Red Hill group organizes lecture
November 1, 2005

Friends of Red Hill Valley is launching an annual lecture series. The first speaker will be renowned architect Donald Schmitt whose firm has been hired by McMaster University to develop plans for the research park being constructed on the former Camco site in west Hamilton.

Schmitt is a prinicipal in Diamond + Schmitt Architects Inc, and has two Governor-General medals to his credit. He is currently involved in designing academic buildings for 16 colleges and universities across the continent. The topic of his public lecture is "Imagining Hamilton's Future".

Diamond + Schmitt's buildings are characterized by innovative solutions to site problems, resourceful uses of technology (especially the "green" kind), and the selection of rich and handsome materials. They take existing infrastructure as a given and then focus on enhancing it.

A newsletter issued by Friends of Red Hill says the new lecture series "upholds the ideals of positive planning and community building that marked [the group's] efforts to protect and enhance the Red Hill Valley." It also criticizes the lawsuit being undertaken by the city against federal staff and former cabinet ministers, and narrowly approved a year ago by city council.

"Despite the destruction of much of the valley, and various vindictive activities that appear intended to paint friends of the valley as malcontents, conspirators and even criminals, we believe the positive spirit of the valley cannot be extinguished."

The lecture is scheduled for November 9 at 7:30 pm in First Unitarian Church on Dundurn Street South. It will also include the release of a CD archive history constructed by the group, and the launch of the annual "Spirit of Red Hill Valley Writing Awards" that will offer prizes to elementary and secondary school students for nature poetry and essays.

The website of Diamond + Schmitt is at http://www.dsai.ca/. More information about Friends of Red Hill can be found at http://www.hwcn.org/link/forhv/.