SSAC: the papers

The entire conference has been jam-packed full of excellent papers. Candace hosted a session titled "Urban and Villages Churches" that consisted of 9 different papers that were broken down into 3 sessions over two days. The first two sessions were yesterday and in the first, we heard about the evolution of the features of St James' Anglican Church in Stuartville (Kingston, Ontario), as well as from Candace about the small-town churches of 19th-century Ontario architect Henry Langley.


We also heard about Montreal architect Joseph Venne's St-Enfant-Jésus, Montreal and its relation to la Chartreuse as well as from Barry about the standardization of mid-20th century church plans and materials. In the second session we heard about the heritage values assigned to the churches in the Montreal borough of Verdun and about the adaptive reuse of churches across Quebec (from restaurants to climbing gyms!).

In the third and final session today, we heard about a modernist church of mixed materials including poured concrete, stone and glass in Goderich, Ontario, adaptations in wood of Gibbsian preaching boxes in 18th-century Nova Scotia and from Malcolm (via Candace) about the work of Gordon W. Lloyd, a little-known church architect who worked mainly in present-day south-western Ontario.

Otherwise, we attended a variety of sessions covering a wide variety of topics, the current research session included an update on Gothic Revival houses from Jess, the building of Arts and Crafts houses across the country, and the use of laser technology to map various aspects of buildings. Other sessions covered the curation of architectural exhibits, heritage issues, architectural decor and aspects of company town planning.

The sessions have run very smoothly, thanks to excellent organization.