2024 Nominations – ACO Heritage Awards

Nominations for the 2024 ACO Heritage Awards are now closed.

Is there a person in your community who has made an extraordinary effort to celebrate or protect your local heritage, a meticulously-done restoration project or an excellent adaptive reuse project that really stands out? Nominating them for an ACO Heritage Award will bring their good work to the attention of others, honour their achievements, and encourage others to take similar actions.

ACO strives to bring province-wide attention to the achievements of its award nominees. Their work provides an example for others and is marked by innovative strategies, long-term leadership, significant restoration work or any service in the cause of safeguarding our heritage that is worthy of being honoured.

Who Can Make a Nomination?

We welcome nominations from across the province and look to the general public, our community leaders, heritage advocates and professionals, as well as our own ACO members to alert us to the outstanding conservation leaders, projects and initiatives that they feel are worthy of provincial recognition.

Nominations to the ACO Heritage Awards can be made in one of three categories:

Awards for People – these awards recognize the outstanding achievements of individuals and groups in the heritage field across 5 different categories: advocacy, craft, research and documentation, next generation leadership, and municipal heritage leadership
Awards for Heritage Projects – these awards recognize outstanding heritage projects and initiatives across 4 different categories: restoration, adaptive reuse, public education and engagement, and cultural heritage landscapes
ACO Special Recognition Awards – nominated by ACO members, branches and staff only, these awards honour lifetime achievement to heritage conservation and special contributions made to our own organization

Have more than one person or project in mind for an award? Wonderful! Nominators are invited to submit as many nominations as they wish, so long as they are for different people or projects.

Please read the following eligibility criteria and award descriptions carefully. Nominations that do not meet the requirements will not be processed. When you’re ready to enter your nomination info you can do so on the NOMINATION FORM.

Who and What Can You Nominate for an Award?

Want to nominate a person or group? Your nominees should be individuals, groups or organizations that are actively involved in heritage conservation taking place in the Province of Ontario. Want to recognize a heritage project? Projects, buildings and sites should also be located in the Province of Ontario.

Award nominees do not need to be ACO members.

You may NOT nominate yourself for an award and you cannot nominate a project for which you were the client, or the professional engaged to implement it.

If there are no nominations or no appropriate nominations in a particular category, the Awards Jury may choose not issue an award that year, in that category. For categories for which there have been no nominations, the Awards Jury may choose to nominate recipients.

Is There a Time Limit on Activities and Projects?

Recognition is made for achievements, activities and projects that have occurred within the 5 years prior to the nomination deadline date of June 23, 2024. The Heritage Awards Committee prefers that built projects be complete before they are nominated.

Some nominees’ work is ongoing, including that which might be honoured for lifetime achievement, special contributions, advocacy, support of heritage in the media.

You may resubmit unsuccessful nominations in subsequent years, in the same category or a different category. Unsuccessful nominations can be resubmitted for 2 years following the original submission.

How are the Nominations Evaluated?

ACO convenes a jury of professionals and other leaders from across Ontario’s diverse heritage community. A new jury is selected each year.

The jury reviews the application form, support materials and images you submit as part of the nomination package, and uses the following criteria to evaluate each nominee:

1. Significance of the heritage issue or project

2. Difficulties that the project and/or persons faced and overcame

3. The effect of the project’s success on the immediate community

4. Innovation, commitment, and leadership demonstrated

It is at the jury’s discretion to move nominees into a different award category if they feel it’s more appropriate. However, the jury will not move candidates into or out of the awards categories for Lifetime Achievement or Special Contributions to ACO.

When are the Awards Presented?

ACO’s Heritage Award nominees and recipients are typically honoured in October each year at a lively in-person gala event hosted at one of the outstanding heritage venues in Toronto.

How to Apply

Please read the instructions carefully and fill out the nomination form. Submissions can only be received online using the nomination form.

