Luxton Receives Heritage Award

Sunday, June 07, 2009 05:24 AM

Prince George, B.C. – The consultant who developed the Heritage Action plan for Prince George, Donald Luxton, has been given official recognition by the Province.

Luxton, has received the 2009 British Columbia Heritage Award.

The British Columbia Heritage Award is given annually by the Province to recognize an individual whose long-term leadership and contributions to the conservation and presentation of British Columbia's heritage have

been exemplary. The award was presented at the Heritage BC Conference and Awards in Kelowna.

As part of the award, a $10,000 grant is provided to a heritage-related non-profit organization selected by the award recipient. This year's grant will go to Heritage Vancouver.

In his report for Prince George ( March of 2006) , Luxton delivered a 3 point plan:

1. To promote Community Heritage Partnerships

2. Achieve better Heritage Conservation

3. Improve Heritage Awareness and Communication.

The report indicated there is strong support for preservation of heritage in the area, in that there are two significant museums, ( Exploration Place and the Railway Museum) and several local history groups which could be key components to developing cultural tourism. Luxton also authored the report on heritage hotels in Prince George which recommended 8 hotels be placed on the Heritage register.

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Posted on Sunday, June 07, 2009 05:24 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: agitprop on June 7 2009 8:49 PM

Donald has been the heritage advocate extraordinaire in Vancouver for the last 3 decades at least.
In PG, the hotels may have had heritage value but not worth saving...PG Hotel if it still looks like originally built would have had the best chance but has unfortunately been stripped off ALL redeeming architectural value...ie former larger cornice, bay windows, facade detailing etc etc. Put up a plaque with an explanatory and visuals panel instead.

Posted by: gus on June 7 2009 9:56 PM

Architectural value? Who cares about architectural value! Hotels are of social importance, just as schools and churches and several other important building types are.

If I remember correctly, hotels primarily have social value. They are meetings places, celebration places, entertainment places, and places for visitors to town to stay.

If only buildings of so-called "architectural value" were to be kept, we would have few, if any, old buildings left in this world.

For those whi think the PG Hotel looks different now from the original, take a look at one of Nelson's heritage hotels and the change it has undergone, while still being a "heritage" hotel. The original hotel may have had more turrets and dormers. Who says that those represent heritage or architectural value?

[url]http://www.humehotel.com/History/history.html[url]

Obviously the town folks now don't. They still enjoy going to that hotel today.

The question we have to pose is what can we do in this city to turn some of the places such as the PG Hotel around like Nelson did on several occasions with the Hume.

What do they know that we do not? Do they have it right and we don't? Or do we have it right and Nelson has it wrong?

Or maybe it is just two different solitudes and never the twain shall meet. We will forever be relegated to visiting places such as Nelson and enjoing the ambiance of history and coming back home to functional hotels such as the Sandman's of this country - beds and a sports bar and restaurant with hockey jerseys hanging in glass boxes for the "museum" effect.

Posted by: gus on June 7 2009 9:57 PM

http://www.humehotel.com/History/history.html

Posted by: supertech on June 7 2009 10:23 PM

Best thing that could happen to the PG is a full blaze fire.