It’s tough to compete with a mansion.
A few years ago, a small house on Vinton was nominated for one of the Memphis Landmarks Commission’s annual Preservation Awards. Competing in the same category was the Galloway Mansion, a project on which the owners had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“It’s like comparing apples to oranges,” said Erin Hanafin Berg of the Landmarks Commission. Landmarks solved the problem temporarily by giving both projects awards.
This year the commission has solved the problem by revising its awards to include the Mayor’s This Old House Award for a residential rehabilitation project and the Small House Award for the rehabilitation of a house 2,200 square feet or less.
“We know it takes just as much work to renovate a small house as a large one,” said Berg. “Sometimes it takes more work because you don’t have as much living space while you’re doing it.”
The commission’s annual Special Achievement preservation award will honor rebuilding projects from last year’s July windstorm. “There were one or two areas in Midtown where it just cut a swathe through a historic area,” said Berg. “We thought it would be a nice thing to focus on people who did the right thing and restored [their homes] rather than having them demolished.”
Nominations must be received by July 16th.
