First Hamilton Christian Reformed Church Restoration

Holly and Emma led a site tour and talk about CityHousing Hamilton’s 55 Queenston project today for the @passivehousecan Pulse event. The building has 40 units: 15 are 3 bedroom (for families) and the rest are 1 bedroom.

There was a good turnout with around 75 eager people who got to hear about and experience two different Passive House buildings. The first photo is of @whyholland and Tim Schilthuis, from Schilthuis Construction, in front of the new City Motor Hotel/ Studebaker artwork by @thearchitectsgarage across from the ground floor elevator. If you’d like to tour the buildings, there is a grand opening planned for one month from now, so stay tuned. We’re also hoping to present about the passive house journey with this project at a future conference.
#passivehouse #hamont #sitetour #cityhousinghamilton ...

What a day! Our community planting day in front of our office on Young Street, called the Cooperage, was a huge success! From the 16yd3 soil delivery and Invizij team hustle to get the soil off the sidewalk, to moving the soil into place and cleaning off the rocks, just the prep was a big job. We were so thankful to have around 20 students from the Green Team at Queen Victoria school come join us to help with the planting. We had over 500 native perennials to plant, so the help was greatly appreciated. Then we wrapped up the day by finishing the planting, distributing the mulch, and watering. This 1000ft2 rain garden is going to be a big asset to the Corktown community, and we couldn’t have done it without all our volunteers!

A BIG thanks to the @gcfoundationca for helping fund the rain garden, to Verbinnens for the beautiful plants, Millgrove Garden Supply for the triple mix and mulch, and to ALL our volunteers for making this happen! We can’t wait to see the rain garden grow in the coming years.
#raingarden #communityplantingday #architecturefirm #teambonding #manyhandsmakelightwork #pollinatorgarden #hamont #gardening ...

#teamworkmakesthedreamwork this morning at Invizij Architects. It was all hands on deck as we needed to rush to move the load of 16yd3 soil that was delivered on the the sidewalk in front of our office. Everyone pitched in (literally) and we got it cleaned up in a little over an hour.

This afternoon we have more volunteers coming - including youth from our local school - to help plant the 200+ perennials and move mulch. It’s going ti be a beautiful rain garden!! ...

It was a special evening of Hope and Homes as we celebrated Indwell’s work in Hamilton and beyond. Over 600 people filled the large ballroom at the convention centre. It was great to hear stories from tenants and to realize just how much we need to do better to solve the housing crisis. We’re thankful for all the staff, board, volunteers, tenants, donors, partners, and everyone else that helps make Indwell be the best it can be. Truly, every community needs something like Indwell.

Tonight, they announced the start of a new non-profit - Gather. With the goal of creating more affordable housing, the sky is the limit for this development corp. 🌟 ...

Emma was invited to participate in a panel and workshop at the Reimagine church, land & community conference at Wycliffe College at U of Toronto this week. So many motivated people trying to figure out how churches can be part of the solution to the housing crisis as an outstretching of their mandate to love our neighbours. We had theologians like Willie James Jenning guiding our discussions. Jennifer Keesmaat talking about the large-scale developments she is a part of. Affordable housing developers, churches, architects and para church organizations sharing their stories about where they are in their development journeys.

There are so many good things yet to come. Here’s to creating more meaningful partnerships! ...