President's Note: People Make Places Matter
Successful preservation projects often begin when someone sees possibility where others see just an old building, a vacant lot, or a structure past its prime. Historic preservation requires people with the creativity to visualize brighter futures for the places that hold our memories, shape our communities, and tell the stories of who we are.
That spirit is at the heart of this year’s Louise du Pont Crowninshield Award, which honors Elizabeth Alexander, and the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation National Preservation Awards featured in the Fall 2026 issue of Preservation. This year’s honorees demonstrate that preservation signifies more than simply saving buildings. Preservation means putting historic places back to work for people.
Alexander has spent her career expanding the sphere of whose histories are recognized and whose voices are heard. From her scholarship, poetry, and other writing to her leadership at the Ford and Mellon foundations, she has invested in the people and organizations working to preserve a fuller American story. Her early support for the National Trust’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund helped provide the foundation for a program that has since become the nation’s largest resource dedicated to preserving places connected to Black history.
The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation National Preservation Award winners demonstrate that same power of people in action. At Silo City in Buffalo, New York, developer Anthony Ceroy and his partners saw possibility in an abandoned industrial complex, transforming massive grain silos and warehouses into housing, workplaces, and gathering spaces, while retaining the raw character of the historic buildings. In Oregon, a team of architects, craftspeople, public officials, and others found a way to make the century-old state Supreme Court Building safer and more energy-efficient without sacrificing its remarkable interiors. And in San Diego, a determined team kept a 1938 county administration building occupied throughout a seven-year rehabilitation, preserving its character while preparing it to serve the public for generations to come.
These projects remind us that preservation is a choice—an act of imagination, stewardship, and civic leadership. It can create homes, strengthen neighborhoods, expand our understanding of history, reduce the environmental cost of construction, and give communities places where they can gather and thrive. That is the power of preservation: people working together to ensure that the places we steward today will continue to matter for generations yet to come.
