The National Trust for Historic Preservation has selected nine recipients of this year’s National Preservation Awards, with presentations and a formal awards ceremony to be hosted the evening of Friday, November 4. The National Preservation Awards include several of the industry’s highest honors, highlighting distinguished individuals, nonprofit organizations, public agencies and corporations that give new meaning to their communities through skillful and determined preservation work.

The annual National Preservation Awards ceremony occurs during the PastForward Conference and will be held virtually in 2022. Bob Vila, an icon of home improvement television, dedicated preservationist, and trustee of the National Trust for Historic Preservation will emcee the awards, streamed live at https://savingplaces.org/conference.

“Each year at the PastForward Conference we come together to recognize those making a real difference in historic preservation,” said Paul Edmondson, president and CEO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. “This year’s recipients embody not just the preservation of American history, but also demonstrate how preserving historic places can play a key role in addressing critical issues of today, including climate change, equality, and housing.”

The National Trust for Historic Preservation first established its marquee Louise du Pont Crowninshield Award in 1960 to focus public attention on superlative achievements and to create incentives for preservation. That honor has expanded over the decades into the National Preservation Awards, which are now bestowed annually in six categories. The awards program has since 2012 included a sub-set of honors named for the late preservationist Richard H. Driehaus, and the eponymous Driehaus Foundation.

“We are proud to join the National Trust in recognizing these winners as ‘best of the best’ in preservation,” said Anne Lazar, Executive Director of the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation. “Each of the winning projects—from the Nome Schoolhouse in North Dakota, to Chicago’s Old Cook County Hospital, and the Paul R. Williams Family Apartments in Los Angeles—stand as enduring monuments of our shared cultural and architectural history.”

The 2022 National Preservation Awards recipients include:

