Downtown Kitchener, October 13

This week’s class started different than any of the others; we began by boarding the iExpress to downtown Kitchener, getting off at the Charles St Terminal, and walking to Kitchener City Hall where we began our discoveries.  From the 10^th floor cafeteria we could overlook much of Kitchener, which arguably has the best view of the city.  Although this cafeteria is now closed to the public, by visiting it we were expressing our right to occupy public space.

A key focus for this week’s walk was the discoveries and the serendipitous moments that arise while walking, Dr. Sharpe discussed the history of his Kitchener home and the many ways he acquired this knowledge. The moment especially connected to walking was that the name of the previous owner of his house was listed as a donor on a fountain in a park nearby.

Another key historical finding was in Kitchener 

Public Library where Dr. Sharpe did a great deal of reading through uncatalogued research. While showing us this area of the library we also noticed a display case that showed a former shirt and collar factory and its workers in Kitchener. The workers were primarily women but there was one man shown who may have been their supervisor, and may have been the previous owner of Dr. Sharpe’s property. The man, who was laid off during the depression, added rental apartments to his home.  By walking to these apartments we were able to recreate the journey he may have taken to work at the shirt factory.  Also, along our route we explored the former site of a button factory and discovered in the crumbling concrete foundations some pieces of the shells once used in the manufacture of buttons.

The last place we visited was the Tannery which is Kitchener’s last standing tannery and now is used as office spaces for Google, Desire2Learn and other hi-tech companies.  In the Communitech Hub we were able to experience the Hive, a 3D virtual environment used for research and meetings.  We were able to experience an entire 3D house model while wearing specialized glasses. This building has a unique look because of the combination of the old infrastructure and new technology.

The final challenge Dr. Sharpe gave us was to find our way back to the bus stop and university without any assistance. This was a true test of the skills we have acquired thus far in the course.

By:  Nicole Lindman and Ashley Stratton