Laurier students work on Cambridge heritage inventory initiative - Waterloo Region Record

CAMBRIDGE — The City of Cambridge has a problem with its inventory of heritage properties.
It's a little lopsided, as hundreds of old homes and public buildings have been listed, but very few commercial/industrial properties are in the inventory.

In an effort to try and get more business building owners to list their properties the city has recruited urban planning students in Bob Sharp's class at Wilfrid Laurier University to work on the Capstone Urban Sustainability Project (CUSP).

The project is a credit course for the students, which takes a collaborative case-study approach, where teams of students work together to analyze and resolve an identified urban or local issue within Waterloo Region. The City of Cambridge and the university have worked out a memorandum of understanding where CUSP students will work on city issues over the term of a four-year agreement. This is the second year of the agreement and the CUSP students have been tasked with trying to develop new marketing materials and strategies designed to persuade the city's business community to consider listing their heritage properties.

Divided into five teams the student looked at different areas of the city. Three of the teams worked in Galt, while one each tackled Preston ad Hespeler. The teams explored each of the areas and then dug into the Cambridge City Archives and the Hespeler Heritage Centre to find out what buildings were build prior to 1950 and would qualify to be part of the heritage property inventory. They also researched the history of the old buildings that qualified looking at who had owned them, how they were used, and how they might have contributed to the development of the community.

For the full story go to:  Record news story

Professionalism, Research and Pilot Presentations

At the end of January, the CUSP class continued their professional development with a workshop from the Laurier Community and Partnerships Office. The students learned about professional communication and presentations and had a fun experiential learning activity where they practiced conversations with potential community members. They left the workshop with new tools to use for their projects as well as in their future after Laurier. 

Since then, the class has been working hard at completing their deliverables for the City of Cambridge. They have been attending community meetings, visiting neighbourhood organizations and Business Improvement Areas, visiting the Cambridge archives and completing their property data assessment forms for the commercial and industrial buildings they have chosen to assess.

As a new addition to the course this semester, CUSP collaborated with Ada Sharpe’s class (ENG206 Writing for Business) class for a mutual learning opportunity. The CUSP groups sent drafts of their outreach materials to the English class and they provided copy editing of the documents and gave helpful feedback to the groups. Both sets of students learned a lot during this exercise.

On March 7, the class went back to the Cambridge City Hall to give pilot presentations to the City representatives, April Souwand and Laura Waldie. The students showed that they have been working hard and provided a snapshot of what we will see for their final community presentations. They received excellent feedback from the City that they will be able to use to refine their final deliverables and final community presentation on March 28. 

Getting to Know Hespeler and the Cambridge Archives

This semester has has already been busy for the CUSP class. On January 10, we headed to Hespeler to visit the Company of Neighbours Hespeler Heritage Centre. It is an extremely informative display of the history of the community, located in the Old Hespeler town hall. A local historian, Lary Turner walked the students through the centre, sharing some rich facts about Hespeler. We then did a walking tour with Lary through the neighbourhood surrounding the Centre and learned about some of the developments and how the area has changed through time. The team who will be working in Hespeler, Great Lakes, left inspired by the potential for their project in contributing to the preservation of heritage in this great community. The other groups were intrigued to find a similar organization in their research areas. 

CUSP in Hespeler with Lary Turner

On January 17, the CUSP students went back to Cambridge, this time to downtown Galt. A deliverable of their projects this year is to complete Heritage Inventory Templates, which require significant details about the properties that could potentially be added to the Cambridge Heritage Register. Because of this need, the students were able to visit the City of Cambridge Archives and meet with Dan Schmalz. The class was split into two groups and each had the opportunity to visit the archives and see the type of resources stored there and were given a lesson on how to go about their research. This was an informative tour and the class learned how and where to get the necessary information for their projects. They had an hour to start looking into some of their properties but were also invited back to come spend more time at the archives. For many of us, this was a new experience and the visit was really beneficial. We learned just how integral the archives are to the history of a city and now appreciate the vast amount of knowledge that can be found there. 

With Dan Schmalz in the Cambridge Archives

Responses to RFP submitted!

The end of last semester was a busy one for the Capstone Urban Sustainability students. On November 15 they had a presentation from Kevin Cahill, the Speakers Bureau Coordinator for KW’s Toastmasters clubs on “Building Connection Through Communication.” The students learned how best to open and close a public speaking engagement, techniques to address the fear of public speaking, methods of preparation and practice and the use of body language. 

