Historic Ithaca celebrates projects: What to know about ceremony

An Ithaca-based nonprofit, Historic Ithaca, presented awards Thursday at Argos Warehouse to a range of projects completed throughout Tompkins County this year and to a former executive director, Alphonse Pieper, for his many years of working to preserve the area's history.

This year’s winners include a barn in Trumansburg, Founders Way (a project of Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services), a 10-bedroom, five-bathroom cooperative house in Ithaca, and a range of other projects completed throughout the county this year that the organization wanted to recognize for excellence in exterior rehabilitation or adaptive reuse.

“We are delighted to recognize projects in our community for the design, craftsmanship, artistry and other trade skills that are applied to restoring and renewing our architectural heritage,” said Historic Ithaca Executive Director Susan Holland.

The Thursday award ceremony is typically open to the public, but this year the event “sold out via our invitations sent to funders, donors … and volunteers before we had a chance to open to the public,” Historic Ithaca Marketing Coordinator Bethany Parisi said.

According to the organization, nominations are reviewed by a panel of preservation professionals and awards are made based on the importance of the project to the long-term preservation of the building, adherence to basic preservation principles as outlined in the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation and the impact, or potential impact, of the project on the surrounding community.

Historic Ithaca gave awards to the following individuals and organizations Thursday: Tompkins County Historian Carol Kammen; Ulysses Historian John Wertis; John Wallace and Diane Lebo Wallace of Ithaca; Ivana Isailovic, also of Ithaca; Peter Cooke, Karen M. Laun and Chris Wolff, all of Trumansburg; Ben White of Areti Construction; Emily Petrina of Firehouse Architecture; Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services; and Rosetree Properties.

Pieper's legacy

Pieper has certainly had an impact on his surrounding community, having refocused the organization during his time as executive director, a position he left in 2015 after seven years.

“Alphonse has led the organization through a period of transition, and Historic Ithaca is better for his steady management,” Julee Johnson, president of Historic Ithaca's board of directors, said in a statement soon after Pieper announced that he was stepping down from the position in 2015. “We're in a strong position as we plan a yearlong series of events to celebrate our 50th anniversary in 2016, thanks to Alphonse's hard work, many talents and vision.”

Pieper also spearheaded Historic Ithaca’s Work Preserve program in 2010, which offers comprehensive training on a range of topics including basic life skills, retail training, and an introduction to the trades.

Ciaschi award

The organization expects the program to reach active 200 participants as it continues into 2024. For this work, historic Ithaca is presenting Pieper the Joseph O. Ciaschi Award, named in honor of the lifelong Ithacan and visionary.

“Joseph O. Ciaschi … cared deeply about the City,” Parisi said. “He devoted nearly 50 years of his career to historic preservation projects that saved threatened and underappreciated local, state and national landmarks by transforming them into places of commerce and enjoyment when others could not see it.”

Ciaschi died in 2011, but Historic Ithaca established the Joseph O. Ciaschi Preservation Excellence Award the following year, “to be given to individuals like Pieper whose life’s work honors Mr. Ciaschi’s passion for preservation,” Parisi said.

This article originally appeared on Ithaca Journal: Historic Ithaca celebrates projects, former executive director