Letter to SC Johnson re Donation for Athletic Facility

Monday, June 7, 2010

John Peoples
President and General Manager
SC Johnson Canada
1 Webster Street
Brantford, ON
N3T 5R1

Re: Donation to Wilfrid Laurier University

Dear Mr. Peoples:

SC Johnson has a history of caring about heritage; Your headquarters in Racine are a symbol of enlightened management, both in the extraordinary act of hiring such an architect as Frank Lloyd Wright and your continuing maintenance, renovation and upgrading of this classic. SC Johnson also has been shown to care about environmental issues, with your Greenlist Initiative.

We at the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario have been fighting to save the 41 buildings on Colborne Street that are being threatened with demolition starting as early as tomorrow.  In the Sunday Toronto Star, Councillor Mark Littell implies that a YMCA will be built on the site, using a donation of $ 250,000 from SC Johnson as part of its funding.

I think that anyone in the Johnson family would be shocked and unhappy to find that their company’s money would be tainted by supporting such a controversial project that involves the destruction of heritage structures, particularly since the greenest building is the one already standing.

The roof of the Racine head office leaked; there were all kinds of problems with it. A lot of companies would have moved out and into more conventional office space. But to their credit, the Johnsons felt that its architectural heritage was worth preserving. I hope that you share that attitude and will tell WLU of the concern that SC Johnson funds not be used to promote a new YMCA on the site of 41 heritage buildings lost due to such a failure of civic vision.

Regards,

Lloyd Alter B.Arch, OAA, TSA
President,
Architectural Conservancy of Ontario

CC: Dr. Max Blouw, President, Wilfrid Laurier University
H. Fisk Johnson, Chairman and CEO, SC Johnson