “the materials, forms, location, spatial configurations, uses and cultural associations or meanings that contribute to the heritage value of an historic place, which must be retained in order to preserve its heritage value.”
The Standards and Guidelines also includes a description of heritage value: “the aesthetic, historic, scientific, cultural, social or spiritual importance or significance for past, present or future generations. The heritage value of an historic place is embodied in its character-defining materials, forms, location, spatial configurations, uses and cultural associations or meanings.”
In the case of heritage conservation areas (HCAs), it is the character-defining elements and value of the over-all area that are most important. This is a departure from designation and register listings, which focus on the character-defining elements and value of individual properties. Additionally, not all properties in an HCA may exhibit character-defining elements and may not be identified as having heritage value.
“Each HCA is unique. They are designed to protect what a community values as special about a place and worth conserving for the enjoyment of future generations.”
–– Heritageworks
While one HCA will be distinct from another, it is likely they share characteristics (source):
- A concentration of heritage buildings, sites, structures; designed landscapes and natural landscapes that are linked by aesthetic, historical and socio-cultural contexts or use.
- A framework of structured elements including major natural features such as topography, land form, landscapes, water courses and built form such as pathways and street patterns, landmarks, nodes or intersections, approaches and edges. A sense of visual coherence through the use of such elements as building scale, mass, height, material, proportion, colour, etc. that convey a distinct sense of time or place.
- A distinctiveness which enables districts to be recognised and distinguishable from their surroundings or from neighbouring areas.
Vancouver’s First Shaughnessy (information here) and New Westminster’s Queen’s Park (information here) are heritage conservation areas that share characteristics, while each exhibiting unifying characteristics within the individual districts.
It should be noted, however, that uniformity is not a prerequisite for establishing an HCA.
Examples of character-defining elements
Following are the character-defining elements found in four HCA designations; they are preceded with a brief summary. Required by the Local Government Act, it is these descriptions of character-defining elements that “justify” the designation of the areas.
Note: The summary and descriptions are offered to exemplify character-defining elements used to describe HCAs. This is not intended to provide an exhaustive or authoritative list, as each area will have its own specific character-defining elements and values.
Summary of the three examples:
- Date and origin of area; reason and purpose of area’s founding; history of area;
- Relationship with other identifiable areas;
- Roadway and sidewalk layout, design, configuration (e.g. grids, lack of curbs)
- Types and forms of buildings; design and materials used; architectural styles
- Property sizes and configurations (e.g. setbacks, gardens, yards)
- Landscape features and design (e.g. boulevards, trees, green spaces, rock walls, inventory of trees)
- Density (e.g. single-family homes)
- Socio-economic features (e.g. middle-class, ethnicities, historically important people, economic/commercial history)
From the Port Moody Centre Heritage Conservation Area Guidelines (excerpted from source)
- Location directly south of the commercial downtown core, reaching up the Chines on a steep slope, with east to west rolling hills and open views to Burrard Inlet and the North Shore mountains
- Pedestrian-oriented streets, rear alleys and a more informal street realm to the south without curbs and sidewalks
- Single-family, residential buildings, consistently modest in form, scale, massing and architectural design, dating from the first half of the twentieth century, featuring a common vernacular of wood-frame construction including the use of pitched roofs, porches and verandahs, wood siding and wooden-sash windows
- Large, spacious lots, with wide side yards, setbacks, gardens and garages at the rear and relatively low ground coverage
- Mature associated landscape features, including boulevards, trees and green spaces
From the New Westminster Queen’s Park Heritage Conservation Area (source)
- A rich history that dates back to 1859 when the neighbourhood was included in the first legal survey for what was then a new city chosen and laid out by Colonel Richard J. Moody as the capital city of the new colony of British Columbia;
- A unique aesthetic with individually-designed homes demonstrating a variety of architectural styles and development periods, the most-common being Victorian, Edwardian, Tudor Revival, Craftsman and worker/vernacular styles, but also including a few examples of Queen Anne, Italianate, Mission Revival, mail order catalogue homes, International, Moderne, and Post-Modern styles;
- A low-density mix of grand scale and modest homes with middle-class apartment buildings, using a common palette of materials, in particular wood and stone;
- A distinctive neighbourhood layout expressed by: street grid design; generous side yards creating considerable space between homes; wide streets; grand boulevards on Second Street and Fifth Street; and relatively flat topography;
- Historic landscapes and streetscapes with lush, mature tree and plant specimens, historic rock walls and wrought iron gates, grass and treed boulevards, and remnants of past transportation modes, such as brick pavers and tram lines; and
- An extensive social history as the home of many historically important people, including former mayors, councillors, business leaders, union leaders and financiers, including Charles Brymner, Manager of the Bank of Montreal.
The characteristics of the Revelstoke Station Heritage Conservation Area make up the justification for designating the area (source):
The residential area designated in this section developed rapidly between 1897 and 1915, a period of early, permanent settlement centered around the Revelstoke Station, located on the mainline of the recently completed transcontinental railway, the Canadian Pacific Railway. The area’s origins and history are unique in Revelstoke. Originally established to provide housing for the families of workers employed by the Canadian Pacific Railway and associated businesses, it was initially developed exclusively for residential purposes, a land use that has continued uninterrupted to the present. Conservation of the residential buildings and related land use characteristics in the area will preserve the only remaining example of a continuously occupied railway-related residential neighbourhood within the spectacular and challenging environment of the Mountain Division of the Canadian Pacific Railway.