When Bill Dewson came to us to photograph this classy reno of a beautiful victorian home in Rosedale, looking to get high-quality pictures of it, we immediately saw the potential as a major portfolio piece for his firm and suggested he consider getting it published in the press, owing to the storied past of this house.
Proud of his work and excited at the prospect of increasing his profile, incidentally something he was looking to improve upon and develop his practice up to the point where he would be able to pick and choose the clients he would work with, we embarked on this journey together.
Upon doing more research about the project, our collaboration led to him developing the idea of "cultural sustainability": the preservation of our cultural heritage by investing in renewing centenarian buildings, in the hopes that they last another hundred years. It turns out, in a neighbourhood like Rosedale, where nosy neighbours want to preserve the character of their 'hood, that was a great fit for his design. His complete gut and renovation of this 1905 house by prominent architect Hamilton Townsend, preceded by two similar projects, also by Hamilton Townsend allowed Dewson to hone his preservationist chops over a period of years.
©2017 RVLTR, original plans of the house by H. Townsend.
We often hear that the most sustainable building is the one you don't build and in this case, if the renovated house lasts another 100 years, it would have lasted 4 times what the average building is nowadays built for. In other words, cultural sustainability is in many ways also environmental sustainability as it's designed to last.
To date, this was one of our most successful media campaigns, as it ended up being published by several publications, the most notable of which was a lengthy article on historic preservation in the Globe and Mail. Finding the key idea was instrumental in this project's success, as we struggled for quite some time to find the right tone, but we both knew that we nailed once that idea surfaced from our client's subconscious and we were able to run with it.
©2017 RVLTR, Model: Bill the chocolate fiend
A good project, even with the best photographs is no longer sufficient to get published, at least in the reputable outlets. A good story is critical in capturing the press' attention and these are much harder to come up with than beautiful pictures.
List of publications:
Year: 2017
Location: Rosedale, Toronto.
Scope of work: Photography + Media relations
Collaborators: Alex Lysakowski, Natalie Kim