The Rand estate, known as Randwood, in Niagara-on-the-Lake, is a cultural heritage landscape that is noteworthy among Canada’s historic estates. The summer home of the Rand family for more than a century, it has faced an uncertain future since leaving the family’s care, and differing visions recently culminated in an extensive hearing before the Ontario Land Tribunal.
At the turn of the 20th century, Niagara-on-the-Lake was a popular summer destination for Americans. The Rands, a prominent family from Buffalo, acquired the first portions of their estate in 1910, and it would grow to 50 acres at its height. The estate was bounded by a rail line and, remarkably, the Rands could travel from the growing metropolis of Buffalo and arrive at their summer retreat via their own “whistle stop” along the walled boundaries of the estate.
The Rands commissioned Howard and Lorrie Dunington-Grubb, pioneers in Canadian landscape architecture, to produce designs that would come to considerably shape the estate. An axial, sunken front garden and an elegant swimming pool garden on the grounds were showpieces of their work on the estate, which also featured stables, outbuildings, and orchards that supported an ornamental farm. Randwood became a vibrant social setting, and the Rand family hosted events from garden parties to tennis tournaments to fireworks displays.
In the second half of the 20th century, the estate saw adaptation and evolution. As farming operations scaled down in the 1950s, farm buildings were converted to family residences while carefully maintaining their architectural character. In the 1960s, Randwood began its association with the celebrated Shaw Festival, co-founded by Calvin Rand, hosting glamorous guests at dinners and parties and providing seasonal lodging for the festival’s actors.
Subsequent decades saw the estate’s main house used as a seasonal conference centre, and later, as a school of philosophy. Portions of the estate were also redeveloped as residential cul-de-sacs. Though the family’s footprint was reduced, the Rands maintained ownership of a large parcel spanned by an axial walkway that links a collection of built and natural features —including the railway whistle stop and the swimming pool garden — until 2016.
The Rand estate sits largely vacant today and is the subject of controversial development ambitions. Initial proposals by the current owner led to the creation of the Save Our Rand Estate Association (SORE), which engaged ERA to provide research, analysis, and advice in 2018, a role that continued through successive proposals and debates about the estate’s future.
The hearing at the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) was prompted by the owner’s proposal to build a residential subdivision on a large portion of the estate. The hearing considered the site’s urban boundary, zoning for residential development, and subdivision to create streets, lots, and blocks. Critically, it also considered the demolition and alteration of heritage attributes on the estate, which comprises multiple heritage designations within a cultural heritage landscape.
Differing visions and a tribunal hearing
The OLT hearing took place over 34 days in 2024 and involved multiple parties, including the owner, the Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake, and SORE. Thirty-eight expert witnesses provided evidence on issues ranging from cultural heritage to urban design to arboriculture, and issues about built and natural heritage were central to the case. Michael McClelland, a founding principal of ERA, and Brendan Stewart, ERA’s Senior Advisor on Landscape Practice, gave evidence as witnesses.
At the heart of ERA’s evidence was a cultural landscape approach that transcended the estate’s individual parts to form a foundational understanding of the whole of the Rand estate. McClelland and Stewart argued in favour of a more comprehensive approach to planning for the entirety of the estate lands. Key to their arguments was valuing the evolution of the estate’s built and natural layers, and a nuanced analysis of its interconnected landscape features.
As part of their evidence, SORE’s team of experts proposed an alternative concept for developing the estate. This concept centres on the estate’s cultural landscape, carefully structuring development around an open space system that conserves built and natural features and demonstrates a comprehensive, landscape-driven approach to planning across the whole of the estate. The goal of the concept is to ensure that historic elements are meaningfully conserved while allowing the site to support the community’s future needs.
The OLT decided in favour of the Town and SORE, whose positions were broadly aligned, on the central issues of the hearing. Among its findings, the Tribunal agreed that the whole can exceed the sum of its parts, that heritage value and not only heritage attributes should be considered, and that heritage protection extends to the landscape, setting, and interrelationships of attributes. The Tribunal accepted that Randwood’s “trees and vegetation, outdoor rooms, axial lines, and the relationship, connections and views from one feature to another” should be conserved.
The decision and an uncertain future
The OLT concluded that the owner’s proposal and its effects on Randwood’s heritage value did not represent good planning in the public interest. In this October 2024 decision, it provided the owner with an opportunity to revise its proposal in consultation with the other parties, including SORE. The owner appealed the decision to the OLT, but was unsuccessful, and has since declined to revise its proposal. As a result, the Tribunal issued a final order dismissing the owner’s applications in April 2025. A court challenge by the owner remains pending at the time of writing this post.
“The sustainable conservation of heritage resources over the long term requires a wholistic, viable approach that balances heritage, planning and economic factors”
– OLT Decision
The Randwood case is noteworthy among OLT hearings for its magnitude. From both a heritage and planning perspective, the decision reached by the Tribunal in this extensive hearing is significant for its examination of cultural heritage landscapes, its attention to the landscape features within them, and its emphasis on the importance of comprehensive planning. As we consider Randwood’s future, these are themes and ideas that ERA was pleased to bring to the fore.
Main photograph of the view through the sunken garden to the main house of the Rand Estate (Rita Brown)
All photographs are courtesy of the Rand Family, unless noted otherwise.
