Sheppard House Green Face Lift, Home To Windfall Ecology Centre

Back in mid October I took some pictures of the Sheppard House. When we got there a lot changed since our last visit. The house was surrounded by the scaffold, information signs placed around and some trees cut down.


Sheppard house is a very nice three-storey 5000 sq ft building that is also surrounded by the beautiful conservation area. In 1972 the property was donated by the Sheppard family to the Ontario Heritage Trust. At the present time the property is managed through a joint agreement by the Town of Aurora, the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority, and the Ontario Heritage Trust.

The Sheppard House is a new home to the Windfall Ecology Centre and is operated by the Centre under a long-term agreement.

So what is up with the renovations?

The Sheppard House is getting a face lift but not just regular face lift. Back in 2008 the Ontario Trillium Foundation approved over $100,000 capital grant to the Windfall Ecology Centre to complete the heritage retrofit on the house. The retrofit will preserve the heritage aspects of the building and it will result potentially in 75% reduction of energy use.

So what is the point of all that? I shall no repeat, but Windfall Ecology Centre website summarized this very well.

‘Our approach to creating a culture of conservation must bring us to a mindset where renovation, rehabilitation and recycling are the norm. Architecture is long-term infrastructure that must be retained for centuries, not a commodity to be discarded within a generation.

There is a pervasive perception among heritage building owners and operators that heritage preservation and energy conservation are mutually exclusive objectives. This dichotomy of thought poses a major barrier to the establishment of a culture of energy conservation within the community of very old-home owners and operators.‘


Read on …

‘We must find ways to use modern technology in harmony with heritage buildings or many of our prize heritage structures will be left neglected. They will be too expensive to operate and too carbon-intensive to justify habitation in this new era of carbon constraint.

The Conserve and Preserve project will demonstrate that dramatic reductions in energy use can be achieved while maintaining the cultural heritage integrity of a heritage structure. This will be accomplished through innovative project design and delivery mechanism, which incorporates an actual heritage renovation as part of the education workshop component.‘


I think this is a great initiative project to reach out to the heritage building owners and is done here in Aurora. I shall come back one of those days and see the progress.