In 2018 heritage conservation expert Dan Schneider joined the Faculty of Environment as a collaborator for its Heritage Resource Centre (HRC). As part of this mandate HRC began hosting Schneider’s heritage policy blog OHA+M. OHA+M has become a respected source of information and commentary on Ontario’s legal and policy framework for cultural heritage as well as current public policy initiatives and issues.
In October 2017 Schneider received a Heritage Education and Scholarship Award of Excellence for the blog from the Canadian Association of Heritage Professionals (CAHP). Last year, on the fifth anniversary of the blog, Schneider was granted the Stephen A. Otto Award for Research and Documentation, which was awarded in 2020 from Architectural Conservancy Ontario.
2021 brings Dan further success — as of January, the 100th edition of his OHA+M blog was published!
In addition to writing and blogging on heritage topics, Dan has had long involvement at both provincial and local levels in trying to preserve particular historic sites in Ontario — from rural bridges to cultural centres and commercial blocks in urban cores.
Schneider shared images of several of his favourite projects with the Faculty of Environment. Enjoy the photo galleries of these below...
Dan saved these limestone farm buildings, dating from the mid-1850s, from demolition.
Gradually, Dan worked to repair and restore them.
Greenery was planted to enhance the prime features of the structures.
Dan helped stave off the closing of this steel-truss bridge, constructed in 1905 across the Thames River north of St. Marys, for many years.
The structure was sadly demolished in 2017.
This grand 1924 commercial building in the heart of Hamilton was slated for demolition.
Dan helped craft the provincial culture ministry’s response, which resulted in the saving of the structure and its complete rehabilitation.
Now, this beautiful structure stands in all its original glory, as it was meant to be seen.
This mammoth industrial building, constructed in 1907 on the edge of downtown Stratford, has been derelict for decades.
The site was threatened with demolition.
Dan worked with other volunteers to turn the tide toward preservation, which now seems assured.
This magnificent old school was built in 1853.
Dan was instrumental in getting the Ontario Heritage Foundation (today’s Ontario Heritage Trust) to acquire the property in the early 1990s.
Ensuring its preservation in the public trust, and reinvigorating the old building with new life.
