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Winners of the New York Landmark Conservancy "Preservation Oscars" Announced

Ruth Abraham, founder and former president of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, and the Honorable Judith S. Kaye were among the recipients of the recent New York Landmarks Conservancy’s 18th Annual Lucy G. Moses Preservation Awards, held in Manhattan this month.

Abraham received a Preservations Leadership Award for an Individual for her twenty years of work at the museum at 97 Orchard Street, and for founding the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience. Judge Kaye received the Preservation Leadership Award for Public Service for facilitating the restoration of many courthouses throughout the state, including the 1842 Greek Revival Court of Appeals Hall in Albany.

Awards were given to nine projects and accepted by owners, managers, architects and restorers:

• A four-story Italianate row house at 62 East 83rd Street: This house was not a designated landmark and had lost its original stoop and architectural details. However, with the help of historic documentation, the façade, stoop, doors, windows and cornices were fully restored to replicate their original appearance.
• The former Children’s Aid Society/ Tompkins Square Lodging House for Boys and Industrial School: The interior of this high Victorian Gothic building was rehabilitated and converted into a 20-unit co-op; the multi-level slate roof and pyramidal towers were replaced, the ironwork and wood front doors were restored, and the brick façade was cleaned.
• The American Irish Historical Society (AIHS): A comprehensive restoration included the brick and limestone swell-front façade and limestone base, wood window replacement, a new exterior lighting system, and interior restoration.
• The Cathedral of St. John the Divine: A lengthy cleaning and restoration project was completed last year, following a fire in 2001.  The Bishop and congregation rededicated the building last November.
• Longacre Theatre: A two-year restoration revitalized the theater’s Beaux-Arts interior historic plasterwork details, gilded finishes and marble surfaces, and French neoclassical façade.
• Moynihan Station: An exterior restoration of the landmark Farley Post Office (soon to be Moynihan Station) entailed the repair and renovation of its long row of columns, exterior details and grand stairway.
• Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum: In the first comprehensive conservation treatment of its exterior envelope, Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic building was restored in time for its 50th birthday this year. Work included paint removal, treatment of corroded steel, concrete reinforcement, as well as documentation and monitoring.
• Brooklyn’s Poly Prep Lower School: This 18,000 sq.ft. addition to the school was built on a lot adjacent to the original – the 1882 Romanesque Revival Hulbert Mansion. Materials such as painted metal and limestone, sculptural forms and asymmetrical bays and window openings connect to the row houses in this Historic District.
• Jamaica Performing Arts Center: The former First Reformed Church had stood empty for 31 years before the restoration and reuse process began in 2004. Today the exterior is restored with a new slate roof and restored and new stained windows, and the interior transformed with flexible performing art spaces, a conference center and an outdoor performance space.

For details on the awards, visit: http://www.nylandmarks.org/