This past April the Louisiana Landmarks Society (LLS) held its inaugural Awards for Excellence in Historic Preservation. These awards give recognition to projects that showcase outstanding cases of restoration or rehabilitation of historic buildings, as well as new construction in the historic districts of the Orleans Parish.
Nominations for the 2014 Awards were submitted from individuals, companies, and organizations. The award-winning projects demonstrated how preservation can be used as a tool to revitalize older neighborhoods by supporting the cultural and ethnic diversity of the community. They also showed that historic preservation is “green” and sustainable, representing new designs that are suitable to their historic areas.
Overall, there were fifteen awards granted this year! Some of the 2014 Louisiana Landmarks Society Awards for Excellence in Historic Preservation winners were:
- Renewal Homes – This project features 47 units of single-family & multi-family homes in the Central City and Hollygrove neighborhoods.
- 1800 Esplanade Avenue – This project restored the historic Charles H. Crowley house from an apartment building to an Eastlake style single-family residence.
- 1914-16 Elysian Fields – The project renovated a formerly abandoned 3,000-square-foot double.
- The Old Firehouse – A former derelict firehouse was converted into studios, offices, and spaces for artists.
- Community Greens at Washington and Broad – Rehabilitation of four devastated and abandoned buildings were turned into a community health clinic.
- The Saenger Theatre – The historic 1927 theater, which flooded in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, was completely restored.
- Rosa F. Keller Library & Community Center – A 1917 residence was restored and converted into a neighborhood community center with a library.
Architect Steven Dumez, who worked on two of the honored projects, expressed, “With the Rosa F. Keller building, there's great pride in bringing back a piece of the community that was so significantly damaged after Hurricane Katrina. As we go back and visit it now and bring our children there, it is clear that it's very vital to the neighborhood."
Indeed, the LLS is a shining example of what dedicated groups of people can accomplish when they work towards a common goal. Here at Patch of Land we feel the same way, and believe it's important to focus on growing communities by using our crowdfunding platform to help develop and fund projects similar to those honored by the LLS. When it's all said and done, our intention is to use the innovation of real estate crowdfunding to revitalize devastated areas and do social good all throughout our beautiful country.
Do you believe residents have the power to improve their own community? Leave a comment and tell us what you think about this story. Let us know if you think your neighborhood could benefit from real estate crowdfuding!
