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Tour: Cory United Methodist Church in Cleveland

Webinar: Top Tips for National Register Nominations

Wednesday, March 27th – 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm

What is the National Register of Historic Places? This webinar will cover the basics of what the National Register of Historic Places program is, what being listed in the program does and does not mean, and what benefits may come with a listing. Additionally, this webinar will outline the process of nominating resources to the National Register of Historic Places and provide insight and tips to preparing a nomination.

This webinar is registered for 1.00 LU AIA credit.

About Our Presenter

Photo of Abby MarshallAbby Marshall, Survey and National Register Manager for Inventory and Registration for the State Historic Preservation Office of the Ohio History Connection, holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Geography with a concentration in Travel and Tourism as well as a Master’s of Science degree in Historic Preservation – both from Ball State University. She began working at the Ohio State Historic Preservation Office in 2021 and currently serves on the Heritage Ohio Board as the Young Ohio Preservationist’s chair.

 

Tour: Ford Motor Company Branch Assembly Plant & Kroger Plant in Columbus

Webinar: Redevelopment Funding Opportunities from the Ohio Department of Development

Wednesday, January 31st – 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm

Join us for a conversation about community redevelopment and the funds available through the Ohio Department of Development to assist your projects. Funding opportunities to be discussed include:

Welcome Home Ohio
The Welcome Home Ohio (WHO) program is designed to provide grants for the purchase of qualifying residential properties, the cost of construction or rehabilitation, or a nonrefundable tax credit for qualifying activities.

Brownfield Remediation Program
The Brownfield Remediation Program provides grants for the cleanup of brownfield sites, to assist in the remediation of hazardous substances or petroleum at an industrial, commercial, or institutional property. Remediation includes acquisition of a brownfield, demolition performed at a brownfield, and the installation or upgrade of the minimum amount of infrastructure necessary to make a brownfield site operational for economic development activity.

Building Demolition and Site Revitalization Program
The Building Demolition and Site Revitalization Program is designed to provide grants for the demolition of commercial and residential buildings and revitalization of surrounding properties on sites that are not Brownfields.

Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Grant Program
The Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Grant Program provides grants to improve access to clean drinking water and wastewater infrastructure. Grants of up to $5 million for construction projects are available to Ohio communities. All political subdivisions with the authority to own and operate public water and sewer systems and non-profit, non-community public water systems may submit an application

 

Webinar: Historic Preservation Commissions: The Legal Basics

Wednesday, February 21st – 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm

The strongest defense commissions have against accusations of arbitrary and capricious decisions is to consistently follow established review procedures. Customized for each state, this workshop covers the legal basis for commission operation. This presentation will provide an overview of procedural due process, takings, appeals, property rights, and economic hardship. Participants will examine common preservation legal issues and acquire tools to improve decision-making and build a defensible record.

About our presenter:

Photo of Will CookWill Cook is a nationally recognized lawyer and scholar with a successful record for protecting National Historic Landmarks, significant landscapes, historic viewsheds, and traditional cultural properties. His practice focuses on balancing historic preservation with economic development so that historic preservation law is more efficient, effective, and predictable. Will helps his clients navigate the Section 106 process of the National Historic Preservation Act at the project level with an emphasis on historic viewsheds and landscape protection. He negotiates on behalf of tribes, project proponents, local governments, and other consulting parties to achieve creative, win-win outcomes that appropriately balance preservation values and development needs. Examples of his work include helping to find reasonable limits to unregulated cruise tourism in historic port communities, advising a local government with a National Historic Landmark district on its legal rights in response to proposed offshore utility-scale windfarms, and working with a nationally recognized preservation advocacy group on how to address a proposed seawall that would surround a National Historic Landmark district.

In 2019, Will assisted the Parks & People Foundation in Baltimore with identifying ways to use Section 106 to leverage shoreline restoration of the Middle Branch Harbor and proposed “green” urban park along its 11-mile shoreline. Will’s extensive knowledge of preservation legal tools and land use law allows him to serve as a strategic partner with policymakers, developers, and preservation advocates on best practices to make preservation law more effective and efficient. Examples include assisting the City of Philadelphia and the Town of Palm Beach with identifying strengths and weaknesses in their local preservation laws, suggesting opportunities for improvement based on peer city reviews, and helping educate the public about preservation law’s benefits. Through his work with the National Alliance of Preservation Commission’s Disaster Planning Advisory Committee, Will helps historic communities with adaptation planning and disaster relief, including their response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Will has argued in court and before administrative agencies across the country on behalf of advocates seeking to protect traditional cultural properties: historic places that continue to be used by living communities. His engagements have included arguing on behalf of the National Trust for Historic Preservation before the New Mexico Supreme Court, which affirmed unanimously Mount Taylor’s designation in New Mexico’s State Register of Cultural Properties.

Will earned his Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina School of Law, and is a graduate of Furman University, where he received a B.A. in political science. Prior to joining Cultural Heritage Partners, Will served for eight years as associate general counsel for the National Trust for Historic Preservation and teaches preservation law at Columbia University.

 

Heritage Ohio issues RFP for Franklinton (Columbus) religious resources history & architecture survey

Heritage Ohio is pleased to announce a Request For Proposals to complete a history & architecture survey in the Franklinton neighborhood of Columbus. You can learn more and access the RFP here. Proposals are due no later than January 19, 2024.

Webinar: Historic Properties and Affordable Housing in Ohio’s Appalachia Region

Wednesday, January 17th – 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm

Most small towns in rural Ohio are blighted by older homes in varying states of dilapidation. Many of these homes are no longer occupied or even occupiable. Often these houses, while perhaps lacking in historical significance, nonetheless are representative of their communities’ cultural heritage. Thus, their loss, in addition to being a significant economic negative and a loss of affordable housing stock, also constitutes an erosion of architectural distinctness and community identify. But unlike historic properties, for which numerous programs exist to encourage and support their preservation, such “heritage housing” has received little comparable attention. This phenomenon presents an opportunity in which the rehabilitation of older housing stock can improve affordable first-time home ownership while generating employment, income, and wealth, and preserving community identity.

