Preservation Connecticut Announces the 2024 Connecticut Preservation Awards Recipients
2024 Connecticut Preservation Awards
New Haven Country Club • 160 Hartford Tpke, Hamden, CT 06517
May 9, 2024
2024 Connecticut Preservation Awards
Preservation Connecticut is proud to announce its Connecticut Preservation Awards for 2024. Preservation stories often tell of threats and losses, so it is heartening to turn instead to stories of accomplishment and creativity. These awards tell stories of rejuvenated places where we can work or play, gather and govern our communities, or create. They tell stories of places that provide shelter, conserve resources, and remind us of who we are and where we come from. They tell stories of places whose rejuvenated past can contribute to a richer future.
We are honored to recognize individual projects, long-term contributions, and professional achievements that demonstrate the many ways historic places contribute to the life and vitality of Connecticut communities. The awards will be presented at a ceremony on May 9 at the New Haven Country Club.
Harlan H. Griswold Award for Historic Preservation
Farmington Canal Heritage Trail
Presented jointly by Preservation Connecticut and the State Historic Preservation Office, the Harlan Griswold Award honors outstanding contributions to the preservation and revitalization of Connecticut’s historic places. The Farmington Canal Heritage Trail is Connecticut’s largest historic site, stretching 54 miles from New Haven to the Massachusetts state line. Opened in 1828 to bring inland products to the port of New Haven, the canal was rebuilt as a railroad in the 1840s and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. When the railroad was abandoned in 1987, citizen activists began the complex process of preserving the corridor as a recreational trail. Today, the trail’s two sections are overseen by two nonprofit organizations—the Farmington Canal Rail-to-Trail Association and the Farmington Valley Trails Council—and constructed and maintained by the towns and cities through which it passes. With the final sections under construction, the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail continues to play its historic role as a vital transportation corridor serving hikers, walkers, cyclists, and commuters.
Janet Jainschigg Award for Preservation Professionals: Steven Marshall
For nearly five decades, Stephen Marshall has preserved historic places as contractor, restoration carpenter, home inspector, and educator. First in partnership with his father, Herman Marshall, and later on his own, he restored an array of buildings, particularly 18th-century houses, which included private homes as well as properties of major institutions like Old Sturbridge Village, Connecticut Landmarks, and the Wadsworth Atheneum. As a home inspector, he helped buyers evaluate and understand historic buildings—providing expertise that ordinary inspectors typically do not possess. And he has shared his expertise by helping train home inspectors and leading workshops in wood window restoration.
Mimi Findlay Award for Young Preservationists: Orion Newall
Preserving Connecticut’s historic railroads is a passion for Orion Newall. At the age of 15, he bought an abandoned boxcar built in 1930 for one dollar and spent five years restoring it in his family’s back yard, recruiting volunteer helpers, raising funds, and attracting donations of cash and materials. The completed boxcar is now on lease to the Danbury Railroad Museum. Since graduating from high school, Orion has worked at the Naugatuck Valley Railroad, which operates on the historic tracks between Waterbury and Torrington, where he organizes excursion trains for the Railroad Museum of New England in Thomaston. He also serves as treasurer pf the Railroad Museum of New England and recently completed a term on the board of the Danbury Railroad Museum.
Awards of Merit
Kirschenbaum dome, Branford
In 1957, painter Susan Weil hired architect Bernard Kirschenbaum to design and build a geodesic dome following the principles of the Modernist visionary Buckminster Fuller. Never fully completed, the dome gradually decayed. Beginning in 2010, Weil and Kirschenbaum, and their family, restored the dome. They repaired or duplicated elements to recapture the sense of newness integral to the dome’s design.
Project team: Bernard Kirschenbaum (1924-2016); Susan Weil; Sara Kirschenbaum; Ben Posel, AIA; Joseph Shea; Jeremy Ziemann (Studio Z); Michael Ludvik, PE; Charles Brown, PE
Sally Zimmerman and Allen Olsen, Chaplin
The people of Chaplin owe Sally Zimmerman and Allen Olsen a huge debt of gratitude for their restoration of the Goodell store and their research into the town’s history. The store presented structural and planning challenges, which were successfully overcome to stabilize the building and make it into a three-season home. And their research into land transactions and local genealogy, generously shared with the town and its inhabitants, has helped other homeowners better understand and appreciate their historic properties.
