1998 Preservation Achievement Award Winners
CAUTION -- ADVANCE FOR RELEASE ON SUNDAY, MAY 10/
ADVANCE/ PHILADELPHIA, May 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Once again, the Preservation
Alliance for Greater Philadelphia honors outstanding recent accomplishments in
historic preservation regionwide with its 5th annual Preservation Achievement
Awards.
The 1998 winners represent a range of projects from the adaptive reuse of a
long-derelict landmark building to the sensitive rehabilitation of housing for
the elderly to a popular tour program that has opened the doors to historic
homes, gardens, and sites throughout the region.
The winners will be honored at the Alliance's annual awards luncheon from 12-2
p.m., Friday, May 15, at the Union League.
Also to be announced that day will be the winner of the Alliance's new Public
Service Award for support of historic preservation and the 1998 Biddle Award
for outstanding lifetime achievement in the field. The award is named for
James Biddle, past president of the National Trust, founding chairman of the
Preservation Coalition, one of the Alliance's predecessor organizations, and
honorary co-chair of the Alliance's Board of Advisors. Previous winners of the
Biddle Award are Charles E. Peterson, FAIA, Rhoda Richards, and James Biddle.
AIA Philadelphia will also bestow its 1998 Landmark Building Award.
The Awards are a highlight of Historic Preservation Week (May 10-16), a
nationwide celebration, sponsored annually by the National Trust for Historic
Preservation. The Alliance's Preservation Week activities are funded in part
by a grant from the National Trust's John Chandler Preservation Services Fund
for Philadelphia.
The 1998 Preservation Achievement Award winners are:
Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts
School District of Philadelphia; Kise Straw & Kolodner; Daniel J. Keating
Company
The new home of the city's magnet school for the arts combines the restoration
and adaptive reuse of the historic Ridgway Library with a sensitive new
112,000-square-foot addition. The monumental Ridgway Library, designed by
Addison Hutton and constructed in 1878 to house the Library Company, was
underutilized and in serious disrepair when the city, the school district, and
funders devised the notion of turning the building into a new home for CAPA.
Today the school, which opened in November 1997, is a major asset to the
city's Avenue of the Arts and represents an outstanding reuse of a landmark
structure.
Trinity Memorial Church, Philadelphia.
Trinity Memorial Church; Atkin, Olshin, Lawson-Bell and Associates Architects;
J.S. Cornell and Sons.
This historic church at 22nd and Spruce Streets in Center City Philadelphia,
designed by Henry and James Sims and built in 1875, was severely damaged in
July 1994 when the roof was struck by lightning. The resulting fire collapsed
the roof and ceiling of the nave and damaged most of the stained glass and
interior fittings. The subsequent rebuilding was done with sensitivity to the
historic fabric and attention to changing needs, including the introduction of
new mechanical and electrical systems, so that the church can strengthen its
role as a community center.
Sarah Allen Project, Philadelphia
Friends Rehabilitation Program, Inc.; Belmont Improvement Association;
Blackney Hayes Architects; Daniel J. Keating Co.
The c.1889 shingle style Lawson C. Funk Mansion at 4015-35 Parrish Street in a
blighted section of the Belmont neighborhood in West Philadelphia has been
rehabilitated and restored to provide eight units of affordable housing, part
of a large multi-phase housing project. Exterior restoration work, done in
accordance with the Secretary of the Interior's Standards, included new roof,
doors, and windows, including curved windows in the turrets, and repair of the
decorative metal frieze. This project exemplifies the value of historic
preservation as a tool to create affordable housing and for neighborhood
revitalization.
Somerville Homes, Philadelphia.
Somerville Associates, L.P./The Altman Company; Goldner Kline Architects;
Allied Construction Services, Inc.
Another affordable housing project preserved an entire neighborhood
streetscape at 5331-47 North 13th Street and further exemplified the creative
use of housing funds to preserve neighborhood character. A row of modest,
c.1925 two-story twins, a typical vernacular building type of early 20th-
century Philadelphia, was respectfully rehabilitated and restored, enhancing a
stable residential area and creating affordable housing for the elderly. The
exterior restoration work included restoration of pressed metal cornices and
entablatures and new roofs, doors, and windows.
Philadelphia Open House.
