
The Evaluation of Historic Buildings
This widely used manual on building evaluation, published by Parks Canada in 1979, describes the method for determining the significance of historic places that forms the basis for the systems used by Canada’s Federal Heritage Buildings Review Office, several provinces, many Canadian municipalities, and several American cities. Kalman initially devised the grading system while working with buildings in Vancouver’s Gastown and Chinatown historic districts. The methodology is fully adaptable to the ideas of values-centred conservation. It is particularly useful when an evaluation addresses a considerable number of historic places with the intention that the outcomes be fully transparent and defensible. Parks Canada provides a free PDF download of this long out-of-print classic.