Welcome to the School of Restoration Arts at Willowbank.  This is a place where people believe in learning by doing.  It is a place where people enjoy both the academic rigours of debate and discussion, and the joys of pre-apprenticeship training under masters in the restoration field.  It is a new kind of institution in a new century – a place that crosses the boundaries between academic programs and apprenticeship guilds.  Many of our greatest cultural treasures – from small artifacts to vernacular and high-style buildings to complex cultural landscapes – were created by individuals and communities who combined theoretical insights with practical skills, who combined art with craft, who combined innovation with experience.  Those same cultural treasures will be sustained and given new life by people with similar insights and skills, and the School of Restoration Arts is dedicated to training those people. The importance of sustainability – of both cultural and natural resources – is changing the way we understand and shape our environment, and it is an underlying principle for staff and students.  The School itself is located on a 12.5 acre estate on the Niagara area – one of the most beautiful and historically-rich areas of Canada.  Willowbank estate is a designated National Historic Site.  The natural landscape contains both open vistas and forested ravines, and the 1834 mansion at its centre is considered one of the finest Classical Revival buildings in the country.  The architect/builder responsible for the house – John Latshaw – would find it difficult to practice today in Canada, because he was both a designer and a builder.  But he would be proud of Willowbank – a school that is challenging our tendency to compartmentalize and divide, and seeks to achieve a new kind of balance.  Part of the curriculum involves restoring the house and grounds of Willowbank itself – a metaphor for the larger enterprise of sustaining cultural landscapes around the world.

Julian Smith, M.Arch, OAA