• Louise du Pont Crowninshield Award for Lifetime Achievement: Peter and Isabel Malkin (Greenwich, CT). Peter and Isabel Malkin have spent decades involved in the preservation of some of the most iconic structures and landscapes in the United States, including Connecticut’s Merritt Parkway, the Empire State Building, Lyndhurst, the Bush-Holley House and many other historic Greenwich (CT) buildings, to mention a few. Their impressive real estate development work, quiet yet profound philanthropy, talent for uniting donors with preservationists and the public, and stalwart support of preservation organizations have demonstrated their lifelong commitment to the preservation of historic places, and an impressive track record of preservation successes.
• Emerging Leaders Award: Angela Lee, Executive Director, Hayti Heritage Center (Durham, NC). Angela Lee is a nonprofit leader and North Carolina original who entered the field of historic preservation in 2013 at the helm of Durham’s Hayti Heritage Center. Lee’s initial five-year plan brought financial stability, organizational improvements, new programming, and a significant audience increase for the organization. Of particular note, Lee also focused attention on the restoration and renovation of the Hayti Center’s 1891 St. Joseph's AME building, which is the last remaining structure from Durham's Black Wall Street.
• Trustees’ Award for Organizational Excellence: NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project (New York, NY). The NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project is a nationally recognized and influential cultural heritage initiative and educational resource that identifies and documents diverse extant LGBT sites from the 17th century to 2000. The only permanent organization of its kind in the US, the project staff have created an interactive website, National Register nominations, publications and public programs, and school educational materials, among other resources. Sitting at the intersection of historic preservation and social justice, the organization has been particularly eager to document LGBT sites associated with women and Black, Asian, Latinx, trans, and gender-variant communities. In the near future, they hope to prioritize local sites of LGBT history associated with Indigenous and Two Spirit Peoples.
• The National Trust/Advisory Council on Historic Preservation Award for Federal Partnerships in Historic Preservation: Pullman National Monument and State Historic Site (Chicago, IL). The Pullman company was known for creating luxurious railcars, but its workers would help form a lasting impact on American life through their ingenuity, solidarity, and spirit. Built in 1880 as a company town, Pullman, Illinois became a manufacturing hub for rail transport, and a thriving residential community outfitted with all the luxuries of middle-class life, including shopping, entertainment, parks, and indoor plumbing. In 2015, President Obama designated Pullman a National Monument and in 2021, through combined efforts of the National Park Service, the Illinois Department of National Resources, and Pullman’s community organizations, the Administration Clock Tower Building and factory grounds re-opened as the Pullman National Monument and State Historic Site. It stands today as an enduring monument to Pullman’s role in US labor history, its impact on urban planning, and its role in the economic empowerment of Black workers.
• The John H. Chafee Trustees Award for Outstanding Achievement in Public Policy: Arizona Preservation Foundation (Phoenix, AZ). The Arizona Preservation Foundation has made outstanding contributions to historic preservation through their public policy work at the federal, state, and local levels. In partnership with preservationists across the state and country, the foundation has long advocated for preserving diverse historic places throughout the state, including legal advocacy that stalled demolition of the Mountain View Officer’s Club at Fort Huachuca, a push to designate the Great Bend of the Gila as a national monument, and calling on Congress to reconsider a land exchange included in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2015 that would threaten Oak Flat, a sacred site to the San Carlos Apache and other Native tribes, by copper mining. The organization is also very active in similar preservation and built environment issues at the state and local level.
• The Trustees Emeritus Award for Historic Site Stewardship: Calvary Center for Culture and Community (Philadelphia, PA). A group of Philadelphians rallied together in the year 2000 to form the non-profit Calvary Center for Culture and Community. Their goal: save the Calvary Methodist Church, a 1907 gothic gem in West Philadelphia that had suffered from years of underinvestment. Thanks to CCCC’s stewardship of the historic site, much of the building has been restored, four healthy congregations call the church home, and CCCC has partnered with a wide array of community organizations to activate the site in service to the surrounding neighborhoods and beyond. In addition to their laudable preservation work, CCCC’s efforts have had a significant and measurable economic impact on nearby businesses, which benefit from the greatly increased numbers of visitors to the restored church.
• Richard H. Driehaus Foundation National Preservation Award: Paul Williams Family Apartments (Los Angeles, CA). The creative and adaptive reuse of the Paul R. Williams-designed 1934 Angelus Funeral Home, which was one of the largest Black-owned businesses in LA for 30 years, into affordable housing preserves an integral component of the city’s African American community. The result is a 41-unit multi-family residential development of service-enriched low- to very low-income housing, which was financed with Federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits and Federal Historic Tax Credits.
• Richard H. Driehaus Foundation National Preservation Award: Old Cook County Hospital (Chicago, IL). The adaptive reuse and rehabilitation of the 1914 Old Cook County Hospital, a brick and terra-cotta-faced Classical Revival landmark spearheaded by Civic Health Development Group, preserves an enduring symbol of the vital role of public hospitals in providing medical care to under-served populations. The hospital has a long history of inclusivity, including supporting immigrant populations, being one of the few hospitals in Chicago that did not discriminate based on race during the Jim Crow era, and was a pioneer in supporting female medical professionals. The $1 billion redevelopment produced two Hyatt-branded hotels, a large suite of medical offices, a museum dedicated to the legacy of the building, a daycare center, and food hall.
• Richard H. Driehaus Foundation National Preservation Award: Nome Schoolhouse (Nome, ND). A 100-year-old abandoned schoolhouse in rural North Dakota sat empty for 50 years until two local women businessowners purchased it to adapt the building into a retreat center focused on sustainable fiber arts practices, increasing tourism in the rural 42-person town of Nome, spurring new economic development, and inspiring other non-traditional preservationists to take part in saving historic places for community and sustainable uses.

###

About PastForward: PastForward is the annual conference of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, November 1-4, attracting thousands of people passionate about saving places. Attendees include preservationists, advocates and architects, city planners and historic site directors, students and elected officials, commissioners, and main street directors. This year’s conference will focus on three themes; Historic Preservation is Climate Action, Encouraging Inclusion and Diversity Through Preservation and Understanding Preservation’s Role in Real Estate Development. https://savingplaces.org/conference