The students spent the remainder of the Fall semester working on their responses to the City of Cambridge Request for Proposal (RFP). They then presented a draft version of the RFP to the instructors and City representative, April Souwand, and received valuable feedback. Their presentations went very well as the students showed their newly acquired Toastmasters skills and brought forward innovative and exciting ideas. The students then revised their ideas based on the feedback given and delivered a final Response to the RFP on December 16. 

Getting to know Preston and more

Things are starting to come together for the CUSP class as the term heads to a close. The students have spent the past few weeks learning the skills necessary to build a response to the Request for Proposals (RFP) from the City of Cambridge.

Bernhardt Block, Preston

On October 25, we had Eric Davis come in and speak to the students about the RFP and the process of adding buildings to a heritage register. He is a lawyer from Miller Thompson, LLP that specializes in municipal matters. He expressed that he thought this project was a huge undertaking for the students and gave them concrete advice on how best to streamline the process. Eric reminded the students to keep their audience in mind when presenting the information to ensure they have the most impact. The student came out with some valuable, real world knowledge on how to work best with municipalities.

In the November 1st class, the students had a workshop with Dana Lavoie, an Employment Equity and AODA Officer from the Laurier Diversity and Equity office. A requirement of the students deliverables this year are that the documents are Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) compliant. An example of what this entails is that the text of any documents prepared must be organized in a specific way so that devices like screen readers can access the document. The students not only learned this for their proposals and final deliverables, they also came out with a marketable skill for their CVs.

Getting to know Galt, and heritage planning.

The CUSP class has had a few busy weeks of preparation for their proposals. The teams are well on their way to responding to the City of Cambridge’s RFP.

On October 4th, the class took a field trip to Galt to meet with City planners and to tour the study area. While the afternoon started off with a downpour, it ended up being a really informative visit. Dr. Sharpe led the students on a walking tour that passed by some key industrial and commercial properties that are being considered as additions to the Heritage Register.  Many of the students have little experience in Cambridge, so this tour allowed them to get to know the area and visualize what they will be working towards.

Galt walking tour

Setting the Stage

During the CUSP class on September 20th, we were fortunate to have retired professional planner and Laurier graduate, Paul Puopolo, from Polocorp, a local integrated land development company, come to speak to the class. He spoke about ‘Places to Grow', the growth plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe area, and what the implications are when planning for development of  heritage buildings. Paul stressed the importance of working with the Ontario Municipal Board  when there are development disputes. In addition to other valuable information he gave to the class, he recommended that they communicate with local stakeholders throughout the process and that they ensure their proposals are innovative and creative. 

Paul Puopolo

In the second half of the class, we worked further on our group development process. The students filled out leadership inventory forms to let the instructors know their individual leadership style that would be valuable to their consulting team. We also asked the students to consider what they were looking for in a group member and we had a group interview process where each student was able to talk with their classmates and determine who they would work well with. This was very helpful in formulating groups that are not only well balanced in terms of skills, but also have greater potential to be harmonious. 

CUSP Students Dive Right into Work

This year’s Capstone Urban Sustainability Project (CUSP) is off to a good start with a bright and lively class of students and exciting new features to the course (GG465). For the first class students started getting to know each other, were introduced to research journal writing, and engaged in their first team-building exercise.

While the students might not have known exactly what to expect coming into the class, they left with a promise of a kind of learning they have never experienced before. The students will be forming consulting teams and responding to a real Request for Proposals from the City of Cambridge. Because the class will be working in a group for a full year, the course began with time spent getting to know each other through peer interviews and team activities. The consulting groups will be solving real problems for the City of Cambridge and gaining the kind of experiential learning that is exclusive to the C3 Innovation Labs (C3IL), a multidisciplinary partnership within the Laurier Faculty of Arts.

Laurier student projects outline adaptive reuse for underutilized places of worship in Cambridge

WATERLOO – As part of a course competition for Wilfrid Laurier University’s Capstone Urban Studies Project (CUSP), a team of Geography and Environmental Studies students was awarded first prize by the City of Cambridge for their recommendation to adaptively reuse underutilized space within the Central Presbyterian Church in Galt.

Making it Work

First-year PhD student Laine Young finds common ground as an undergraduate teaching assistant.

"When Laine Young, a first-year PhD student in the Waterloo-Laurier Geography Graduate Program, was looking for a teaching assistant opportunity that aligned with her specialization in Human Geography, she didn’t expect to find one that also drew on the skills she developed in her undergraduate and masters-level social work degrees. That is until she found Laurier’s fourth-year Capstone Urban Studies Project (CUSP) course, which contains a unique community-engagement element."

