They say that sometimes when a door closes, a window opens. Whatever the case, at Walter Furlan’s they both get restored.

When it comes to drawing out the potential for longevity in things, Walter begins where cats leave off. Nine lives? Walter’s just getting warmed up.

He has a gift for continually finding new generations of vitality and usefulness for what might otherwise be “discarded,” including himself, a steel man for 30 years until getting laid off in 2009, after which he retrained.

What he’s most interested in “repurposing” are the classics of Hamilton housing and building stock. And, the city is full of them, great old treasures of the past, albeit crippled by disrepair in some cases. He lives in one of those classics, or will when the renovation is complete on the space attached to his business on Barton East.

It used to be the old Sturgess Cycle (now at Dundurn and King). There were several other incarnations, like a travel business, but right now the building on Barton Street East is thriving as the workshop/studio/office space for his remarkable restorations — windows, stained glass, doors, the whole suit of armour so to speak.

He drives an old GMC truck, early 1950s vintage, with original engine, seats, radio even and the kind of gear shift you haven’t seen in several decades. It’s unbelievable, and it’s got the name of his business, Furlan Conservation, and stylized window logo on the door.

Most people would’ve had the thing put down four lives ago, but Walter’s restored it to — and kept it in — tip-top condition. That’s his way. He sees the second chapter (and beyond) in things and brings them out, especially those quality, well-crafted old things that were built to last in the first place.

All around the premises of Furlan Conservation are bits of building. Floorboards. Old casements. Beams and cross pieces.

“They were all going to the dump,” he says, pointing to a stack of window frames. But he said to the person who had them, “give them to me.”

There are several large, arched window tops, vintage 1850s. Antiques, though to the untrained eye they might just seem like scrap lumber. And they’re not the oldest pieces here. Part of the great potential for longevity of old pieces is that the wood in them comes from old growth forests, more durable than wood from the newer sources of today’s lumber.

“These are the same windows that you find in Whitehern,” he tells me, referring to the Hamilton architectural landmark and heritage building that was once home to the famous McQuesten family.

“You can tell by the astragals and the curved part of the muntin bar.”

I nod, as though knowingly, but I’m not even sure he’s speaking English. Astragals? Muntin bars?

Walter is so steeped in the knowledge and practice of heritage restoration and conservation that the terminology of it is second nature to him. Not surprising. After working for 30 years for companies like Union Drawn Steel and Canadian Drawn Steel, he found himself laid off in 2009. He could see the signs and didn’t wait for a call back but plunged right into retraining, his wife having told him of the province’s Second Career program.

He enrolled in the Willowbank School of Restoration Arts three-year conservation arts program in Queenston and took to it like a duck to quacking.

He has worked on everything from Dundurn Castle, Auchmar and the Central Presbyterian Church to the House of Commons in Ottawa.

He’s been not only one of the most successful and sought-after conservation specialists but he also now, in turn, being a graduate of the program, teaches at Willowbank.

While I visit his place on Barton, there are five Willowbank students spending the day there, working with Walter, learning hands-on. And just the other week Walter was in Newfoundland, giving a one-week workshop. There should be a robust future in this kind of skilled work, he believes, as there is so much building history here and such an interest among many in preserving it.

“It’s really fun,” says Willowbank student Megan Lenz, of both the program and the hands-on at Furlan Conservation. “You get to learn a lot of practical stuff and you’re able to apply that wherever you go,” adds Emily Cheese.

This is the hands-on. But Walter and other teachers at Willowbank also cover less concrete aspects of the business. “We learn about management and the legislation that covers heritage and conservation work,” says Lisa Christie.

Walter has them and fellow students Graham Forster and Chris Riou weatherstripping a window with sprung bronze. “I come from a cabinet making background,” says Graham. “It’s a nice thing to learn about windows.” Chris, for his part, is a graduate student in history who’s taking a break to learn a different approach to history. “It also ties in with my interest in urban planning history.”

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Walter himself is interested in restoration not only as a career, an art and a teaching stream but as a catalyst of civic renewal, especially on Barton Street where his presence is already making a difference.

He doesn’t want to go backwards but to bring the best of the past into a better future, one where skilled work and good materials are valued, and into a better economy where people are valued and not discarded like many Hamiltonians, less fortunate than he, who were bumped out of industrial jobs without a proper chance to retrain.

One door and window at a time, he’s working to make that happen.