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Niagara Parks Power Station, Niagara Falls, ON 6 | D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 2 +VG Architects P H OTO G R A P H Y BY DAV I D L A S K ER For more than 50 years +VG Architects has been making the impossible, possible by NATALIE BRUCKNER | photography courtesy +VG ARCHITECTS S ometimes, the greatest of stories have yet to be told. "We've never had a profile piece featuring the firm," says Paul Sapounzi, man- aging principal at +VG Architects. "We feel honoured." After chatting with Sapounzi for an hour, the honour, in honesty, is all ours. From its humble beginnings, +VG Architects has been a pioneer in the renovation, addition, retrofit, and adap- tive re-use and conservation of heritage-designated buildings in Ontario and beyond – basically making possible what others deemed impossible. As well, the firm is active in education environments, housing, and community health care. But it's so much more than that. To better understand, you need to start at the beginning of the firm's creation. "The origins stem back to 1952 when Warren Smale, a World War II veteran pilot and University of Toronto graduate, and his wife Catherine moved from Toronto to Simcoe to start an architecture firm called W.M. Smale. The goal: to work with smaller communities where they could make a big difference. He was a bit of a frontiersman, to be honest," explains Sapounzi. Back in the 1950s, Simcoe County was very different from the thriving com- munity we know today. According to historical data, it was a long way off finding its feet, struggling with poverty, and with very few services. The one thing it did have was an incredibly rich history and potential to those who had the foresight to see it, like Smale. However, Smale faced an uphill battle. His approach was atypical … rogue even. But his perseverance paid off and he went on to win many jobs that helped establish small communities. Later in life, Smale went on to become the found- ing director of education at the new School of Architecture at the University of Waterloo and the president of the Ontario Association of Architects. During the early years of the practice, a gentleman by the name of Carlos Ventin was getting his bearings in the world. He was an architecture graduate from the University Resistencia in Argentina, and a graduate of Climate and Architecture in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur. Having worked alongside Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi (a Pritzker Prize winner who was paramount in influencing the architecture of India), Ventin discovered a passion for architecture that would work for its inhabitants and adapt to changing circumstances over generations – a philosophy akin to that of Smale. After emigrating to Canada in the 1960s, it was fortuitous, really, that he should move to Simcoe, meet Smale, and be offered a job. Sadly, in 1970, Smale passed away prematurely and Ventin took over the practice, re-establishing it as C.A. Ventin Architects Ltd. "Up to that point, the practice had been doing a lot of government projects, but there was one project that changed the course of its evolution: the Norfolk County Courthouse," explains Sapounzi. "The County of Norfolk was planning to abandon the historic courthouse and build a new municipal building and courthouse outside the downtown area. Realizing the loss that this would be to the community, Ventin proposed restoring the courthouse and town hall build- ing and came up with a business case that demonstrated the economic benefits of maintaining heritage buildings. It was at a time when the restoration and rehabilitation of heritage buildings wasn't very popular." e Art of Adaptive Re-Use

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