Preservation Austin Celebrates 2025 Preservation Merit Award Winners
Graphic: French Fox Design
Preservation Austin is delighted to recognize the ambitious, innovative, and community-minded winners of our 65th Annual Preservation Merit Awards. Our ten winners for 2025 represent the wide-ranging efforts to build community and enhance historic spaces across Austin.
Established in 1960, this juried program celebrates the hard work and visionary approaches of those preserving Austin’s heritage. “We’re thrilled to celebrate this year’s Preservation Merit Award winners and to share their stories with our community,” says Lindsey Derrington, Preservation Austin’s Executive Director. “This is hard, often thankless work, and their contributions to preserving Austin’s heritage are creative and inspiring”
This year’s Awards Ceremony honors a wide breadth of preservation projects: from the restoration and thoughtful expansion of local residences, to the rehabilitation of well-known city-owned landmarks. Our 2025 Stewardship and Special Recognition Awards celebrate the inspiring Austinites who have worked tirelessly to uplift (sometimes literally) their community’s heritage, including Kathy Robinson, Alta and Lamont Alexander, and the many participants in the Haskell House and the Story of Clarksville documentary and the Equity-Based Preservation Plan.
Preservation Austin brings together professionals from the preservation, design, and nonprofit worlds to serve on its jury each year and to select exemplary projects with community impact.
The 2025 Preservation Merits Awards Jury included:
Awais Azhar, Executive Director, HousingWorks Austin
David Carroll, Partner | Director of Multifamily, Urban Foundry Architecture
Alan Garcia, Program Specialist, Cemetery Preservation Program, Texas Historical Commission
Mark Rogers, Executive Director, Guadalupe Neighborhood Development Corporation
Ashley Salie, Program Coordinator, Texas Preservation Trust Fund Grant Program and Easement Program, Texas Historical Commission
Recipients will be honored at our Preservation Merit Awards Celebration at Stubb’s Bar-B-Q on Tuesday, November 18 from 6 pm to 9 pm. This annual celebration is the only one of its kind to honor the everyday Austinites working hard to preserve Austin’s heritage in diverse, exciting, and unexpected ways.
Ticket sales and sponsorship opportunities are available now at the link below. Individual tickets are $100 for Preservation Austin members and $125 for non-members. All proceeds from the event help sustain our nonprofit’s advocacy and educational programming year-round.
2025 Preservation Merit Award Winners
PRESERVATION AWARDS
Buford Tower & Kitchens Memorial Chimes
Recipient: Austin Parks and Recreation Department
Preservation Award for Rehabilitation
Photo: Austin Parks and Recreation Department
East 9th Street
Recipient: David West & Will Klemm
Preservation Award for Restoration
Photo: David West
Henry G. Madison Cabin
Recipient: Parks and Recreation Department in partnership with Austin Parks Foundation
Preservation Award for Restoration
Photo: Carter Design Associates
San Gabriel Residence
Preservation Award for Restoration
Photo: Likeness Studio
Second Century House
Recipient: Susan and Mitch Oringer
Preservation Award for Infill or Addition
Photo: Casey Dunn
Tisdale Residence
Recipient: Chanel & Eric Tarlo
Preservation Award for Rehabilitation
Photo: Casey Dunn
STEWARDSHIP AWARD
Dr. Sidney, Jr. & Helen F. White House
Recipient: Alta and Lamont Alexander
Stewardship Award
Photo: Mikala Compton / Austin American-Statesman
SPECIAL RECOGNITION AWARDS
Equity-Based Preservation Plan
Recipient: City of Austin Historic Preservation Office
Special Recognition Award for Media and Scholarship
Photo: City of Austin
“Haskell House and the Story of Clarksville” Documentary
Recipient: Parks and Recreation Department
Special Recognition Award for Education
Photo: Parks and Recreation Department
Kathy Robinson, The ReUse People of Austin
Special Recognition Award for Public Service
Photo: Deconstruct Austin