Library shows photos for annual tour day

Visitors can see behind the doors of 37 unusual buildings, historic sites and places of worship tomorrow as part of Doors Open Waterloo Region — and if they make a stop at the Dana Porter Library, they can also get a glimpse of some major local businesses whose doors are open no longer.

Porter’s Doris Lewis Rare Book Room will be showing off Kitchener-Waterloo workplaces that have changed beyond recognition, or closed altogether, but are preserved through archival photos for use by researchers.

“Waterloo Region has always been known as a business and manufacturing hub,” says a web site devoted to the exhibition, Through the Photographer’s Lens. “An entrepreneurial spirit exists here that from pioneer days has adapted to the economic ups and downs of the times.  Before World War II, industry had grown to include the manufacture of goods of all kinds: footwear, furniture, rubber, electrical and metal products, clothing, food products and more. Kitchener-Waterloo was also a home for the head offices of many insurance companies.

“The region underwent an industrial boom during and after WWII. The population grew significantly, wages went up, and people saved money. Demand for manufactured goods increased nation-wide, and for a few decades the manufacturing and service industries in the Waterloo Region rode on a tide of prosperity. However, since the 1970’s one industry after another has failed, some due in part to foreign competition or declining demand. The old factories have suffered various fates: some have been demolished, some re-purposed into condominiums or studios, and some remain closed. The only way to recapture that industrial past is through the photographer’s lens.

“Local photographers Charles Belair and Robert Nicol (Personal Studio) documented the industrial presence in the Waterloo Region after WWII through their commercial assignments. They worked for a broad spectrum of companies, photographing executives and groups of people at ceremonies and social occasions, products for advertising, and buildings and machinery. They also took extraordinary photographs that are not commonly found in a professional photographer’s repertoire: they photographed people working inside those buildings at their jobs. These images convey a great deal about working conditions for both men and women at the time.”

Included are a number of pictures of the factory on Kitchener’s Glasgow Street that today is occupied by AirBoss Rubber Compounding. It was built 99 years ago for the Canadian Consolidated Rubber Co., later to be known as Dominion Tire and then Uniroyal before merging with B. F. Goodrich. The AirBoss plant will be offering tours to a limited number of people during Doors Open tomorrow.

The rare books room, on the first floor of Porter, will be open to visitors from 10 to 5 tomorrow during Doors Open. It holds the archives of several local corporations, including Electrohome Ltd. and Greb Industries, as well as early editions and rare books, collections of archives and manuscripts, and “other material that requires special care and handling because of its early publication date, association interest, physical condition, aesthetic value, or unusual format,” more than 60,000 books as well as photographs and documents.

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Openings at Perimeter and CIGI this weekend

The library is just one stop on tomorrow’s Doors Open tour, and the only stop this year that’s officially part of the University of Waterloo. However, the one-day festival does include two institutions with close links to the university: the Perimeter Institute and the Centre for International Governance Innovation.

Perimeter is celebrating the official opening of its Stephen Hawking Centre, which will double the size of the landmark institution on Caroline Street in central Waterloo. “The state-of-the-art research complex will help advance scientific progress,” Perimeter’s web site says, “by providing the ultimate environment for the human mind to conceive, visualize, and understand the nature of physical reality, from the subatomic world to the entire universe.” The new wing adds 55,000 square feet of space, enough to accommodate more than 150 new researchers: “The expansion is creatively wrapped around the corner of the existing facility, increasing the overall physical footprint by just 1/5, yet doubling the size of the research complex and providing space for nearly triple the number of scientists.”

The institute promises “three days of fun and enlightening activities”, today through Sunday, including social events, lectures, and tours of the new wing on Sunday (not tomorrow) from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Interactive science activities for children, “Physica Fantastica”, will also be open on Sunday. World-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, for whom the new wing is named, is not expected to be in Waterloo for the occasion but may be in touch by video link.