For the full story go to:  Laurier News Story, May 2017

City of Cambridge posts CUSP presentations and final reports

"The City of Cambridge has developed a partnership with Wilfrid Laurier University to assist in a capstone program with the Geography department. This capstone program provides students with an opportunity to respond to local Planning issue and act as a consultant for the City. The students research and provide recommendations in response to a City identified project. The 2017 Capstone course was focused on the Adaptive Reuse of underutilized Places of Worship."

To read the students' final reports and presentations please point your browser to:
Planning Partnerships > Wilfrid Laurier University Capstone Program  

CUSP 2017 - Adaptive Reuse and Places of Worship in Galt

For the CUSP of 2017 the City of Cambridge invited students from Laurier to investigate opportunities for the adaptive reuse of existing places of worship in Galt City Centre.   Across the City of Cambridge places of worship are seeing declining memberships, a decrease in donations and increased operational costs as their buildings age.  In this project students provided the City and four places of worship in the downtown with an assessment of their options and how to achieve them.  Working in four consulting teams the students undertook the research followed by community presentations and a final report submitted in April.

Here are the cover pages for the 2017 CUSP final reports.

 

WLU students map Cambridge's history - CBC News

Projects will be used to build a heritage map for the city

Build a heritage map for Cambridge and tell interesting stories – that was the broad assignment given to a group of fourth-year geography and environmental students at Wilfrid Laurier University this past semester.

"They knew very little about Cambridge, but they really kind of immersed themselves," professor Andrew Spring said. "It's these three tiny towns that came together and these tiny towns had their own pretty amazing stories."

For the full story go to:  CBC News item

Laurier students develop heritage maps to highlight Cambridge’s history and culture

WATERLOO – As part of a course competition for Wilfrid Laurier University’s Capstone Urban Studies Project (CUSP), a team of Geography and Environmental Studies students was awarded first prize for recommending a smartphone heritage map application for the City of Cambridge, which would include an interactive feature articulating the stories of historical Cambridge residents buried in local public cemeteries. 

CUSP - 2016 Heritage Mapping

Here and below are the cover pages for the 2016 CUSP final reports.  A news release reporting on the adjudication results of the final submissions will appear in a future posting.

Laurier Arts: The Urban Studies Sustainability Project Wilfrid Laurier University

"Urban Studies is a great field because more and more people are moving to larger cities. Infrastructure, transportation, buildings – everything needs to be renewed and the Urban Studies capstone seminar really helps you have that insight into what might work best for a certain area. There's no exam, there's no midterm. It's this huge project that you work on all term. It prepares you for real life. It prepares you for the job market. We really have the highest impact learning moments with students when we're out in the field. The Capstone Urban Sustainability project is the bridge between academic studies in the bubble of Laurier to real-world problems. This capstone course really was invaluable to understanding how to apply all of our knowledge in the real-world setting"  

Laurier students work with City of Cambridge on urban projects

WATERLOO – A team of Wilfrid Laurier University students in Geography and Environmental Studies were awarded first prize for assessing the economic impact of streetscape improvement plans for King Street East in Preston as part of their coursework for the university’s Capstone Urban Studies Project (CUSP). 

The winning team, who named themselves WALKS Consulting, is made up of fourth-year students Warren Brayne, Ashley Byun, Samantha Dunlop, Lucas Pisciuneri and Kyla Suchovs. They are are part of the inaugural CUSP course at Laurier. The senior-level course, the first of its kind at Laurier, uses a collaborative case-study approach, which challenges students to analyse and propose resolutions to urban issues within the Region of Waterloo, while bringing to bear their understanding of both human and physical geography and environmental studies.

Introducing CUSP - Capstone Urban Sustainability Project

Every year the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario will offer a new Capstone Urban Sustainability Project as an ultimate experience for its 4th year undergraduate students. CUSP gives our students the opportunity to integrate and apply their understanding of both human and physical geography and environmental sustainability to real world problems.

Currently in partnership with the City of Cambridge, the project is structured around a real-world research challenge framed within a request for proposal.  Teams of students take on the roles of consultancy groups and address the challenge using skills developed throughout their undergraduate studies.  During the course students will meet and consult with the planning staff and undertake research on location in the City.

CUSP emerges from the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies' desire to develop programming that helps students deepen their engagement with the community.  Thanks to the generosity of the City of Cambridge, Paul Puopolo (BA’73) of Polocorp Inc. and Christopher Coupal (BA ’95) of Coupal Markou Commercial Real Estate Inc. the Department is able to offer this enhanced experiential learning opportunity in the urban consulting process.