Rebecca Sciarra

Background

About Rebecca Sciarra

I am the Principal-In-Charge of ASI's dedicated Cultural Heritage Division with over 15 years of technical and leadership experience assessing and evaluating historical buildings and landscapes in Ontario. This work has supported major infrastructure planning and design studies, municipal and regional heritage conservation projects and private sector developments. My educational training has been multidisciplinary, focusing on policy development, land use planning, and conservation principles and practices. I work with clients to best conserve our province’s cultural heritage fabric, from monumental places to everyday structures and spaces. Heritage sites can be complicated places to untangle. Understanding their specific opportunities and constraints in the context of redevelopment, adaptive reuse, and intensification requires an iterative process. These complexities allow me to bring rigorous research, strategic thinking and collaborative problem solving to clients. Our team uses these skills to achieve project objectives, secure approvals, and deliver assessments that are credible and transparent under public scrutiny or formal appeal. We strive to integrate and enhance significant heritage fabric and places into new projects so that their stories can continue to be told in compelling and sustainable ways. Areas of expertise include: • Environmental and heritage approvals under the Ontario Environmental Assessment Act, the Planning Act, Environmental Protection Act, and Ontario Heritage Act; • Official Plan, secondary plan, and area planning policy and guideline development; • Stakeholder and public consultation; • Inventory and evaluation of cultural heritage resources in various settings; • Bridge evaluations and documentations; • Visual impact assessments; and • Heritage Evaluations and Statement of Significance Writing; • Impact Assessments and Conservation Plans; and • Cultural heritage landscape assessments.