Borgal honoured with ACO lifetime achievement award

TORONTO — Architectural Conservancy Ontario (ACO) has recognized Christopher Borgal as the 2022 recipient of the Eric Arthur Lifetime Achievement Award.

The award is given to those “who have made an outstanding contribution to the heritage conservation movement in Ontario over a sustained period of time.”

Christopher, the president and senior principal of Goldsmith Borgal & Company Architects, has worked on over 2,000 heritage sites across Canada, the U.S and Caribbean, with a concentration in southwestern Ontario, the Ottawa area and Toronto, stated a release.

Past and present works have included the restoration of the south facade of Parliament Hill’s Centre Block, recent work at Massey Hall (Toronto) and projects with such developers as Menkes, Graywood, CentreCourt and Alterra.

Borgal has also dedicated significant time to heritage conservation in smaller towns.  He volunteered to help the Town of Goderich protect heritage buildings after a devastating tornado; he helped develop the Blyth Festival Theatre and its facilities; and he has worked on over 30 per cent of Ontario’s museum sites, including Huron, Bruce and Lambton County museums.

With his late business partner Nicholas Hill, Borgal prepared one of the earliest Ontario Heritage Conservation District Plans. Among recent projects to earn awards were the Massey Hall job and masonry restoration work at Windsor’s Mackenzie Hall with Studio g+G of Windsor.

Borgal is a past president of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario and past national president of the Canadian Association of Heritage Professionals.