Mr. Lane will discuss his research at the Ohio University Voinovich School of leadership and Public Service which examined the opportunity to enhance Athens County’s supply of more affordable housing through the rehabilitation of older single-family houses – “heritage houses” – that have fallen into disrepair and are uninhabited. In this study, the term “attainable heritage housing” was coined to describe existing older home in need of repair, that are priced below conventional definitions of affordability and which – while typically lacking in historical significance, are nonetheless distinctly representative of their communities’ pasts. The study found that a program of targeted older house rehabilitation could produce significant short- and long-term positive economic impacts for current and prospective residents, while enhancing a community’s position to leverage aesthetic heritage distinctiveness to capitalize on emergent economic opportunities.

This webinar has been approved for 1.00 AIA HSW credit.

About our presenter:

Photo of Brent Lane

Brent Lane is a Senior Executive in Residence at the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Service at Ohio University, which he joined in 2020. In his career he has been an early-stage venture capitalist, developed and run business incubators, led state-level economic development programs teams, and directed a university applied economic strategies center. At the Voinovich School he designs and leads in analyses of novel economic and community development opportunities in Appalachian Ohio, especially those capitalizing on the region’s distinctive cultural and natural heritage assets. Brent has earned masters’ degrees in science and technology policy from the George Washington University and in business administration from the University of North Carolina.

 

Financial Tools & Incentives for Downtown Revitalization Workshop

Webinar: Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS)

Wednesday, November 15th – 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm

Catherine Lavoie, Chief of the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) of the National Park Service (NPS), will talk about the program, how and why it was started, its mission, and its value, with a look at early HABS work in Ohio. HABS was established in 1933 as a unique public-private partnership between NPS, the Library of Congress (LoC), and the American Institute of Architects (AIA) aimed at creating an archive of America’s architectural heritage, then perceived to be rapidly vanishing. Under NPS management, AIA “district officers” in various states across the nation heeded the call to action, selecting and recording sites they deemed worthy of recognition, through measured drawings, historical reports, and photographs. The documentation was housed at the Library of Congress and made available to the general public. While times have changed, HABS still records historic architecture, as well as engineering sites and landscapes, while field testing new technologies to determine best practices and training the next generation of preservationists through its summer student recording program. The collection now spans about 45,000 sites and can be viewed online through the LoC website.

About our presenter:

Catherine Lavoie has a master’s degree in American Studies from the University of Maryland with an emphasis in historic preservation and material culture. She worked briefly in state and local preservation before coming to HABS as a historian intern, rising to senior historian, and finally chief in 2008. Catherine is active in the Vernacular Architecture Forum, mostly recently serving as 2nd Vice President and was awarded VAF’s Buchanan Award for excellence in fieldwork and public service (2002) for her HABS study of the Quaker Meeting Houses of the Delaware Valley. Most recently, she co-authored Buildings of Maryland, the latest in the Society of Architectural Historians Buildings of the United States series.

 

Webinar: Restoration Housing

Wednesday, July 19th – 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm

Throughout the US, affordable housing is reaching crisis levels for many Americans. Yet vacant homes often sit for years without intervention and many are demolished to be redeveloped without a plan for their immediate redevelopment. What can be done about these issues?

Founded in 2014, Restoration Housing is a community-based, nonprofit developer focusing on the historic preservation of neglected architectural resources for the social benefit of low-income communities. At the core of everything Restoration Housing does is the belief that all people, regardless of circumstance, deserve to live in strong, healthy communities and dignified housing – the catalyst being the reinvestment in our historic built environment.

About our presenter:

Isabel Thornton is the Executive Director of Restoration Housing, which she founded in 2014 out of a passion for historic preservation and affordable housing. She received a BA in Architectural History from the University of Virginia and an MHP and MPL in Historic Preservation and Urban Planning from the University of Southern California.

She serves on the Real Estate Development Committee for Community Housing Partners and the Blue Ridge Interagency Council on Homelessness. She is also a board member for Carilion Medical Center.

Isabel lives on a farm in Botetourt County with her husband and four children.

 

 

Heritage Ohio’s 2023 Preservation Month Photo Contest: And the winner is…..

The votes have been tallied and it’s time to announce this year’s winner. Congratulations go out to Brian Hiles for his photo of Elder High School in Cincinnati!

Photo of Elder High School

Be sure to catch the winning image on a future issue of Revitalize Ohio. Thank you to everyone who entered the contest and who voted for their favorite image.

Heritage Ohio’s 2023 Preservation Month Photo Contest | The Story of Historic Preservation

Help us celebrate Preservation Month this May by participating in our annual Preservation Month Photo Contest. This year’s theme is “The Story of Historic Preservation” and we’ll be looking for your great images that capture what YOU think celebrates historic preservation. In tandem with your image, we want to hear the great story that goes with it. Whether it’s a story of a formerly endangered building that has been saved, a story of the people who built it, or a story of the people today who love it, we want to know why your subject material is important.

Once you get that perfect image and write the story behind it, submit your entry using our online submission form below (available beginning April 14). Our Preservation Committee and Board of Trustees will choose finalists from all of the entries we receive, and then we’ll open the contest to online voting. As in years past, your online votes will determine the winner! The winning image will be featured on the cover of a future issue of Revitalize Ohio. Good luck!

Dates to remember

Entries accepted: Friday, April 14-Friday, May 12

Online voting of finalists: Friday, May 19-Thursday, May 25

Winner announced: Friday, May 26

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