2019 President's Award for Excellence: Larry Curtis and WInnCompanies

The Boston Preservation Alliance is pleased to honor Larry Curtis and WinnCompanies with our 2019 President’s Award for Excellence. We recognize an individual or organization who has enhanced the success and vibrancy of Boston in ways aligned with the Alliance’s mission. 

The body of work by Larry and demonstrates the multitude of benefits that derive from adaptive reuse. They show how historic preservation and affordable housing can work symbiotically and how historic buildings with new uses energize neighborhoods. Projects in neighborhoods like Dorchester and Jamaica Plain and outside Boston in places like Lowell demonstrate the remarkable and transformational success of Larry’s work. 

Additionally, Larry has been essential to the preservation movement. The Federal Historic Tax Credit, responsible for the rehabilitation of over 44,000 buildings across the country and private investment of $144 billion, has positively impacted communities while generating more than $4.5 billion in net federal tax revenue. Yet Congress eliminated the program early in 2017 Tax Reform negotiations. It was only through a collaborative effort of local organizations like the Alliance, national groups such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Historic Tax Credit Coalition, and committed and vocal leaders like Larry Curtis that this program was returned to Tax Reform Legislation and ultimately saved.

Larry’s work reminds us of the power of preservation and the need to be informed, vocal, and active in extolling the virtues of historic preservation and the programs that make it happen. Without Larry, the work we do across the country would be far more challenged.

Previous President’s Award for Excellence Winners:

2017 — Boston Red Sox

2016 — Shawmut Design/ Construction 

2015 — Jonathan Davis

2014 — Howard Elkus and David Manfredi