SAN DIEGO, CA - May 19, 2021 - Save Our Heritage Organisation, San Diego's countywide preservation group, celebrates its 38th annual People In Preservation Awards, on Thursday, May 27, at 4pm, during National Preservation Month. At that time, find the free online awards ceremony HERE.
This year's awards will honor twelve distinctive people and projects ranging across multiple historic preservation mediums, from building restorations and adaptive reuse to historic community traditions and important arts and cultural centers. They include the extensive restoration of a Mid-Century Modern coastal gem, the rehabilitation of a support building at the beloved Hotel del Coronado, and the recognition of a long-time writer especially known for her work in La Jolla.
Each spring, current residents and stewards Susan and Pat James play host to an annual garden party at the turn-of-the-20th-century Wisteria Cottage in Ocean Beach. The community gathers here to share its history and greater history of the neighborhood, carrying on a decades-old tradition begun by the Ocean Beach Historical Society in 1994.
Navy Building 158, also known as the Fort Rosecrans Post Exchange, was constructed in 1908 for use as a gymnasium and retail store with goods and services for military personnel and their dependents. Boasting a Georgian Revival architectural style, this large red brick building was recommended for remodeling many times, but these projects never happened, and the historic building has sat vacant for the last 20 years until now.
The tale of the formation of Chicano Park, a National Historic Landmark, is one of San Diego's most moving activist and preservation stories. Author Beatrice Zamora and illustrator Maira Meza tell this important story and share the history of the development of Logan Heights and Barrio Logan in their bilingual children's book The Spirit of Chicano Park / El espíritu del parque Chicano.
Homeowners Breeann and Nick Zamonis brought their historic 1925 Spanish Revival style home with Monterey influences in Mission Hills back to life. Using historic photographs, they restored the original entryway, and reconstructed the original cantilevered wood balcony. Now, the Walter and Margaret Trepte House shines with all the former glory of its original 1920s design.
You will be hard pressed to find another writer who has a better way with words for sharing San Diego and La Jolla history than La Jolla Historical Society historian Carol Olten. The breadth of topics she has written about include discussions of popular architectural styles and building types in La Jolla. She has also chronicled La Jolla landmarks, such as the Red Roost and Red Rest, the long-lost Green Dragon Colony, and the magnificent Marine Room restaurant.
When the iconic Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP) Munk Laboratory at the University of California, San Diego's Scripps Institute of Oceanography began to show the wear and tear of decades situated on the coast, Sam Farmer, Facilities Management Project Manager at UCSD, and a dedicated team of professionals stepped in to rehabilitate and preserve this important modern resource. Designed by San Diego Master Architect Lloyd Ruocco and constructed in 1963, the post and beam style building remains highly regarded for its organic design, functionality, and exterior redwood siding that blends with the natural bluffs overlooking the Pacific.
Four Balboa Park groups and projects are being recognized. The San Diego Automotive Museum has received a major facelift with the recreation of four historic murals in tile. The work is thanks to the Committee of One Hundred, whose mission is to preserve and protect the park's Spanish Colonial style architecture. When the Automotive Museum, located on the Palisades Plaza, was constructed for the 1935 California Pacific International Exposition, these four monumental murals hung over the entrance.
Centro Cultural de la Raza, the cultural community center whose mission is to create, promote, preserve, and educate about Chicano, Mexicano, Latino, and Indigenous art and culture is being honored as they mark their 50th anniversary in this location. The center was founded in 1970 in Balboa Park, and today occupies the adaptively reused and rehabilitated water tank with murals on the exterior by nine local artists.
Near the Centro Cultural de la Raza is the vibrant and colorful home of non-profit multi-cultural arts organization called the WorldBeat Cultural Center. Dedicated to promoting, presenting, and preserving Indigenous cultures and that of the African Diaspora, the center has covered this concrete water tank inside and out with cultural murals, and adaptively reused and converted it for programming through music, art, dance, multi-media arts, and education.
The Balboa Park Conservancy organized a collaboration with several key park groups and the city for the restoration of the historic 1935 Alcazar Garden. The program restored the tiled fountains, trees, and landscaping, and added nighttime lighting to the walkways. Damaged areas of the historic California art tiles were also restored, and fresh coats of paint were applied using the historic colors.
Michael Haslett, project lead, and BRE Hotels and Resorts are being recognized for the adaptive reuse and rehabilitation of the single-story brick Laundry Building at the 1888 Hotel del Coronado. Support buildings like the Laundry Building can become neglected over time and previous owners planned to demolish this rare Victorian structure. But in 2019, the current operators had more vision and included it as a part of the Hotel del Coronado's master development plan for the exterior restoration with interior renovations and structural upgrades.
SOHO's People In Preservation Awards will be held on Thursday, May 27 at 4pm as a FREE virtual event. Find the digital awards ceremony HERE.
For more information about SOHO visit SOHOsandiego.org.
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