Blog — Preservation League of NYS

Documenting the Architecture South of Union Square

As part of our Seven to Save artist interventions, the League commissioned photographer Dylan Chandler to document some of the incredible architecture you will find in the neighborhood South of Union Square. This project was commissioned by the Preservation League of NYS in partnership with Village Preservation thanks to a Capacity & Regrowth grant from the New York State Council on the Arts. Through that grant, the League is using art to draw attention to its 2022-2023 Seven to Save endangered historic sites across the state.

Cheap Old Houses Book Talk with Elizabeth and Ethan Finkelstein

The League was thrilled to host Elizabeth and Ethan Finkelstein for a Preservation Book Club author talk in support of their new book Cheap Old Houses: An Unconventional Guide to Loving and Restoring a Forgotten Home. In this webinar, they discuss the process of putting the book together and the importance of everyday old home stewardship.

Preservation Book ClubKaty PeaceDecember 12, 2023

2023 Excellence Awards Event Recap

Earlier this week, we celebrated our 2023 Excellence in Historic Preservation Awardees with our first in-person Awards ceremony since 2019. It was a sold out crowd, with winners coming from all over the state and other supporters joining us to honor their great work. As League President Jay DiLorenzo said during his opening remarks, winners of the Excellence Award always inspire us — and I think everyone left Monday night’s event feeling that same inspiration.

Excellence Awards, League EventsKaty PeaceDecember 6, 20232023 Excellence Awards

A Letter From Jay and a Look at Thomas Memorial

Do you wonder how the League uses your generous donations, and why your gifts are so vital? I want to share an example of how your contributions are making a difference, and how your continued support will propel even more projects like it.

Jay DiLorenzoDecember 6, 2023Fundraising

Excellence Award Spotlight: Pier 57

Beginning with the listing of the pier on the State and National Register of Historic Place in 2004, through the completion of construction in 2022, the rebirth and reimagining of Pier 57 is the result of a partnership between the Hudson River Park Trust, RXR, Young Woo & Associates, and the pier's tenants, Google, City Winery, Jamestown, and the James Beard Foundation. Together, this group along with their consultants, blended long-term stewardship, sensitive restoration treatments, and design excellence to arrive at an adaptive reuse project that integrates the pier into Hudson River Park and includes a new public rooftop park, commercial office space, a performance venue, a food market, and environmental tech classrooms and community spaces.

Katy PeaceDecember 1, 20232023 Excellence Awards

Excellence Award Spotlight: Nash Lofts

Let’s take a look at the anatomy of an Excellence Award-winning project. The Nash Lofts in Buffalo was treated as a single rehabilitation project, but the building is actually comprised of 4 separate structures that were cobbled together over the years. Years of vacancy and damage made this a difficult project — the complicated nature of the building made it even more so. The team who decided to tackle the project did a remarkable job bringing this anchor property back to active use.

Excellence AwardsKaty PeaceNovember 29, 2023Buffalo, 2023 Excellence Awards, adaptive reuse

2023 Holiday Gift Guide

We love reading gift guides and we love making gift guides. So, here we are again with a brand new list for the 2023 holiday season. No spon-con, just fun. Read through for a few ideas for the preservation people in your life. And in addition to the fun stuff we’ve rounded up, don’t forget to support your local small businesses, museums, historical societies, and other nonprofits (maybe even gift a membership to the League??). Your support really does make a difference, especially during this time of year. Happy holiday shopping!

Katy PeaceNovember 20, 2023Gift Guide

Excellence Award Spotlight: Bent's Opera House

Bent’s is an anchor building in the Village of Medina’s Main Street Historic District. By 2010, the performance space had not been used for decades and the building was fully vacant and in imminent danger of collapsing. In 2016, local developer Roger Hungerford’s Talis Equity purchased the property from the nonprofit Orleans Renaissance Group Inc. Hungerford, who had grown up in Medina, had a vision to give Bent's new life.

Erie Canal, Excellence AwardsKaty PeaceNovember 13, 2023Opera Houses, 2023 Excellence Awards

Excellence Award Spotlight: Bridge to Crafts Careers

“I’m very proud that the League has selected to honor Bridge to Crafts Careers with the Excellence in Historic Preservation Award,” said Ann Cuss, Regional Director of North America at World Monuments Fund (WMF), who oversees the program. “B2CC offers something incredibly unique and valuable: a paid opportunity for young people to get hands-on experience in craft skills. This award is a testament to the hard work of our partners and interns over the years.”

Excellence Award Spotlight: Kingston City Land Bank

In 2018, the Kingston City Land Bank was formed to return long-vacant tax-foreclosed properties to the tax rolls. In a city with a relatively low foreclosure rate, rising property values, and a pressing need for affordable housing, rehabbing single-family homes into affordable first-time homeownership opportunities quickly became a top priority. Through their focus on preserving and restoring rather than modernizing and flipping, the KCLB has been creating a new model for how affordable housing can be produced and what it looks like. Their mission is to foster an equitable community where vacant or distressed properties are transformed into community assets that improve the quality of life for Kingston residents, stabilize and enhance neighborhoods, and create new pathways for social and economic development. The League was thrilled to recognize their work this year with an Excellence in Historic Preservation Award, and wanted to take the opportunity to learn more about what makes their model so successful. Board Chair Daniel Kanter (and resident interior designer!) was kind enough to answer a few questions for us.

