Lecture 7 – Research, Fieldwork & Economics of Heritage

Views and Visual Impact Assessment

  • Views are a legitimate heritage attribute but must normally be demonstrably within the legal boundary of the protected property (Ontario CRB, 2015).
  • GLVIA3 (Guidelines for Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment, 3rd ed.) is the core professional guidance for assessing visual change.
  • Heritage Impact Assessments (HIAs) routinely use:
    • Viewshed mapping (filtered vs unobstructed)
    • Photo‐simulation at standardized eye level (e.g.
    171.45 cm171.45\text{ cm} / 5′7"5'7")
    • Focal length calibration (18 mm, 55 mm, etc.)
  • Common mapping outputs: impacted viewshed, reference photos, cardinal directions, and numbered viewpoints (see Figure 4 example for 763 King St W).
  • Key legal overlap problems: Planning Act vs Ontario Heritage Act vs Environmental Assessment Act—public often conflates which definition of “view” applies.

Cultural Heritage Landscapes (CHL)

  • UNESCO recognises 3 categories:
    1. Clearly defined / designed cultural landscapes (gardens, parklands).
    2. Organically evolved landscapes
      • Relict (fossil)
      • Continuing
    3. Associative landscapes (value lies mainly in symbolic/religious meaning, e.g. Uluru).
  • Foundational quote: Carl Sauer (1925) – “Culture is the agent, the natural area the medium…”.
  • Methodological warning: single evaluation method rarely captures layered/nested values; significance may span local–provincial–national.
  • Municipal tools: e.g. Thorold CHL Guidelines (2011); Snapshot Kingston time-slider (1865–2013) for diachronic landscape change.
  • Case study: Glen Abbey Golf Course (Oakville) – aerials 1934–1965–current, CHL mapping (greens, tees, fairways, kiosks, contours, study area). Interior view typologies: park-setting holes, water-feature holes, valley holes. Design language: amphitheatre mounding, spectator galleries, visual backdrops.

Sites of Conscience

  • Definition: Place-based museums/ sites that confront traumatic pasts to foster contemporary human-rights dialogue (International Coalition of Sites of Conscience).
  • Examples and headlines:
    • Tuol Sleng, Cambodia; Auschwitz, Poland (WHS)
    • Adolf Hitler’s birthplace repurposed for human-rights police training (Austria, 2024 news)
    • Kingston Penitentiary – concerts & tourism criticised (Walby, Piché, 2016–2019)
    • Maze/Long Kesh Prison (N. Ireland) – redevelopment through broad consultation.
  • Ethical concerns: commodification, “dark tourism,” trauma exploitation vs educational value.

Description & Condition of Heritage Assets

  • “Description” activity distinguishes what is there from how it is performing.
  • Condition tools & references:
    • Access Audit Handbook (2013)
    • Retrofitting of Heritage Structures (WIT Press)
    • Hazardous Building Materials Assessments (e.g. Pinchin Ltd.)
  • Condition factors: accessibility, structural safety, hazardous materials (lead, asbestos), environmental exposure.

Fieldwork: Health & Safety

  • Researchers must draft a Safety Plan; ethical duty not to expose selves / informants to physical or social harm.
  • Generic hazards: group behaviour, weather, preparedness, task-specific risks, site context.
  • Right to refuse unsafe work is codified in labour law.
  • Planners have a professional obligation to visit the site (“boots-on-the-ground”).

Archival Research

  • Definition: primary research drawing on original records, often created for administrative—not research—purposes.
  • Challenges: identification, location, interpretation, and context.
  • Visiting archives: check ID requirements, hours, letters of introduction, registration, and time allocation.
  • Example item record: 1784 Peachey water-colour of Cataraqui—metadata fields (creator, extent 41.7×56.1 cm41.7\times56.1\text{ cm}, subjects, accession no.).

Interviewing & Public Engagement

  • Interviews fill knowledge gaps, probe motivations, and empower participants.
  • Four types: general guided; standardized open-ended; informal conversational; closed fixed-response.
  • Success factors: planning, listening, observation, power dynamics, rapport (mirroring); prepare question guides, consent forms, equipment.
  • Public meetings types: statutory, informational, inquiry. Phases—planning, delivery, follow-up.
  • Record & protect data: secure storage (e.g.
    vault metaphor). Ethics & privacy laws apply.

Heritage Reporting (CHER/ HIA)

  • Typical CHER table of contents: limitations, executive summary, methodology, policy context, history, existing conditions, evaluation (O.Reg 9/06 + 569/22), conclusions, appendices.
  • Three-step evaluation (Ontario Toolkit): Historical Research → Site Analysis → Evaluation.
  • Minimum designation thresholds (after 1 Jan 20231\,\text{Jan}\,2023):
    • Listing – meet ≥ 1 criterion.
    • Part IV designation – meet ≥ 2 criteria.
  • Mapping example: cemetery boundary discrepancy – show alternate interpretations (critical source analysis strengthens argument).

