St. Aidan's Church
Image Credit: City of Kelowna
November 16, 2016 - 10:30 AM
The former St. Aidan’s Church, 365 Rutland Road North, will find a new life with the recent transfer of the land and building from the City of Kelowna to the Okanagan Buddhist Cultural Centre, a non-profit society.
“We are excited to have this opportunity to rehabilitate the existing church building, said Peter Chataway, speaking on behalf of the Okanagan Buddhist Cultural Centre. “Part of the improvements will include construction of a Vietnamese-style friendship garden accessible to the public.”
The single-storey front-gabled building was constructed in 1933 to provide a place of worship for the Rutland Anglican community. The property was acquired by the City in 1989 to facilitate the widening of Mugford Road. The property was used by a number of community tenants in the 1990s, but the condition and functionality of the building has rendered the site unusable in recent years.
“Kelowna has a long list of heritage sites that residents want to see preserved,” said John Saufferer, Real Estate Services Manager, City of Kelowna. “Given competing community priorities and limited funds to continue to preserve the failing buildings, the City is pleased to support community partnerships for adaptive re-use proposals of these heritage sites. This proposal will allow the old church site to be self-sustaining and preserved for generations to come.”
Given the significant costs of restoring and preserving the value of its heritage assets, the City issued a Request for Expression of Interest in 2012, seeking ideas for the adaptive re-use of three of the Heritage Register properties owned by the City of Kelowna – including the St. Aidan’s church site.
In a similar process, an Idea Fair was held for Cameron House on Richter Street earlier this year.
Learn more about this and other heritage sites here.
News from © iNFOnews, 2016