Excellence Award Spotlight: Preservation Buffalo Niagara
PBN and the African Heritage Food Co-op announce that they are bringing 238 Carlton Street back to life as the permanent home of the African Heritage Food Co-Op. Photo courtesy of Preservation Buffalo Niagara
Preservation Buffalo Niagara has been named one of this year’s Excellence in Historic Preservation award winners.
“PBN serves a diverse and resilient constituency, and we are proud to assist and empower communities in using preservation as a tool to enhance quality of life and tell their full and rich histories,” said Jessie Fisher, Executive Director of Preservation Buffalo Niagara. “Preservation has been a key tool in Buffalo and Western New York in retaining high quality jobs and building places that attract pride and investment. We are grateful to the Preservation League for all of the support they have given Western New York over the years, and accept this recognition on behalf of all of our members and the neighborhoods that we work with.”
The Landmark Society of the Niagara Frontier and the Preservation Coalition of Erie County merged in 2009 to become Preservation Buffalo Niagara (PBN), building on their 30-year history to ensure that the Buffalo region would have a strong, effective, and professional preservation organization. A change in leadership in 2015 set the organization on a renewed trajectory, expanding the staff, quadrupling the annual organizational budget, nearly doubling membership, and adding in a wide range of programming designed to make preservation relevant to a much wider cross-section of people.
While Buffalo is known for its treasure trove of high style architect-designed buildings, the region has another side: long affected by redlining, urban renewal, government-sanctioned erasure, disinvestment, and often singled out as one of the most impoverished and segregated cities in the country, preservation was seen as largely ineffective or irrelevant to many community members. Five years ago, PBN began an intentional journey to change the dominant narrative about who preservation serves and what landscapes are worthy of protection. From their revolving loan fund for low-income residents of local historic districts to their tours and workshops, PBN is working to create a fully inclusive preservation movement, addressing systemic racism and white supremacy in preservation and uplifting narratives around women, immigrants, and LGBTQ+ communities.
PBN’s diligence, perseverance, and dedication to creating an anti-racist preservation movement is what makes them an exceptional and unparalleled model for preservation in the future.
“Preservation Buffalo Niagara is a tremendous resource for Western New York,” said Preservation League President Jay DiLorenzo. “Their work in recent years to tell a fuller story of Buffalo, NY, and make preservation relevant to more of their community is admirable and something to be emulated. The League is grateful to count them among our colleagues and we are thrilled to honor them with an Excellence Award this year.”
The PBN Team:
Jessie Fisher, Executive Director
Christiana Limniatis, Director of Preservation Services
Tia Brown, Community Engagement Coordinator
Tabitha O’Connell, Preservation Planner
Click here for everything about the 2021 Excellence in Historic Preservation Award winners!
Since 1984, the Preservation League’s statewide awards program has highlighted projects, organizations, publications, and individuals that exemplify best practices in historic preservation and recognize the people who are using historic preservation to build stronger neighborhoods, create local jobs, provide affordable housing, open our eyes to overlooked history, and save the places that are special to all of us.