Excellence Award Spotlight: The NEST at Strand-Lamon
The NEST is an exciting new hub for performance art and entrepreneurship in the North Country. The two building complex located just off the historic Public Square in downtown Watertown consists of the 1914 Strand Theater and the adjacent c.1900 Lamon Building. The redevelopment has created a dynamic and innovative partnership between SUNY Jefferson Community College (JCC) and the HarmoNNY Performing Arts Group. JCC's NEST facility provides versatile co-working space, conference rooms, bookable offices, high speed internet, and free access to training for members. Above the Lamon Building is now a new fully accessible outdoor rooftop deck and lounge providing a unique reception and performance venue. The Strand Theater, featuring a flexible theater with a small stage for presentations and theatrical performances, is the highlight of the complex. This adaptive reuse project was recognized with a 2025 Excellence in Historic Preservation Award.
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Excellence Award Spotlight: Huntington Apartments
The transformation of the historic Huntington Building — originally the National Yeast Company — into Huntington Apartments is a powerful example of how preservation, social impact, and sustainability can converge in one remarkable project. Located at 201 Fall Street in the Village of Seneca Falls, this development is a testament to innovative adaptive reuse and community-driven revitalization. Formerly deteriorating and underutilized, the Huntington Building now offers 53 thoughtfully designed affordable apartments, including 27 permanent supportive housing units for homeless veterans. In partnership with Eagle Star Housing through the Empire State Supportive Housing Initiative (ESSHI), the project addresses both veteran homelessness and affordable housing needs. These units also honor the community's values, complementing Seneca Falls' Purple Heart Town designation and its proximity to the Purple Heart Trail and Veterans Memorial Bridge. On-site services and rental subsidies offer long-term stability and dignity to residents who have faced significant personal challenges.
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Excellence Award Spotlight: Aqueduct Redevelopment
The transformation of Rochester's historic Aqueduct Building and Campus into a state-of-the-art corporate office complex represents an extraordinary achievement in adaptive reuse and historic preservation. Occupying six interconnected buildings on a campus totaling 182,000 square feet, this project overcame significant architectural, engineering, and cultural challenges to deliver modern, collaborative workspace within a meticulously restored 19th-century industrial setting. The League is proud to recognize this project with a 2025 Excellence in Historic Preservation Award.
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Digging Into The Historic House Handbook
The Historic House Handbook: A Sensible Guide for Old-House Living is the authoritative maintenance and repair resource for old-house owners with helpful guidelines and advice for historic neighborhood living. This panel discussion features author Steve Jordan along with Bradley Huber and Ellen Olah, who are undergoing their own old house renovation adventures. This program was co-hosted by the Landmark Society of Western NY.
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Excellence Award Spotlight: Lofts at the Foundry
The Lofts at the Foundry represents the extraordinary culmination of a nearly 40-year effort to complete one of the Hudson Valley's most ambitious adaptive reuse undertakings: the transformation of the historic Whitehill Engine & Pictet Ice Machine Works in Newburgh, NY into a 120-unit residential condominium. Completed in November 2023, the final phase — 59 units known as The Lofts at the Foundry — overcame decades of economic turmoil, legal setbacks, and previous development missteps to deliver a model of sustainable preservation and community revitalization.
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2024 Gratz Grant Funds Assessment of River Street Buildings by TAP Inc.
The Preservation League has awarded TAP Inc. a $12,600 grant from the Donald Stephen Gratz Preservation Services Fund. This grant funded a pre-construction evaluation of five vacant buildings in downtown Troy. Included on the League’s 2025-2026 Seven to Save list of endangered historic places, the mixed-use buildings on Troy’s Lower River Street have been vacant for over 15 years and have faced deterioration and demolition threats.
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The Art Spy: Author Talk with Michelle Young
In this webinar, author Michelle Young spoke about her new book The Art Spy: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of WWII Resistance Hero Rose Valland. Based on troves of previously undiscovered documents, The Art Spy chronicles the brave actions of the key Resistance spy in the heart of the Nazi’s art looting headquarters in the French capital. A veritable female Monuments Man, Valland has, until now, been written out of the annals, despite bearing witness to history’s largest art theft. While Hitler was amassing stolen art for his future Führermuseum, Valland, his undercover adversary, secretly worked to stop him.
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Excellence Award Spotlight: Ann-Isabel Friedman
For more than 20 years, Ann-Isabel Friedman directed the Sacred Sites Program at The New York Landmarks Conservancy (NYLC) in New York City, acting as a tireless advocate for historic religious properties. Throughout her distinguished career, she provided an indispensable source of financial support, technical assistance, and educational programming for hundreds of religious spaces – not only in New York City, but throughout the State.
