Arizona Preservation Foundation announces 2007 Governor's Heritage Preservation Honor Awards

The Arizona Preservation Foundation has unveiled the Governor's Heritage Preservation Honor Award winners for 2007. These awards recognize people, organizations, and projects that represent outstanding achievements in preserving Arizona's prehistoric and historic resources. The ten award winners and the Grand Award winner were announced at the annual Arizona Historic Preservation Conference awards luncheon in Prescott.

Karlson Machine Works Buildings/Southwest Cotton Company, Phoenix

GRAND PRIZE WINNER. For years, Phoenix’s warehouse district has been the central topic of the preservation conversation in downtown Phoenix. While some would like to see the rehab and reuse of the buildings akin to Denver’s LoDo, others see the real estate value of putting in high-rise condos. While its easy to see the economics of the latter, one project truly stands out the exemplifies the potential for rehabilitation and reuses: The Southwest Cotton Company and Karlson Machine Works Buildings. This project is an excellent example of Standard Number 9 or the Secretary of the Interior’s Treatment for Historic Properties. Designer-developer Michael Levine achieved a standard of Rehabilitation that is rarely met due to his skill in blending the contemporary with the historic fabric.

Academy Lofts, Tucson

An intense, eighteen-month rehabilitation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Academy, an old convent, which was built in 1886, resulted in the preservation of one of the largest surviving buildings in Tucson from the Territorial period. 120 years after its construction, the new Academy Lofts opened in June of 2006, proving how an abandoned convent and school could be converted into twenty-five, fully modern loft units. Steve Fenton, the project supervisor and managing partner was relentless in his demands that the exterior be restored to it’s originally façade which had been covered with stucco.

Watson and Willow Lakes Park, Prescott

In 1998, Prescott approved a bond that allowed for the purchase and creation of a 1,300 acre recreation area called Watson and Willow Lakes Park. In this park were fourteen prehistoric and four historic sites. As part of the new park plans, these cultural resources were protected and the Willow Lake Interpretive Center was built for one of the prehistoric sites.

Phoenix Union High School Exterior Rehabilitation, Phoenix

For over a decade, the citizens of Phoenix watched their first high school, listed on the National Register in 1982, first suffer neglect and then slowly succumb to the wreaking ball. In the end, only three Neoclassical Revival Style buildings remained. Then the former high school campus became the Biomedical Campus for the City of Phoenix with the Translational Genomics Research Institute (T-GEN) opening in December 2004. The fate of the three historic high school buildings was uncertain until the University of Arizona College of Medicine approached the City with the hope of making the historic buildings their Phoenix headquarters. These buildings are now the centerpiece to a modern high tech campus and show that the two goals of adaptive reuse and careful rehabilitation of key character defining elements can be met.

The L. Ron Hubbard House on Camelback, Phoenix

While the ranch-style homes along the border of Phoenix and Paradise Valley and been demolished to put up McMansions, another project went in a remarkably different direction. In 1952, science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, who had recently penned Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health , was living in the shadow of Camelback Mountain. It was in this humble little ranch-style house out in what was then the desert outside of town, L. Ron Hubbard founded Scientology. Through extensive research, with meticulous attention paid to the smallest details, the house was restored to full historical accuracy by the Friends of L. Ron Hubbard Foundation and the Church of Scientology International. The L. Ron Hubbard House on Camelback is now a superb house museum inside a phenomenal restoration where one can truly walk in Ron’s footsteps.

Honeybee Village, Oro Valley

In an unusual partnership, the Town of Oro Valley, Pima County, developer Steve Solomon of Cañada Vista Homes, Desert Archaeology, Inc., and the Tohono O’odham Nation worked together to preserve Honey Bee Ballcourt Village, a former HuHuGam settlement in Oro Valley. Steve Solomon donated the thirteen acres to Pima County, which will become a permanent preserve. The core of the site contains a large, open plaza area, a small ballcourt, nearly 20 refuse mounds, and an estimated more than houses. Research on the village continues but its preservation is assured.

Historic Building Photography Project, Phoenix

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then The City of Phoenix Arts and Culture Office and the City of Phoenix Historic Preservation Office have a lot to say recently. They hired photographer Michael Lundgren to photograph mid-twentieth century landmarks, commercial and public buildings in an effort to promote both art and historic preservation in what was called the Historic Building Photography Project. Lundgren chose twenty-three buildings in Phoenix, from the obvious to the not so obvious for display in city buildings and to be made available to architects, planners, historians, and, of course, residents. Every year we lose wonderful architectural treasures due to indifference and a blatant lack of creativity. Endeavors like this, through the awareness they create, will hopefully lead to the preservation of the buildings within this project and others. [Photo: The Phoenix Towers, Michael Lundgren.]

The Florence Preservation Foundation, Florence

While urbanization has been creeping towards the Town of Florence, a local group has successfully strived to preserve the historic character of the downtown. The all-volunteer Florence Preservation Foundation, through fundraising and grants has saved ten wonderful historic buildings from demolition including the Silver King Hotel, which it purchased in 1995 after raising $750,000. Without their efforts, this little town would only be known for the state prison, and not for its eclectic and dynamic annual home tours and as a fun place to spend the afternoon strolling. Founding members include Boyd Johnson, Bill Coomer, John Swearengin, Bonnie Bariola, Steve Cooper, Joe Gervasio, and Katie Montano who passed away in April of 2006. [Photo: Chapel of the Gila, Florence.]

The Elks Opera House "Bill the Elk" Restoration, Prescott

The Elks Opera House was opened in February of 1905, and Bill the Elk was installed a few months later. In 1971, Bill was removed when the opera house owners moved out of town. Last year, the city, after lengthy negotiations with his owners, reacquired Bill. The subsequent restoration of Bill the Elk took several weeks and involved a number of people but on December 6 of last year, Bill was returned to Elks Opera House was remounted on the same platform he had originally been placed in 1905.

The Copper Spike Railway, Globe

Three unusual partners, the Historic Globe Main Street Program, Arizona Eastern Railway, and the Apache Gold Casino, worked together to connect the historic downtown area with the Apache Gold Casino via a 1930 M-55 Motor Car. The result of this ambitious work was the Copper Spike Railway, which embarked on a ninety-day test run that ended on May 1st of last year. Now efforts are ongoing to make the Copper Spike Railway a permanent fixture in town.