Harrisburg, PA - Pennsylvania State Historic
Preservation Office (PA SHPO) today announced the winners of The Community
Initiative Awards. These awards
recognize historic preservation efforts that are building on traditional
strategies and developing innovative tactics to build stronger communities with
a preservation ethic.
Inspired
by this year’s 50th anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act, the
PA SHPO is not only looking back at past successes, but also focusing on the
future. This effort presents the
opportunity to promote new ideas that will influence the next phase of the
preservation movement.
This
year’s award winners include:
Bradford Revitalization Team
(Bradford, McKean County)
This team
includes Bradford’s Office of Economic & Community Development, the
Downtown Bradford Revitalization Corporation, the Main Street Program and
McKean County’s Economic Development office. Bradford has become a model Certified
Local Government and Main Street/Elm Street practitioner. The team clearly
understands that preserving historic resources is integral to the city’s
economic and community development future. Their collaborative commitment to
using the traditional tools within the preservation toolbox has created a
community ready to integrate new ideas and approaches, build new partnerships and
move into the next phase of preservation.
East Liberty Development Inc. (Pittsburgh,
Allegheny County)
East
Liberty Development, Inc. (ELDI) spearheaded the rapid revitalization of one of
the most economically challenged and urban-renewal damaged neighborhoods in the
city. The organization recognized from the beginning that a successful recovery
needed to include a preservation-based design ethic. It’s not perfect, but there is now a vibrant
mix of preservation and new construction in the neighborhood. ELDI is not a
traditional preservation advocacy organization, but it has used traditional
tactics (National Register districts, tax credits) while developing new ones,
including using PA’s Blighted and Abandoned Property Conservatorship law to
provide a future for Saints Peter and Paul Church and Rectory.
Hidden City Philadelphia (Philadelphia,
Philadelphia County)
An online
publication (and tour organizer) that shares no-holds-barred stories focused on
raising awareness of good architecture, planning issues and urban trends in
Philadelphia. Hidden City’s mission is to pull back the curtain on the city’s
most remarkable places and connect them to new people, functions and resources.
While the publication promotes the current and future needs of the city’s many
communities, it has also formed a community of its own, with regular columnists
and guest contributors from a cross-section of the city, and a community of
people who share similar vision and goals.
The
Community Initiative Awards will be presented at the 2016 Pennsylvania Historic
Preservation Awards hosted by Preservation PA on Friday, October 14, 11:30 AM
to 2:30 PM at The Yorktowne Hotel, 48 E. Market Street, York.
Under the
direction the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, the PA SHPO
coordinates state and federal historic and preservation programs including the
National Register of Historic Places, state and federal tax credits and review
of state and federal projects for their impact on historic resources.
The
Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission is the official history agency of
the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Visit PHMC online at www.phmc.pa.gov.
MEDIA CONTACT: Howard Pollman, 717-705-8639
#
# #