This study mandate was to identify, inventory, evaluate and map significant cultural heritage landscapes in the City of Kitchener. A computerized database and written report identifies and describes 55 significant landscapes. The report sets out priorities for heritage conservation and provides opportunities for understanding the peoples, events, processes and activities that have shaped and continue to shape Kitchener’s landscape. This study will inform planning initiatives impacting a wide variety of cultural heritage landscapes including neighbourhoods, parks, transportation corridors, agricultural landscapes and cemeteries.

Very few municipalities in Ontario have undertaken an inventory, let alone a comprehensive evaluation of CHLs within their community. Since the passage of the Ontario Heritage Act in 1975, Kitchener like most other municipalities, concentrated much of its conservation effort on the protection of individual buildings and structures and the designation of heritage districts. The decision to embark on a study to identify, evaluate and establish a City-wide inventory of CHLs was ambitious in scale, innovative and precedent setting in its execution.

Christopher P. Borgal (B.Arch., MOAA, FRAIC, CAHP)
Sharon Vattay (Ph.D)
Owen R. Scott (BSA, MLA, OALA, FCSLA, CAHP)
Leon R. Bensason (MCIP, RPP, CAHP)