You Got (Pre)Served

by Nicole Sarrubbo

As part of the city's celebration of Historic Preservation Month, the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia will host its 12th Annual Preservation Achievement Awards Luncheon in the Crystal Tea Room at the Wanamaker Building today.

Among this year's nine Grand Jury Award recipients, which are awarded to regional preservation projects completed last year, are the Moland House in Hartsville, the Wanamaker Grand Court Organ and the B & O Water Street Train Station in Wilmington.

According to Preservation Alliance Executive Director John Gallery, the project primarily recognizes work that helped save endangered historical buildings. By way of example, he points to the Free Library of Philadelphia's Walnut West Branch, which closed in 1998 as a result of chronic water infiltration and infrastructure failures. Grassroots groups formed to raise funds and preserve the 1906 building, resulting in a rehabilitation project that included a community center. Elise Vider, a panel member for the project awards and spokeswoman for Center City District, says the committee looks at a number of factors, including the quality and scope of the preservation work, the educational impact and the awareness it raises in communities about preservation.

"It's not just bricks and mortar," Vider says. "We are very interested in seeing work that spreads information and raises people's awareness of preservation as an economic and quality of life issue."

Randy Cotton, Preservation Alliance associate director, lauds all of the recipients but singles out the Victor Apartments as a particularly important project. By converting a dilapidated industrial building into attractive loft apartments, the project made the first batch of market-rate housing accessible to Camden locals in more than 40 years.

Gallery says that the historic Wanamaker Grand Court Organ, with its nearly 29,000 pipes, is the largest functioning musical instrument in the world. Despite that history, it was neglected for three decades; 95 percent of it has since been restored. "If you ever get the opportunity to hear it," Gallery says, "it's an extraordinary experience."

This year's Landmark Building Award will go to the Divine Lorraine Hotel. John D. Milner will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award for being involved as a national leader, educator and architect in preservation for 40 years. The architecture firm he established in 1968 takes a multidisciplinary approach to preservation projects.

"We have so many old buildings in our region that deserve attention," Milner says. "They really make our region what it is."

For a complete list of Historic Preservation Month events and contest winners, see www.preservationalliance.com.