Awards given at 42nd annual preservation meeting
There were many new faces at the annual Riverside Avondale Preservation meeting held Feb. 16 at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, among them a new board chair, new executive director and new Riverside Arts Market team.
Keith Holt, who took over as chair of the RAP Board of Directors last year, will continue for a second year as board chair. He spoke about RAP’s many accomplishments in 2016, some of which were projects that had been started within the past several years, such as the opening of the John Gorrie Dog Park at Riverside Park and the Riverside Avondale Community Garden on Park Street near the Willowbranch Library.
Two new programs started in 2016 were First Fridays, an opportunity each month for a small business to host a cocktail hour for residents and other business owners, and the Centennial Heritage Program, which recognizes 100-year-old buildings in the historic district.
For his role in the Centennial Heritage program, Andy Goshen was presented with the Neighborhood Advocate award. He was also instrumental in getting ATT to revise their standard approach to infrastructure boxes in the historic district.
It was new executive director Adrienne Burke’s first annual meeting, at which she introduced John Silveira, the new Riverside Arts Market senior manager, and Liz Grebe, market manager.
A panel of five credentialed professionals served as judges for seven of the 10 awards. The judges included Marty Hylton, director of the University of Florida Historic Preservation Program; Steve Lazar, president of VRL Architects; Jose Miranda, principal architect with Miranda Associates; Erin Minnigan, a St. Augustine’s Historic Preservation and Community Development Planner, and Jenny Wolfe, Historic Preservation Officer for the City of St. Augustine.
The judges voted to honor the Willowbranch Library and Friends of the Willowbranch Library with Outstanding Site Improvement; the Friends of Boone Park South for Outstanding Placemaking; architect Bill Leuthold for New Residential Construction (3900 Richmond St.), and also Neighborhood Architect; architect Jeff Lane for New Commercial Construction (South Kitchen & Spirits); Donny Mak for Residential Rehabilitation (1822 Mallory St.), and, for Commercial Rehabilitation, Robert Freeman Lee, owner of the property at 3540 St. Johns Avenue which was converted from a nail salon to Le Macaron, a French bakery.
Other awards were presented to Nancy Powell, for Outstanding Board Member for her work as head of the Zoning Committee, and to Daniel Miller and Brightway Insurance as Neighborhood Friendly Business.
The final order of business for the membership was a vote on board members, including new treasurer Carolyn McGovern, and new members Lawson Carr, Janice Young, Joi Perkins and Mark Moss.
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