The Village Preservation Society of East Hampton celebrated the winners of the 2022 Historic Preservation Award at its annual meeting and historic preservation award ceremony at Town Hall on November 22. An informative talk about historic preservation policies island wide and their impact on quality of life was presented by Sarah Kautz, executive director of Preservation Long Island.
The society created the Historic Preservation Award to honor and promote significant preservation, rehabilitation, restoration or reconstruction projects and activities that contribute to the historic character of East Hampton and surrounding communities. In particular, the society recognizes the efforts and expense involved in preserving structures that are integral to sense of place and are often otherwise unprotected by historic district status or regulations.
Two awards were presented: one for a publicly funded project and one for a privately funded project.
Frank J. Jackson was the honoree in the private category for his careful restoration of Third House, also known as the Isaac Miller house on Main Street. Jackson spoke about the process and acknowledged the various eras of history a building of that age contains and deciding to which era one will return the building.
The award in the public category was presented to Poonam Lalwani, an architect and project manager and representative for the Long Island Rail Road’s historic refurbishment of East Hampton train station on Railroad Avenue. He discussed monitoring the project and the limited time frame allotted to complete the project, about three months.
“All of us have watched sadly as we’ve seen charming old buildings razed to make way for much less architecturally appealing structures. Historic properties anchor the character of the village and unfortunately, not all such buildings fall within the protections of designated historic districts,” said Historic Preservation Committee Chair Georgia deHavenon. “The VPS sees this award as an opportunity to help shape public awareness of how important historic character is to our sense of place.”
“As a way to honor and promote a sense of community, awards for historic preservation and restoration projects are a time-honored tradition throughout the country,” remarked John McGuirk III, VPS Chair. “We see the VPS Historic Preservation award as an opportunity to help promote this community value on the local level.”
Staff Writer on Dec 13, 2022