Length: 1 CEU
Topic: Heritage Conservation
Delivery Mode: Online On-Demand
What's Included: Video, Quiz, & Certificate
Registration Fee: Members $50 | Intern $35 | Student $25 | Non-Member $75
This webinar is part of the RAIC 2025 Conference on Architecture!
Cities are realizing existing buildings hold the key to unlocking their potential by solving many of today’s challenges: housing accessibility, affordability, and climate change. By transforming existing, underutilized Commercial buildings into new housing stock, many innovative solutions can result, and since existing buildings are the largest GHG emitters in cities, such conversations can proactively support decarbonization, improve the quality of lives of citizens, and mitigate future risks. This presentation will explore the various dimensions of Commercial-to-Residential conversions, looking at the benefits and challenges, particularly for heritage and for mid-to-late-20th-centruy Modernist buildings, to support new models of sustainable urban dwelling, showcased through examples from projects across North America.
Describe rules of thumb for considering commercial to residential conversations for non-heritage and heritage buildings, alike.
Recognize how adaptive reuse and conversion projects support broader municipal, provincial, and federal decarbonization mandates.
Explain an “envelope-first” approach that supports increased resiliency and the health and wellbeing of occupants of conversation projects.
Discuss common challenges and strategies to overcome them, for conversions of mid-to-late-20th-century Modernist buildings – and how to solve many indicative design flaws associated with this particular building stock.
Subject Matter Experts:
Blake Jackson
AIA, LEED Fellow, WELL AP, CPHC
Director, Sustainability, NORR
Blake Jackson is an architect working at the nexus of sustainability, wellness, and resiliency. He is the Director, Sustainability for NORR, an 800-person AE company with locations in the US, UK, and Canada. He has 24 years’ experience, holding a BArch from Kennesaw State University and a MArch in Sustainable Environmental Design from the AA Graduate School. Blake is a prolific author, speaker, and educator on built environment topics. He was recognized by BD+C Magazine as a “40 Under 40” AEC professional (2015), named a LEED Fellow by the USGBC (2021), and he received the AIA Young Architects Award (2024).
Tobias Fellows
OAA, MRAIC
Principal, NORR
Tobias Fellows is an architect and Principal with NORR Ottawa, with over twenty years’ experience delivering quality, award-winning projects across Canada, with a focus on the National Capital Region. He has garnered a reputation as a strong leader, applying his unique skill set of creative design and technical acumen to proactive project management approaches. He currently leads a multi-disciplinary team of architects, engineers, planners and designers, through a collaborative process, developing solutions for complex, purpose-driven designs, from recapitalization projects to new construction at every scope and scale – and across multiple sectors. He is also an avid outdoor enthusiast, drawing deep inspiration from time spent in union with the natural environment.
This webinar is in English. Closed captions have been provided in both English and French.
Pricing
Member: $50 / Non-Member: $75
Intern Member: $35 / Intern Non-Member: $75
Student: $25 (must be an RAIC student associate member)