Commonwealth has pioneered methods of conducting inventories and evaluations of cultural heritage resources. A sample application of these processes is the inventory and evaluation of all buildings (residential and institutional) and designed landscapes located within the main campus precinct of Queen's University. Each resource was described thoroughly and assessed for its architectural, associational, and contextual value, using a standard visual and written format. Evaluation was the joint responsibility of Commonwealth and an external evaluation committee, consisting of Queen’s planning staff and City heritage representatives. The evaluation process followed a standard set of categories, definitions, and grading criteria. The resulting report is a tool for use by the University in its long-range asset management and development planning, in association with the campus master plan and the City’s heritage policies.
The Queen’s heritage inventory and evaluation also provided an opportunity for Commonwealth to use its Visual Archiver® software, allowing entry of all text and images onto an interactive computer database for easy retrieval and updating by the client.