What does architecture mean to the people of Kingsville? What value does it hold? Can this value be lost or modified? Can it change into something unrecognizable? What will Kingsville look like next year? In five years? In 25 years? In 100 years?
Will the past have informed the present? Will we like how it has changed? Do we like how it has changed now?
I have lived in Kingsville for the greater part of the 30 years I have been on this planet and I have spent most of that time taking the architecture of Kingsville for granted. Not because it is not special, but because it has always just been there, it has always been the background to my life.
When I travelled through other small towns in Ontario, I often admired the quaint and charming architectural character of the town and thought to myself, “I would really love to live here someday.” Little did I know that I lived in one of those quaint and charming towns.
After spending some time studying Architectural Technology at St. Clair College, and currently in the process of working through my B.Sc. in Architecture from Athabasca University — I really started to see Kingsville as more than just a background to my adolescence, but as a place that I would like to continue to grow.
I also started to see Kingsville as a place that is growing and growing quickly, and this got me thinking about what all this growth is really growing towards, and what it means for the people of Kingsville.
So, what does architecture mean to the people of Kingsville? How do we manage progress while retaining what we all know and love about this town? I ask these questions more as prompts than for specific answers.
These are important questions we should all be asking ourselves. If we do not know what the buildings and homes in this town mean to us, then we will not know why they are worth saving.
If we do not know why they are worth saving, then someone else will give us a reason to not save them. I am not saying that every architectural work ever built should be saved, but we should know why we are changing and what this means to us.
Image: GoodStudio/Shutterstock.com
I have always loved Kingsville’s Victorian look and feel, however in the last couple of years some building that has taken place is, in my opinion, a blight on the face of the business district. I’m sure everything was approved by our town council, but I wonder what they were thinking! I appreciate that many would not agree with keeping Kingsville’s Victorian look and feel, but for the business core, it would have been nice to keep what we were known for.
Beautifully written, and sheds light on appreciating what we have to offer in our own backyards.