We suggest preparing your submission in advance using word processing software on your computer and then cutting and pasting it into the form once you are satisfied with it. We also suggest using a professional character counter, to ensure that your submission will fit into the form. Here are a couple, but there are many available online: [https://www.lettercount.com/] [http://seowagon.com/word-counter]

The jury will only consider the information you provide in the application form and the additional materials and images you submit during their deliberations. Give your nominee the best chance of success by being concise and choosing your words, images and supporting materials wisely.

ACO AWARD CATEGORIES

Consider which award category your nominee fits best in:

Awards for People

These awards recognize the outstanding achievements of individuals and groups in the heritage field across 5 different categories:

A.K. Sculthorpe Award for Advocacy:

Recognizes an individual, an informal group or an established non-profit organization that at a critical point achieved exemplary success in a significant heritage crisis.

James D. Strachan Award for Craft:

Recognizes an artisan or skilled tradesperson for outstanding employment of their craft and expertise in the conservation and restoration on a specific project or over the course of their career.

Stephen A. Otto Award for Research and Documentation:

Recognizes an individual or group for outstanding and scholarly work in the research and documentation of Ontario’s built heritage and cultural landscapes. It must include the broad distribution of this knowledge to general public.

ACO NextGen Award:

Recognizes an individual early in their career for outstanding contributions to the field of heritage, and a clear commitment to conservation work, advocacy, heritage craft, and/or community engagement.

Carlos Ventin Award for Municipal Heritage Leadership

Recognizes elected municipal leaders, municipal staff and appointed municipal representatives who have championed the rehabilitation and/or adaptive reuse of public heritage buildings in their community. These buildings may include libraries, town halls, city halls, community centres, theatres, schools, and other civic spaces. Municipal leadership from communities of all sizes that have demonstrated a commitment to reviving their heritage structures are eligible for this award.

Awards for Heritage Projects

These awards recognize outstanding heritage projects and initiatives across 4 different categories:

Peter Stokes Restoration Award

Recognizes the exemplary restoration of a heritage structure or important architectural feature undertaken in accordance with recognized best practice and policies for conservation in Ontario.
This award is given in two categories:
Large-Scale/Team/Corporate: This award is given to an architectural firm, large project team, or corporate owner of a large-scale restoration project.
Small-Scale/Individual/Small Business: This award is given to an individual, small project team or small business owner of a small-scale restoration project.

Paul Oberman Award for Adaptive Reuse:

Recognizes projects that incorporate and reuse significant heritage structures in fitting and imaginative ways, thereby conserving them for future use and enjoyment.
This award is given in two categories:
Large-Scale/Team/Corporate: This award is given to an architectural firm, large project team, or corporate owner of a large-scale restoration project.
Small-Scale/Individual/Small Business: This award is given to an individual, small project team or small business owner of a small-scale restoration project.

ACO Public Education and Engagement Award:

Recognizes events, exhibitions, programs, news media, digital platforms, and other projects undertaken by an individual, a group or a non-profit organization that has helped to advance public understanding, engagement with and enjoyment of Ontario’s built and cultural heritage.

Margaret and Nicholas Hill Cultural Heritage Landscape Award:

Recognizes an individual, group, and/or community action project (as opposed to a professional commission) that has endeavoured to preserve a significant Cultural Heritage Landscape, or has worked to raise awareness of, and appreciation for a significant Cultural Heritage Landscape as defined by the Ontario Heritage Trust. Please see the definition provided by Ontario Heritage Trust for more detail: https://www.heritagetrust.on.ca/user_assets/documents/HIS-020-Cultural-heritage-landscapes-An-introduction-ENG.pdf

ACO Special Recognition Awards

Nominated by ACO members, branches and staff ONLY, these awards honour lifetime achievement to heritage conservation and special contributions made to our own organization:

Eric Arthur Lifetime Achievement Award:

Recognizes an individual or a group who has made an outstanding contribution to the heritage conservation movement in Ontario over a sustained period of time. Their activities have significantly enriched the built heritage of Ontario.

Mary Millard Award for Special Contributions to ACO:

Recognizes ACO members and ACO associates who, through their actions and efforts, have made a significant contribution to the organization. It is these volunteers with their dedication, initiative and intelligence that constitute the most dynamic force in furthering the cause of historic preservation.