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Excellence Award Spotlight: Untermyer Gardens
The restoration of Untermyer Park and Gardens by the Untermyer Gardens Conservancy began in 2011 with a single gardener and an annual visitation of about 5,000 people. In 2025, Untermyer now employs 11 gardeners and welcomes approximately 350,000 visitors annually. Located on 43 acres in Yonkers, it is one of the few important public gardens nationally that is free of charge to the public. The Conservancy works in a public-private partnership with the City of Yonkers, which owns the garden.
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The Cities We Need: Author Talk with Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani
The Cities We Need: Essential Stories of Everyday Places is an expressive book of prose and photographs that reveals the powerful ways our everyday places support our shared belonging.
In this webinar, author Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani shares images and excerpts from the book.
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Excellence Award Spotlight: Steve Swiat
“Receiving this statewide recognition is truly an honor and feels like a meaningful milestone after 25 years in the historic trades,” said Steve Swiat. “This represents not only personal accomplishment, but also the privilege I’ve had to contribute to preserving history across New York State. Having the opportunity to work on some of the state’s most remarkable historic homes have been both rewarding and humbling, and this recognition affirms the value of that work.”
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Announcing the 2025 Excellence in Historic Preservation Award Winners
“Our annual Excellence Awards are always a highlight because of how clearly they demonstrate the impact preservation can have in communities both big and small,” said Preservation League President Jay DiLorenzo. “Reinvigorating old buildings and stewarding places of cultural importance is a way to build a stronger society and support the people who call these places home.”
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Joy Goddess: A'Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance (Author Talk with A'Lelia Bundles)
In this webinar, author A'Lelia Bundles shares photographs and highlights that went into her new book Joy Goddess, a thoroughly researched biography of the author's great-grandmother A’Lelia Walker. The League's Director of Communications Katy Peace moderated the Q&A following A'Lelia's presentation.
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2025 Preserve New York & Technical Assistance Grants
The Preservation League of NYS and their program partners at the New York State Council on the Arts are thrilled to announce the 2025 Preserve New York and Technical Assistance grant recipients. At its 2025 meeting, an independent panel selected 31 applicants in 20 counties to receive support totaling $347,500.
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Humboldt Parkway's Seven to Save Designation Featured by WGRZ-TV in Buffalo
On August 21, League Director of Preservation Caitlin Meives joined the Eastside Parkways Coalition in Buffalo to share more information with the community about the League’s designation of the former Humboldt Parkways as one of our current Seven to Save. WGRZ News Channel 2 was there to learn more…
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Health Over Highways: East Side Parkways Coalition Seven to Save Presentation
Preservation League of NYS presentation: 2025-2026 Seven to Save statewide distinction for the Full Restoration of Humboldt Parkway.
When: Thursday, August 21, 6:30-7:30 p.m. Where: Delavan Grider Community Center, 877 East Delavan Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14215
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Governor Hochul Announces New York State Led the Nation in Use of Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits in 2024
Preservation League of New York State President Jay DiLorenzo said, “Historic rehabilitation tax credits have proven transformational for communities and Main Streets throughout New York State. Reusing our existing buildings creates local construction jobs, provides space for small businesses, creates much-needed housing, and keeps demolition debris out of our landfills. Enhancements to the New York State program spearheaded by Governor Hochul means that even more communities will benefit from this powerful economic development tool.”
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Bastille Day Special: Village Preservation's Virtual Guide to French Flats, and Learn How They Changed the Way We Live
In honor of Bastille Day, Village Preservation has released their latest interactive StoryMap, “French Flats: the 19th Century Innovation that Changed the Way We Live.” Beautifully illustrated with contemporary and historic photos, it shows how an idea imported from Europe utterly transformed New York after the Civil War, with the effects still very much with us today.
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Event Recap: 2025 Pillar of New York Awards
On Monday, May 19, the League was proud to present Roberta Brandes Gratz with our 2025 Pillar of New York Award, recognizing her decades of work in support of preservation issues in New York. Many thanks to the hundreds of people who gathered with us in the Rainbow Room to honor Roberta and her incredible contribution to the field of preservation. Thanks to the generosity of the people in the room (and a few from afar), the 2025 Pillar Awards raised over $300,000 to support the League’s statewide work.
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Seven to Save-Listed New York Amsterdam News Featured by News7 LOCALish
Check out this 6-minute documentary to learn more about the Seven to Save-listed New York Amsterdam News!
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