1.5 ConEd Learning Hours

8:30 a.m.‐ 10:00 a.m.

With efforts underway to accelerate Canada’s housing supply, a hidden threat to our housing stock remains largely invisible: the looming loss of our  existing housing to deterioration. Solving the mass modernization of aging housing is necessary to unlock the Canadian housing puzzle. The Tower Renewal Partnership brings together policymakers, architects, contractors, industry and financial players, as well as researchers and advocacy groups, to unlock the potential of mass scale modernization.

In this session, Graeme Stewart and Ya’el Santopinto of the Partnership and ERA Architects will take participants through the Retrofit Roadmap—a 12‐ step plan to scale up housing quality improvements nationwide. The Roadmap includes innovations in policy, industry, and practice that, taken together,  can set Canada at the helm of housing improvements internationally. The session will outline steps already being taken within the Roadmap, looking at case studies, innovation hubs, and out‐of‐the‐box solutions that are changing Canada ‘s housing ecosystem. The session will highlight case studies such as the Ken Soble Tower (the country’s first Passive House retrofit of a residential high‐rise building), showcasing preservation in action.

Learning Objectives

1. Understand the policy landscape surrounding aging apartment housing.

2. Learn about the typical physical challenges facing aging multi‐unit housing.

3. Examine a case study of Passive House EnerPHit modernization.

4. Explore the gaps and opportunities for innovation in the housing modernization sector.

Ya'el Santopinto, OAA, FRAIC

Principal

ERA Architects

Ya’el Santopinto is a Principal at ERA Architects, where she leads the deep retrofit and affordable housing practice. Ya’el is also the Director of Research and Partnerships at the Centre for Urban Growth and Renewal (CUG+R), a non‐profit organization advocating for supportive policy frameworks around the preservation of Canada’s affordable apartment housing supply, and leads research related to Tower Renewal initiatives to catalyze reinvestment and community building in apartment tower neighbourhoods. Ya’el has overseen the retrofit over 1,500 units of housing for not for profit and public housing providers including the ground‐breaking Ken Soble Tower.

Graeme Stewart, FRAIC, OAA, AIBC, AAA, RPP, MCIP, CAHP

Principal

ERA Architects Inc.

Graeme Stewart is a Toronto‐based architect and urban planner. He is a principal at ERA Architects and founding director of the Centre for Urban Growth and Renewal (CUG+R), an interdisciplinary urban research organization supporting policy and action toward more equitable and resilient urban regions. Graeme is a member of the Toronto Community Housing Design Review Panel and a regular lecturer in Universities in Ontario and abroad. He is also the co-editor of Concrete Toronto: A Guidebook to Concrete Architecture from the Fifties to the Seventies, and a recipient of the Jane Jacobs Prize for his ongoing work related to Tower Renewal.