Excellence Award Spotlight: Julie Nucci

After her historic Owego home flooded in 2011, Julie Nucci embarked on a years-long project to elevate her house. It is the first National Register-listed home in NYS elevated for flood mitigation and is included in the Secretary’s Guidelines on Flood Adaptation for Rehabilitating Historic Buildings. Since then, she has worked tirelessly to advocate for people and communities impacted by climate change by promoting resiliency and disaster preparedness. She recently formed J. Nucci Consulting, LLC and is working with the National Hazard Mitigation Association and FEMA on engagement and resilience strategies for under-served communities. Many historic communities are located along waterways, from coastal cities to canalside towns. And many of those places, across the state and country, are under-served – just like her Village of Owego, NY. As one of our 2023 Excellence in Historic Preservation Award winners, we wanted to find out more about how she thinks about preservation and why it matters.

Excellence Award Spotlight: Olean's First National Bank Restoration

The First National Bank of Olean and the adjacent former Siegel’s Shoes building have been revitalized to provide much-needed high-quality housing, office, and commercial space in downtown Olean. Vacant for more than two decades, the city’s Urban Renewal Agency worked hard to find a path forward, which included historic district designation to allow for the use of Historic Tax Credits. The rehabilitation of these historic spaces was led by preservation architect Elise Johnson-Schmidt and developer Savarino Companies. Elise was gracious enough to answer a few questions about her work on this Award-winning project.

Excellence AwardsKaty PeaceNovember 3, 20232023 Excellence Awards, adaptive reuse, Olean

Excellence Award Spotlight: Claudette Brady

Claudette Brady has been a staunch advocate for her Brooklyn community for decades. Spearheading the campaign for historic district designation of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Claudette rallied her neighbors and made historic preservation meaningful for the people of the neighborhood. In the years since that successful campaign, Claudette has continued advocating for historic preservation, uplifting the history of traditionally underrepresented people, and centering them in the conversation about what we preserve and for whom.

Announcing the 2023 Excellence in Historic Preservation Award Winners

“The 2023 Excellence Award winners span the state, from Olean to Brooklyn,” said Preservation League President Jay DiLorenzo. “They represent how historic preservation addresses critical issues, from climate action to affordable housing, from spurring economic development to uplifting underrepresented histories. We are honored to recognize the incredible work each Award winner has done for their communities and beyond”

Meet Our New Director of Preservation

Caitlin Meives most recently served as the Director of Preservation at The Landmark Society of Western New York, a regional historic preservation nonprofit based in Rochester that serves a nine-county area.

PLNYS TeamKaty PeaceOctober 23, 2023Press Release

Public Art for Preservation Around Penn Station

In the early morning hours of Friday, September 22, plant-like humanoid creatures appeared in the vicinity of Penn Station, drawing attention to proposed demolitions haunting the neighborhood. The Keepers, part of a performance art intervention created by Ed Woodham, have shown up in various gentrifying locations over the past decade. The Keepers appear when life is out of balance with nature. Their presence is a response to the gentrification and rapid mass development of urban areas where the importance of mixed-use districts, the area’s history, and the natural environment has been ignored.

Brooks Park Pair

Part of the League’s 2023 Seven to Save artist commissions, this pair of carvings by Fitzhugh Karol was inspired by the roofline of James Brooks’ studio. Together, these two carved cedars, cut from the forest in Springs, are representative of the collaborative creative life of James Brooks and Charlotte Park.

Seven to SaveKaty PeaceSeptember 25, 2023STS Artist Interventions, Long Island, 2022-2023 STS, NYSCA

Breaking News: The Keepers Loom at Penn Station

he Keepers’ presence here brings attention to the blatant demolition of the Penn Station neighborhood’s historic buildings, the environmental impact of that demolition, and the human cost of displacing longtime residents and business owners.

Sleeping with the Ancestors: Author Talk with Joseph McGill, Jr. and Herb Frazier

In this Preservation Book Club webinar, we were joined by Joseph McGill Jr., founder of the Slave Dwelling Project, and his co-author Herb Frazier. They discussed their book Sleeping with the Ancestors: How I Followed the Footprints of Slavery. This book is the personal account of one man's groundbreaking project to sleep overnight in the countless oft-overlooked former slave dwellings that still stand across the country, the fascinating history behind those sites, and how he has used the experiences to shed light on larger issues of race in America.

Preservation Book Club, Voices of PreservationKaty PeaceSeptember 19, 2023

A Mural for Oneonta's Downtown Historic District

Historic preservation can serve as an economic life raft for upstate cities like Oneonta, but the public perception of preservation can be a challenge. As a way to celebrate the historic district, the League commissioned local artist Emily Falco to create a site-specific sidewalk mural strategically located in front of the Greater Oneonta Historical Society.

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Celebrating 50 years // 1974-2024