One of things I enjoy most about our new office in the Sifton Centre here at West 5 is how we can watch everything grow. The minute you walk onto the third floor you can get a sense of how this community is coming to life. You can easily take in the expanse of the community, the backdrop of greenery and, best of all, the near-completion of the first block of townhomes! We’ve watched these sleek sun-powered homes change and come to life, day by day.
It’s been over a month since we moved into our new home in the Sifton Centre. The drive west down Oxford always hits me with a wave of nostalgia when I get to Oakridge Acres, Canada’s First Planned Community and one of my dad’s proudest achievements.
The design of this community was well before my time, in the fifties. My dad had just incorporated Sifton and the economy was in an upswing. Families were getting bigger and needed homes and communities built to last.
It’s official! This year, the Sifton team and I have gone green(er!) with our move to West 5! This move is very bittersweet. 195 Dufferin has been our home for twenty years and I love being downtown. I’m honoured and humbled to have had the opportunity to help transform downtown London over the years, including the construction of our iconic and beloved One London Place. This part of the city has transformed us as much as we’ve transformed it.
Minister Glenn Thibeault along with Deputy Premier Deb Matthews are visiting The Sifton Centre at West 5, Ontario’s first sustainable, net-zero community on Monday, February 6th.
As a seasoned builder, I’ve known for a long time that a home is much more than the sum of its parts. Smiles, laughs and lullabies greatly outweigh bricks and beams. I’ve always known that it’s not just mortar that holds a house together; every hushed late night laugh, every birthday candle and every Cheerio tossed by a toddler are all indispensable components of what we call “home.
Sometimes, the way forward is the way back. Our grandparents may not have known it at the time, but the fact that they had no other choice but to grow up eating locally grown food probably did wonders for their health, the local economy and the environment.
I can’t even begin to express how lucky I am to have spent my childhood in Southwestern Ontario. I got to play in four vividly distinct seasons. In the winter, my mom would bundle me up tightly in layer after layer before letting me run outside to build snow forts with my friends. I remember pausing before crawling in to my newly made fort for the first time, just to admire it from behind my frosty breath lingering in the crisp winter air.
With its use of solar power and new technologies, Sifton Properties’ West 5 project is being described as one of the most advanced in the world.
Growing up, if we wanted to go somewhere, we’d have to walk or ride our bikes. My friends and I used to walk to school each day, rain or shine, and ride our bikes to the park or to the corner store if our parents sent us out on errands. Some of my best childhood memories are of the jokes and stories my friends and I would tell and the adventures we’d find ourselves in on our way to and from the park.
When I was in grade 10, my geography teacher was kind enough to help us start a recycling program at our school. We were the “Clean Team.” Back then, it was just pop cans, but it was a start. It was our mission to make sure that not a single pop was found in the garbage. We made posters, transformed garbage cans into makeshift recycling bins and made a monthly trip to Zubick’s Scrap Metal to turn our tin into cash.