Trust Questionnaire: Loryssa Quattrociocchi
Loryssa Quattrociocchi is a D.Phil. student, Heritage Conservation Assistant, and Heritage Consultant from Toronto, ON. She became involved with the National Trust in 2018 when she received a Herb Stovel Scholarship.
Pictured: Loryssa Quattrociocchi in the children’s playground at the Kings Garden in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Since becoming a Herb Stovel Scholar: I have been involved in the heritage conservation community in Toronto in various capacities. I am working for Architectural Conservancy Ontario’s Toronto branch as the Heritage Conservation Assistant, where I am working specifically on their TOBuilt database of buildings and structures in Toronto. I am also doing some heritage consulting work for architecture firms and I have been recently appointed as a member of the Toronto Preservation Board.
I care about historic places because: They serve as visual representations of a particular time and place in history, and they give us an understanding of how we arrived to where we are now. Historic places are also valuable parts of our cultural landscape and play a vital role in our understanding of our multi-faceted national identity. For that reason, every person should care about historic places!
The place that every Canadian should see at least once in their life is: It’s impossible to pick just one place that every Canadian should visit. Instead, I would encourage every Canadian to be a tourist in their own city. Walk around, look up, and take in all of the sites that you likely walk by every day and take for granted. There is so much beauty and history in our amazing country!
If I were a historic place, my architecture style would be: I may be biased as this is the style of the architecture I am examining for my D.Phil. thesis, but definitely Gothic Revival. It’s slightly moody, self-assured, and has unique quirks that make it different than other styles.
My idea of “heritage” is: All things that we have inherited from past generations that make up our present identities.
The interior of St Michael’s Cathedral Basilica – Toronto, ON – (after the $128 million+ renovation), taken by Loryssa.
“Historic places are also valuable parts of our cultural landscape and play a vital role in our understanding of our multi-faceted national identity.”
Each year, the Herb Stovel Scholarship provides Canadian students and young heritage professionals with opportunities to travel, network, and enrich their research.
This questionnaire is the National Trust’s take on the Proust Questionnaire, made famous by writer Marcel Proust.
