Save the Farnam Block

Heritage policy backward THE STARPHOENIX MARCH 7, 2015

The attention now focused on the impending demise of the historic Farnam Block on Broadway Avenue brings to mind Coun. Charlie Clark's apt observation a couple of years ago that heritage debates in Saskatoon tend to occur right before demolition, and pit development against conservation.

While cities from Victoria to Winnipeg to Toronto go to great lengths to preserve their historic assets by establishing registries and providing incentives to preserve buildings, Saskatoon's heritage protection policies remain so outdated that even a decidedly impressive structure such as the Third Avenue United Church could fall to a wrecker's ball with little recourse.

It's not a case of the city being unaware of the problem, but a lack of foresighted leadership in municipal governance to put in place the recommended measures to preserve the city's heritage properties. In August 2012, consultant Donald Luxton reviewed Saskatoon's heritage policy and presented council's planning and operations committee with a report containing dozens of recommendations, most of which have been forgotten or ignored.

He noted that Saskatoon's heritage program is underfunded, with just one staff member assigned to co-ordinate it along with other duties. The program is under-resourced, Mr. Luxton said, "which has resulted in an inconsistent level of conservation being achieved on projects, and relatively few sites that have legal protection. As well, the heritage policy isn't linked to other civic policies, and public education and awareness of the value of heritage protection is weak."

While the Farnam Block, which has remained closed since the sudden closure of Lydia's pub in 2013, might not make the grade as the poster child for Saskatoon's built heritage, its pending demolition underlines the fact that Saskatoon continues to lose its historic buildings with alarming ease and regularity. Joining it this week on the list of doomed structures to depart without many shed tears is another landmark, the 105-years-old Parrish and Heimbecker elevator.

Whether it is the former Capitol Theatre that was razed three decades ago, or the Legion Building in River Landing that was torn down in 2007 to make room for a hotel-spa complex that was never built, or St. Mary's, the city's first Catholic school, which was demolished in 2012 and replaced with a new structure, Saskatoon has lost a notable cross-section of its heritage.

As Peggy Sargeant of the Saskatoon Heritage Society noted in a viewpoint article on these pages in 2007, "(Buildings) provide us with a sense of place and a sense of continuum from the early days of settlement to the present day. We need the old to make sense of the new.

"Cities are living entities that build up layers of architectural history over time. All great cities do that. To remove those layers, to eviscerate the urban environment, is to diminish the city."

The maximum $150,000 in tax abatements over 10 years available to the Farnam Block owners for renovations provides little incentive to preserve the building. Even if it doesn't consider this building worthy of a heritage designation, Saskatoon still needs to get its act together on preserving its history. The Luxton report is a good place to start.