A Proclamation in Utica: Celebrating the Olbiston's Excellence Award
A week after celebrating the 2025 statewide Excellence in Historic Preservation Awards at our annual event in New York City, we were honored to be in Utica with Assemblymember Marianne Buttenschon to recognize one of this year's local winners: the Olbiston Apartments. When Assemblymember Buttenschon’s office reached out to suggest doing something in Utica to recognize the Olbiston’s Award, we jumped at the chance. As League President Jay DiLorenzo said during his remarks, “I am honored to be here in Utica to celebrate the remarkable transformation of the Olbiston. Last week, we were in New York City for our annual statewide Excellence in Historic Preservation Awards reception, where we honored the Olbiston along with nine other phenomenal preservation projects. I’m glad to be here today as we bring this recognition home.”
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Event Recap: 2025 Excellence in Historic Preservation Awards
On Monday, November 3, we gathered in Midtown Manhattan for a celebratory evening in honor of the 2025 Excellence in Historic Preservation Award winners. It was an incredibly inspiring event, with over 150 attendees on hand to celebrate the outstanding achievements of this year’s Awardees.
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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: The Monroe
This $8.4 million rehabilitation project converted the former Record Theatre complex into 17 affordable apartments plus over 10,000 square feet of commercial/retail space. The rehabilitation of The Monroe building is a shining example of how adaptative reuse through historic preservation can catalyze the resurgence of surrounding neighborhoods. It also shows that affordable housing can be as well-located and well-appointed as market-rate housing – its location on Main Street brings much-needed affordable housing to the center of the city. The building’s history and original appearance had been hidden for more than 40 years and was under threat of demolition before it was transformed back to its 1920 glory by the development team.
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Excellence Award Spotlight: Olbiston Apartments
The Olbiston building suffered from decades of deferred maintenance and deterioration before being rehabilitated. It appeared abandoned and destined for loss until Liberty Affordable Housing of Rome, NY saw the potential of the Olbiston to fill the pressing need for affordable housing in Utica and acquired the building in 2021. Liberty Affordable Housing funded the project, using a combination of public and private funding, including Federal and New York State Rehabilitation Tax Credits. The rehabilitated Olbiston has created almost 160 units, plus common spaces, tenant storage, and parking. Architects from Carmina Wood Design preserved essential historic characteristics of the building while ensuring that each unit is now updated to modern housing standards.
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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: NYCHA's Williamsburg Houses and Exodus & Dance
The rehabilitation of the Williamsburg Houses and the restoration of James Richmond Barthé’s Exodus & Dance are testaments to the New York City Housing Authority’s commitment to demonstrating pride of place at NYCHA properties. These two projects sit at opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of scale – one a multi-building, 1,600+ unit residence, the other a Works Progress Administration-era public art installation – but in both cases, the attention to detail and care taken to include the community show the importance of centering people in the process of managing these important public places.
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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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