Over the summer of 2019, Catherine Nasmith Architect, sponsored and supervised the hiring of a summer student for ACO Muskoka to conduct an area survey of the Village of Windermere, as well as to gather stories from community members. This project will continue in 2020. We photographed buildings, streetscapes and landscape features, gathered family stories and scrapbooks, and conducted two community workshops. The workshops were followed with interviews with residents and cottagers. The process has started a conversation about what a special place the village is, and how easily it could be damaged by inappropriate development. Should there be sufficient interest in acquiring heritage protection, it is expected that the heritage inventory produced would be background for a Heritage Conservation District Study for the Village. One of the volunteers working on the project, produced a video which was screened at the first workshop.
This work was conducted as a volunteer, hoping to persuade my neighbours that special places need special planning treatment.