Nancy Oakley
By Nicole Findlay
Nancy Oakley is a stalwart defender of history. For the better part of a year, the Centretown resident has been lobbying to save Lansdowne Park’s Horticulture building.
A Masters student in School of Canadian Studies’ heritage conservation program, Oakley is putting theory into practice.
“When I heard about Carleton’s heritage conservation program, led by world-renowned expert Herb Stovel, I just had one of those ‘aha’ moments and knew it was the program for me,” said Oakley, who also works at an Ottawa-based public history firm as research assistant. “Heritage conservation was the best, natural fit for my interests and abilities.”
Like many Ottawans, Oakley followed the Lansdowne Park Live proposal from the sidelines. However she was alarmed when an Ottawa Citizen blog was censored as it became increasingly critical of the developers’ proposal.
Oakley took action, joining a local heritage advocacy group and together with her fellow graduate students began to speak out publically to save the 96 year old Horticulture building.
While the building won’t be bulldozed, it will be moved 150 feet if the developers’ plan is implemented.
“It seems innocuous, but this represents a dangerous precedent and a bad process,” said Oakley. “The decision to relocate the building was made before it was known if it was even feasible.”
In addition, Oakley says the City of Ottawa’s heritage report is not objective, requires the City to strip the heritage designation of the building and finally calls for the tax-payer to foot the bill for the relocation.
Oakley isn’t a reactionary. She supports private-public partnerships as an economical and realistic approach to revitalization, provided that the process is transparent and conducted with meaningful public consultation.
“The design (Lansdowne Live) right now forces us to choose between heritage and new development – why can’t we have both?”