For 35 years, ERA Architects has been a strategic thought leader in understanding the ever-evolving phenomenon of heritage. As the firm grows and our approach to working with heritage evolves, we welcome three new principals and one new director to lead and expand our innovative, adaptive, and forward-thinking practice.
To explore their experiences, reflections, and intentions as they step into their new roles, cultural critic Alessandro Tersigni sat down with new ERA principals Samantha Irvine, David Winterton, and Shelley Ludman and new ERA director Dan Eylon to discuss some of the ideas and questions that excite and guide them.
Alessandro Tersigni: Congratulations on being promoted to principal! Tell me a bit about your role at the firm.
Samantha Irvine: ERA is a unique place — a sort of creative studio that welcomes practitioners from a bunch of disciplines. There’s a strong belief here in collaboration and considering many points of view in the context of placemaking. I’m one of a handful of people at the firm that doesn’t come from a traditional architecture, conservation, or planning background, but I have spent a decade here learning through osmosis. My role is built on that experience, and on skills I developed as a lawyer early in my career — whether we’re talking about converting an industrial complex in downtown Toronto to a new use or revitalizing an old civic building in a rural municipality, my job is to develop strategies, challenge assumptions, and support robust decision-making.
AT: How did you end up at ERA?
SI: I had qualified and worked briefly as a lawyer, but I had a strong intuition that my path lay elsewhere. I’ve always loved history and design and am fascinated by the cultural value carried by old buildings. I was living in the Candy Factory, a great adaptive reuse project in Toronto, and was inspired to enroll in a master’s program in London that explored adaptive reuse as a key contributor to sustainable design. Not only did this give me permission to think about all kinds of exciting things, but it also gave me a solid grounding in the multifaceted benefits of conserving and reusing existing buildings, which defines so much of our practice at ERA.
AT: What kind of projects excite you most?
SI: I’m most interested in projects that leverage the energy and creativity generated by change. For example, we’re working on the revival of Rosseau Memorial Hall in Seguin Township, a century-old community gathering place that represents a type of public realm that’s disappearing right now but is super important to our social well-being. The Hall was built by local stone masons a hundred years ago and is the setting for so many historic community events in Rosseau. In the past several years, it’s become increasingly underutilized, but we’re working with Seguin to reverse that trend. Projects like that, that unlock the potential of what exists, are so much more interesting to me than preservation for its own sake.
AT: How does the concept of heritage intersect with your work?
SI: The best projects I’ve worked on are the ones where it didn’t really matter whether a property was protected by heritage legislation. In an ideal world, great buildings are reused not because they must be, but because it makes sense from the perspective of the people who use them, the contribution they make to the public realm, in terms of good architecture, and the sustainability imperative they serve. When owners or users value a place and want to build on that value, that’s when we do our best work.
AT: What do you see in ERA’s future?
SI: ERA will always be rooted in the character, design and history of existing places, and the social benefits that those things bring. We’re known as a heritage firm, but that feels narrow even for our current practice, not to mention what we anticipate for the future. Working with existing places is increasingly complex. We’re continually re-examining concepts of heritage in the context of Reconciliation, climate change, sustainability, and housing affordability, for example. We need to have many conversations in one room — ERA is a place where that happens.
Portrait photography by Mina Markovic
