Douglas De Gannes

Universal Access and Heritage Conservation

As Canada strives for accessibility and inclusion, there is pressure to reconsider the prevalent notion of opposition between conservation of our built heritage and interventions necessary to improve physical access. Through examples of interventions to heritage sites, Douglas de Gannes will explore the potential for confident design, informed by a values-based approach to Heritage Conservation to find common ground with Universal Accessibility.

Bio

A Senior Associate architect at ERA architects, Douglas revels in the space where cultural values, good design and built heritage converge. With 19 years of experience, he serves as project lead on a variety of conservation projects. His experience includes providing heritage conservation architecture services for several award-winning projects, including rehabilitation of the former Windsor Armouries building for the University of Windsor’s downtown campus. 

Since 2020, Douglas has served as a senior heritage planner on the Centre Block Rehabilitation, Canada’s largest and most complex heritage conservation project.
Through his work, Douglas has become deeply engaged with adapting older buildings for universal access. In 2019, he co-developed a course for the diploma program at the Willowbank School of Restoration Arts that takes a critical look at Heritage sites and the challenges and opportunities for improving universal access. Presently, Douglas is working with Winnipeg’s – Design For All, consulting on a study examining ways to advance development of Accessibility Standards to complement Heritage Standards and Guidelines for federal heritage buildings.

Douglas is a white cis man with dark brown hair and a greying beard. Douglas’ pronouns are he/ him and he is not presently a disabled person.