Research Design Fundamentals

  • Research design = overall blueprint for data collection, measurement & analysis—not synonymous with specific methods.
  • Good design precedes data gathering; poor design → wasted effort, unsafe conclusions.
  • Three spine elements:
    1. Epistemology – how knowledge is known.
    2. Methodology – conceptual/analytical frame.
    3. Methods – concrete techniques.
  • Iterative nature of qualitative research: Data ↔ Analysis ↔ Reflection.
  • Formulating research questions: must be intelligible, answerable, and contributory.
  • Bias sources (Gaber & Gaber 2007):
    1) predisposition to particular communities,
    2) personal/philosophical,
    3) loss of objectivity.
  • “Interpretive communities” shape what and how we research.
  • Rigour – exhaustive, logical exactitude, strict rule adherence.

Economic Considerations of Heritage

Why Talk Economics?

  • Decision-makers often motivated primarily by economic metrics; heritage advocates need this language.

Five Major Economic Impacts

  1. Jobs & Household Income
    • Rehabilitation is labour-intensive (60-70 % labour vs ≈ 50 % in new build).
    • Tennessee example: 1 000,0001\,000,000 spent
    • Manufacturing → 28.828.8 jobs; household income 604,000604,000.
    • New build → 36.136.1 jobs; 764,000764,000 income.
    • Rehabilitation → 4040 jobs; 826,000826,000 income.
    • Europe: each direct heritage job creates 26.726.7 indirect jobs (ratio 1:26.71:26.7) vs auto 1:6.31:6.3.
  2. Revitalization
    • Main Street programmes; BC downtowns show increased prosperity without major new build.
  3. Heritage Tourism
    • WTO tourism definition (≤ 1 year stay outside usual environment).
    • 30%30\% of global trade in services; 6%6\% of total exports.
    • Sub-segments: cultural, dark, agritourism, geotourism, etc.
    • ICOMOS 1999 Cultural Tourism Charter – tourism should benefit host communities & conservation.
    • UNESCO Sustainable Tourism Programme – 5 objectives (integration into WHC, enable environment, stakeholder engagement, capacity, quality products).
    • Visitor management tools – supply-side (capacity, hardening, timed entry) vs demand-side (pricing, marketing limits, tickets).
    • Overtourism cases: Chauvet Cave replica, Louvre strike 2025, Rome “selfie” queues.
    • COVID-19 shock: worldwide travel restrictions 96%96\%; WTTC predicts 75 million75\text{ million} job losses; IATA – airlines burning $300,000/min\$300{,}000/\text{min} in 2020.
  4. Property Values
    • England: pre-1919 houses worth ≈ 20%20\% premium; earlier = higher premium.
    • Studies show designation does not depress values; heritage houses outperform during downturns.
  5. Small Business Incubation
    • Creative industries 13%13\% more likely in heritage properties; > 60%60\% of such firms new (≤ 3 yrs).

Financial & Non-Financial Tools (Ontario examples)

  • Grants & tax rebates (CIPs, brownfield TIEGs), heritage easements, “bonusing,” fee waivers.
  • Crowdfunding, special events (e.g.
    film screenings to fund Fugitive Slave Chapel – $60,000\$60,000 City grant).
  • Insurance challenges:
    • Misconception that designation forces exact replacement; insurance industry concerned about “like-kind” costs & delays.
    • Survey (n = 51): 49%49\% had difficulty finding insurance; 59%59\% perceive premiums higher; 64%64\% proposed upgrades to cut costs.
    • Ministry stance: designation alone should not raise premiums; risk factors (wiring, heating) do.
    • Sample HCD policy: replication of lost structures not required.

Activity Recap: Heritage Planner & Student Housing

  • Task: design research to address perceived negative impacts of student concentration on neighbourhood heritage.
  • Key steps suggested:
    • Clarify research question(s); stakeholder mapping.
    • Mixed methods: archival analysis, on-site surveys, noise/traffic data, interviews with residents & students.
    • Ethical concerns: bias, scapegoating students, equity impacts.

Key Take-Home Messages

  • Visual & landscape assessments depend on clear methodology and legal boundaries.
  • CHLs require multi-scalar, layered evaluations; digital diachronic tools aid interpretation.
  • Dark heritage (“Sites of Conscience”) carries heavy ethical responsibilities.
  • Sound condition assessment combines accessibility, safety, and materials audits.
  • Fieldwork safety, archival competence, and interview skills are non-negotiable professional duties.
  • Research design precedes methods; be iterative but rigorous.
  • Economic arguments—jobs, tourism, property values—are powerful advocacy tools but not a panacea.
  • Financial incentives, careful visitor management, and myth-busting about insurance can help reconcile conservation with economic realities.