Last week Professor Bob Swenson of the SIUC School of Architecture returned to his office to find a most welcome bit of news: SIUC’s Preservation Summer Program had been selected to receive the 2010 Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Preservation Award for Education from Landmarks Illinois. The program was also selected as Project of the Year.
Preservation Summer is an upper-level historic preservation field study though which architecture and history students work on interdisciplinary projects in Southern Illinois, conducting research and carrying out preservation work.
Congratulations go out to Prof. Swenson and Dr. Rachel Malcolm-Ensor, of the History Department, who worked extremely hard to bring the program to fruition and continue it each year. We are proud to say we were part of the project! Adventures in Preservation partnered with Preservation Summer for several years, collaborating on the hands-on preservation portion of the course.
In 2007 the project site was Jonesboro, Illinois. History students conducted oral history interviews and architecture students repaired the porch of the Queen Anne-style Kornthal Parsonage. In 2008 and 2009, the focus was on shotgun-style houses in the Cairo, Illinois National Historic District. The first year was devoted to survey and planning. The second year, students, working with AiP volunteers, accomplished a significant amount of restoration work at 2910 Sycamore Street.
The award will be presented at the 2010 awards ceremony on Saturday, October 23, at The Chicago Club. The ceremony is the concluding event of the Traditional Building Conference being held October 20-23 at Chicago’s Navy Pier.