Frederick Sturges house, Fairfield
Built in 1855 for a member of a leading local family, this Italianate house had become something of a hippie commune before Steven and D’vorah Schiffman bought it. Since then, they made structural repairs, reversed decades of questionable alterations, modernized mechanical systems, and transformed the house into a showcase of Victorian design featuring reproductions and historic wallpapers, hardware, light fixtures, and furnishings garnered from salvage yards, flea markets, and antique dealers all over the country.
Project team: Steven and D’vorah Schiffman; JP Ludwig Builders Inc.; Jennifer Anderson Designs; Meehan & Ramos Pools; Chris West Company LLC; Terra Green Landscaping; Cileene The Gourmet Gardener; Rich Mead Wallcovering; Cassandra Gilmore
Connecticut State Capitol skylight restoration, Hartford
Bathed in light from stained-glass laylights, two multi-story atria are important gathering places in the Capitol. Removed when they were discovered to be in severe disrepair, the laylights have now been restored and reinstalled, with new skylight structures to protect them from the elements. The project combined modern preservation technology with thoughtful planning while adhering to the General Assembly’s schedule, which forbade scaffolding during legislative sessions.
Project team: The Connecticut General Assembly; Joint Committee of Legislative Management; Crosskey Architects LLC; Julie L. Sloan LLC; James K. Grant Associates; Kronenberger & Sons Restoration, Inc.; John Canning & Company; Lynchburg Stained Glass; Cherry Hill Glass Co.; Apex Construction Group LLC
The Shepherd Home, Middletown
This stately brick building was built in 1925 to house nurses at Connecticut Valley Hospital and now has been renovated to provide 32 apartments for homeless or at-risk veterans along with common spaces and facilities for supportive services. New provisions make the building accessible to all, while restored brickwork and porticoes lend dignity to those who have served their country and. As state-owned buildings no longer needed for their original purposes face decay and demolition, this project offers a model for adapting them to new uses.
Project team: Columbus House; Northeast Collaborative Architects; Martinez Couch; GNCB; RZ Design; Enterprise Builders
New London City Hall, New London
Despite small size and limited resources, New London has comprehensively renovated its historic city hall. Beginning with a thorough conditions assessment, the city cleaned and repaired exterior masonry, upgraded mechanicals with energy efficient HVAC and lighting systems, abated hazardous materials, provided accessibility, and restored decorative paintings in the city council chamber. Phasing allowed city business to continue with little disruption. Importantly, city staff managed construction to save on costs, bringing the project in below original bids.
Project team: City of New London; Architectural Preservation Studio; C.W. Kraus Preservation and Development; Connecticut DECD State Historic Preservation Office; Valley Restoration LLC; John Canning & Company; Otis Elevator; Grand Light; D/E/F/ Services Group, Ltd.;
Kronenberger and Sons Restoration; Giliberto and Sons Restoration
Fulton Park stewardship, Waterbury
Fulton Park, designed by the Olmsted Brothers landscape architects, remains Waterbury’s crown jewel thanks to careful stewardship by municipal departments and citizen volunteers. Over the years the City, the Fulton Park Conservancy, and neighborhood residents have restored park buildings and landscape features, cleaned trash, cleared overgrown plants, and recreated an historic lilac grove.
Project team: City of Waterbury, Department of Public Works; Alderman Michael Salvio; Fulton Park Conservancy
Honorable Mention
Walnut Hill Park steps, New Britain
A principal entry into Walnut Hill Park is the curving limestone steps added in 1931 to the Olmsted-designed park in conjunction with the World War I memorial that crowns the hill. After years of wear and neglect, the stairs have been cleaned and restored using historically appropriate patching material and Indiana limestone replacements where needed.
Project team: City of New Britain; FHI Studio; Armani Restoration
Established by special act of the Connecticut General Assembly in 1975, Preservation Connecticut works with local preservation groups and individuals as well as statewide organizations to preserve, protect, and promote the buildings, sites, and landscapes that contribute to the heritage and vitality of Connecticut communities.
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