Friends of Independence National Historical Park
1998 marks the 20th anniversary of Philadelphia Open House, a regionwide tour
program that for several weeks each year provides 5,000 tourgoers with
educational and recreational experiences featuring history and preservation
awareness. POH visits homes, gardens, and historical sites -- many of them
private -- throughout the urban, suburban, and rural communities of Greater
Philadelphia. Proceeds from the program benefit Independence Park -- paying,
for example, for the lighting of the Market Street facade of Franklin Court --
as well as the many co-sponsoring organizations and communities.
Mt. Holly Friends Meeting House, Mt. Holly, NJ.
Mt. Holly Friends Meeting; Westfield Architects & Preservation Consultants;
Ortega Consulting; Haverstick-Borthwick Company
The restoration of the Meeting House, originally constructed in 1775,
exemplifies outstanding stewardship of a historic religious building, as well
as systematic preservation planning leading to a successful solution. In
1994, a preservation plan identified the need for major structural repairs and
a new roof. Based on that plan, a successful grant application was made in
1995 to the New Jersey Historic Trust for matching funds of over $140,000. In
1996, construction drawings and a project manual were prepared and, in 1997,
the necessary renovations were made. The work included stabilization of a
furnace pit, stabilization and repair of framing, spot repainting of the stone
foundation and brick walls, roof framing repairs, installation of a new slate
roof to match the existing, and exterior woodwork restoration.
North Broad Street Station, Philadelphia
2601 N. Broad Street Associates, L.P./The Ingerman Group; Kitchen &
Associates; Powers & Company, Inc.
For 30 years, the monumental appearance of this North Broad Street landmark
had been compromised by inappropriate alterations, part of the building's
mid-1960s conversion to a motor hotel. This project removed those
unsympathetic exterior elements, returning architect Horace Trumbauer's 1929
North Broad Street Station to its original appearance and stature. The main
facade colonnade was restored and new, historically compatible windows and
doors were installed. The Volunteers of America continue as the building's
lead tenant, providing valuable community services.
Elfreth's Alley Association, Philadelphia
The Elfreth's Alley Association has long balanced the challenge of maintaining
an important historic resource and popular tourist destination with the needs
of private homeowners on the nation's oldest continuously occupied residential
street. Most recently, the Association has demonstrated innovation and
forward thinking with two projects. In 1997, it implemented a new grant and
loan program to provide financial support for painting and qualified
preservation work on Elfreth's Alley to encourage appropriate property
maintenance and enhance the visitors' experience. In 1997, the Association
also completed restoration and interpretation of No. 124 Elfreth's Alley as a
Windsor chair maker's home. This second house museum at Elfreth's Alley
insures the preservation of and public access to another significant historic
structure and helps meet growing demands for heritage tourism programming at
Elfreth's Alley.
From the Preservation Alliance's Historic Religious Properties Program:
Tabernacle of Faith, Camden, NJ
This late 19th-century monumental brownstone church occupies a prominent
corner in downtown Camden and is a key building in the Cooper Street Historic
District. The earliest section of the Tabernacle building was built in 1868
as a chapel for the Centenary Tabernacle Methodist Church, followed by a large
Gothic sanctuary addition in 1892 by Frank Rushmore Watson, a prominent
Philadelphia architect. When the congregation bought the church in the 1980s,
the problems -- leaking roofs, crumbling brownstone, failing stained glass --
seemed overwhelming. In 1992 the congregation received a $10,000 grant from
the Historic Religious Properties Program to complete a detailed architectural
assessment of the complex with John Milner Associates. Based on that report,
the congregation has brought more than $500,000 to restoring the building,
including a $114,000 New Jersey Historic Trust Grant. Relying on expert
contractors to do the exterior work, congregation members have themselves
completed extensive interior restoration.
From the Preservation Alliance's Historic Places Program and the Tri-State
Coalition of Historic Places:
The Lawnside Historical Society, Lawnside, NJ
The Lawnside Historical Society was founded in 1990 to save the Peter Mott
House from demolition. Since then, the Society has worked tirelessly not only
to preserve the c.1845 Mott House, a stop on the Underground Railroad, but all
the historic resources of the community. Located eight miles from Camden,
Lawnside is one of the few incorporated African American communities still
thriving in the United States. Through the abolition of slavery in New
Jersey, the perils of the Underground Railroad, the rages of the Civil War,
Depression poverty, and the Civil Rights era, Lawnside has emerged as a viable
modern community. It is a remarkable story that the Society seeks to retell
in its work to preserve and interpret the Mott House and the rich history of
Lawnside.
SOURCE Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia
CO: Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia
ST: Pennsylvania
IN:
SU:
05/04/98 17:24 EDT http://www.prnewswire.com
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