Heritage Canada Foundation Releases 2012 Top Ten Endangered Places and Worst Losses Lists

OTTAWA, June 27, 2012 /CNW/ - The Heritage Canada Foundation (HCF) has released its Top Ten Endangered Places and Worst Losses Lists drawing attention to architectural and heritage sites in Canada either threatened with demolition or already lost.

The Endangered Places List, compiled from nominations received as well as from news items that HCF has been following and reporting on throughout the year includes (from west to east):

• Riverview Hospital Lands, Coquitlam, BC—an extraordinary provincially-owned cultural landscape is threatened with insensitive development
• Paramount Theatre, Chilliwack, BC—historic city-owned theatre could face destruction despite youthful grassroots campaign
• Barron Building, Calgary—birthplace of Calgary's oil industry faces demolition by neglect
• École Connaught Community School, Regina—Regina's oldest school set for demolition despite neighbourhood outcry
• Hamilton Education Centre, Hamilton—Demolition permit a condition of sale of modernist architectural landmark now headed for landfill
• Ontario Place, Toronto—internationally renowned modernist park shuttered with no legal protection, pending a major redevelopment
• Bala Falls, Township of Muskoka, ON—a green energy project intersects with natural and cultural heritage conservation interests
• Zion Baptist Church, Yarmouth, N.S.—clock is ticking on landmark historic church that congregation is looking to deregister
• Église Très-Saint-Nom-de-Jésus, Montreal—closed and suffering a steady decline, the historic church and world-class organ are victims of a declining congregation and skyrocketing maintenance costs
• Canada's Historic Lighthouses—local communities left holding the financial bag as federal government unloads hundreds of "surplus" heritage lighthouses

Click Backgrounder for the full story and photographs.

Topping the Worst Losses List are the 14 heritage buildings in Goderich, Ontario, lost due to a devastating tornado that tore through the historic downtown.

Other examples of historic places needlessly destroyed by the wrecking ball are Winnipeg's International Airport, Edmonton's BMO Building, the Brighton Public School in Brighton, Ontario and Mount Allison's Memorial Library in Sackville, New Brunswick.

Click Worst Losses for more information.

The Heritage Canada Foundation is a national registered charity dedicated to the preservation of Canada's historic places.