A block away at the corner of Caroline and Erb Streets, CIGI is marking the opening of its “campus”, a new building that will house the Balsillie School of International Affairs and other related organizations. The Balsillie School is “a partnership” among CIGI, the University of Waterloo, and Wilfrid Laurier University.

A “campus celebration” for invited guests today is a preview of the official opening next Wednesday and Thursday. Tomorrow, the public will be welcome for Doors Open tours between 10:00 and 3:00. There will be entertainment for adults and activities for children, and several period actors “will portray important historical moments in international governance, from King John of England and the signing of the Magna Carta to a UN Peacekeeper and the signing of the Charter of the United Nations.”

The “Oxbridge-style complex”, according to CIGI, “features a landscaped interior courtyard with public art, a signature bell tower and a wood-clad, 250-seat auditorium for academic and public events.” It was designed by KPMB Architects of Toronto.

Thousands of people visit noteworthy buildings and heritage sites every September during Doors Open, with more than 8,000 individual site visits tallied during last year’s event. Most sites are open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., but there are variations.

Other sites that will be open this year include the Roman Catholic church in St. Agatha, west of Waterloo, which dates from 1899 but shares some of its history with St. Jerome’s University, founded in 1865 in the same community. The 1912 post office on Waterloo’s main street, now occupied by Perimeter, housed the university’s school of optometry for several years after it moved to Waterloo in 1967, and is also open to visitors tomorrow.

In Kitchener, the Communitech Hub, where the university’s VeloCity incubator program has a presence, will be part of Doors Open. And the Homer Watson House in south Kitchener was once the home of the Doon School of Fine Arts, affiliated with the university in the 1960s.

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Tonight's concert, and other high notes

The first week of classes is coming to an end, and it might be safe to predict that it'll be a big social weekend for many of those on campus. The highlight is tonight's Welcome Week concert by Down With Webster, which the Federation of Students is describing on Facebook as "THE place to be Friday night! Wrap up Welcome Week with us and end your first week of classes on a high note as one of Canada’s hottest performer(s) takes the stage for an outdoor concert on the BMH Green! This is an all-ages event with a special 19+ area. This event is for uWaterloo students only. Doors open at 9:00 p.m. Super excited!" The headline band will be introduced by "special guests" Dubbs, which is not the act originally announced: "Dubbs has been added to the lineup as the drummer from Creature unfortunately broke his hand."

Federal finance minister Jim Flaherty likely won't put in an appearance at the concert, though he's in town earlier today for a symposium on innovation being hosted by the Perimeter Institute. Waterloo president Feridun Hamdullahpur will speak at that event along with the presidents of the University of Calgary and Toronto's Ryerson University, the president of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, and corporate leaders. Says BMO Financial Group, one of the sponsors: "The symposium will feature presentations and panels on more innovative business, universities and government, and how to build bridges between them."

Maria Liston (left) of the department of anthropology was featured the other day in the Athens-based daily newspaper Kathimerini, which talked about archaeological research based at the American School of Classical Studies there. Liston has been involved in analysis of the so-called "well of dead babies" in the Athens agora, where some 450 skeletons of infants date from the first half of the second century CE. She's determining the age and cause of death of the infants, and discovering that many were premature, had visible deformities, or likely died of perinatal meningitis. A number of dog skeletons have been found in the same area, and Liston explains that there was an ancient belief that dogs could absorb infection that would otherwise pose a danger. The research continues, the paper reported.

Paintin' Place daycare, in the UW Place residence complex on University Avenue, has some full-time and part-time spaces available for children 30 months to 6 years old (information, 519-888-4030). • The Chamber Choir and University Choir are looking for more male voices, and especially more tenors, says director Leonard Enns at Conrad Grebel University College (ljenns@ uwaterloo.ca). • When the registrar's office sent an administrative memo to "all undergraduate students" earlier this week, it set a record, with the message being delivered to 30,012 e-mail addresses.

CAR

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