Each year, the National Trust for Historic Preservation gathers experts in the field at its PastForward conference.  Excellence in this work is recognized with the annual Richard H. Driehaus Foundation National Preservation Awards, which celebrate the highest level of preservation work throughout the United States.  Richard Driehaus deeply respects this work, and has provided unwavering support, recognizing that preserving historic places enhances our lives and environments, and respects our cultural heritage. 

Over three decades and $3M of support, these awards honor outstanding preservation projects, and highlight their important investment in places as well as people.  In October, this year’s PastForward conference was held in Denver, CO and recognized projects providing wide-ranging impact.  Recipients included the Longfellow Bridge in Boston, a multi-modal bridge improving the commute for over 100,000 travelers; Frank Lloyd Wright’s Unity Temple in Oak Park, IL, a recently-named UNESCO World Heritage site; and South Street Landing, a long-abandoned power plant in Providence, RI, now serving as shared-space for three local universities.

The red carpet rolled out before the Hyatt Regency ballroom last month filled with some of the world's top podcasting talent as the Third Coast International Audio Festival celebrated its 2019 Third Coast/Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition awards.

Called “the Oscars of Radio,” the annual awards ceremony recognizes the best non-fiction audio stories on radio, podcasts, and the internet.

Sayre Quevedo took home this year’s gold award for “The Return” from NPR’s Latino USA. The audio documentary tells the story of poet Javier Zamora, who returns to his grandparents’ home in El Salvador to find the reality at odds with his childhood recollections. 

“This is Not a Drill,” a story of the false missile alert that threw Hawaii into emotional turmoil last year, took the silver, and “A Sense of Quietness,” a UK entry that explored the unexpected consequences of talking about abortion, was awarded the bronze.

The Driehaus Foundation has supported the competition since 2000.

Winners by category:

Best Documentary: Gold — “The Return” by Sayre Quevedo 

Best Documentary: Silver — “This Is Not A Drill” by Jazmín Aguilera, Anna Sussman, John Fecile, Erika Lantz, Eliza Smith and Nancy López 

Best Documentary: Bronze — “A Sense of Quietness” by Eleanor McDowall 

Best Documentary: Honorable Mention — “ROW-cub” by Neena Pathak 

Best Documentary: Foreign Language — “Price of Secrecy: Hazineh Razdari” by Zoha Zokaei 

Best New Artist — “Mardi Gras is a State of Mind” by Mara Lazer 

Best News Feature — “Death in Illinois Prisons: He Didn't Have a Death Sentence, But That's What He Got” by Shannon Heffernan 

Best Serialized Story — “In the Dark: Season Two” by Madeleine Baran, Samara Freemark, Natalie Jablonski, Rehman Tungekar, Parker Yesko, Will Craft and Catherine Winter 

Skylarking — “Punks” by Kathy Tu, Tobin Low and Matt Collette 

Radio Impact — “Change Intolerance” by Garth Mullins, Sam Fenn, Lisa Hale, Alexander B. Kim and Ryan McNeil 

Director's Choice — “No Feeling Is Final” by Honor Eastly, Joel Werner, Alice Moldovan, Graham Panther, Russell Stapleton and Kellie Riordan 

On October 23, over 200 people gathered at the Murphy Auditorium in Chicago to attend the Driehaus Foundation’s 2019 Built Environment Symposium entitled Classical & Modern: The Power of Architectural Vocabulary on Behavior. By comparing the Parthenon in Athens, Greece, and the S.R. Crown Hall in Chicago, Illinois, the symposium expanded on the ideas and themes of these structures through the lens of architectural vocabulary and cognitive science, providing insight into how architectural design influences behavior. The symposium can be viewed via YouTube here. 

The subject of the Foundation’s free annual capacity-building initiative in 2020 for MacArthur-Driehaus grantees will be individual donor fundraising. (Due to demand, this is the same subject as in 2019. Groups that applied but were not accepted in 2019 will receive priority consideration for the 2020 series.) Up to 30 organizations will have the opportunity to participate in two half-day workshops on Saturday, April 18 and Saturday, May 16, as well as two additional 1.5-hour, one-on-one coaching sessions. Participating grantees must attend both workshops; the subsequent coaching sessions are optional. The Driehaus Foundation will provide additional information about the initiative next month.

The City of Chicago announced recently that 2020 will be the “Year of Chicago Music.” This special initiative—organized by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) in partnership with dozens of local venues and creative endeavors—will feature programming and events all over Chicago that honor the city’s great music legacy and leverage existing or newly imagined citywide events to celebrate Chicago’s music landscape. It also includes a focus on sector building through research, marketing, ticketing, audience development, and infrastructure. For additional information and to find out how to get involved, contact Maggie Cullerton Hooper, DCASE Deputy Commissioner—Partnerships, at margaret.hooper@cityofchicago.org or 312-744-0567.

PHOTO CREDITS: 

Richard H. Driehaus Foundation National Preservation Awards: Matthew Gilson 

Third Coast/Driehaus Foundation Awards: Bill Healy

Driehaus Foundation 2019 Built Environment Symposium: Robin Subar Photography