Preservation Chicago

2022 was a remarkable year. Many long-endangered buildings finally emerged as Preservation "wins" through landmarking, restoration, and adaptive reuse after years (and in some cases decades) of advocacy. Preservation Chicago has been deeply engaged with many of these long-term efforts and our leadership and involvement with these advocacy efforts proved decisive. After so many years of effort, to finally see these buildings in a safe place is both wonderfully exhilarating and provides a profound sense of relief. A few selected highlights include the thompson center to be renovated for google (10 year effort), laramie state bank to be renovated by the city of Chicago (10 year effort), pioneer bank to be renovated by the city of Chicago (8 year effort), pioneer arcade landmarked as part of adaptive reuse (7 year effort), st. boniface church residential conversion under construction (21 year effort), epworth church rescued from demolition (4 year effort), lake street schlitz brewery tied house/la luce rescued demolition (7 year effort), iit main building adaptive reuse approved (8 year effort), greater union baptist church preliminarily landmarked (7 year effort), seth warner house landmarked (4 year effort), emmett till & mamie till-mobley home landmarked and to be restored as museum (7 year effort), clarendon park community center renovation broke ground (8 year effort), Chicago & north western railway headquarters building landmarked and restored (4 year effort), and many more.increased staff capacity has yielded an increase in mission-driven activities. We've been able to advocate for more buildings, raise more funds, speak at more hearings and public meetings, hold more events and educational tours, give more newspaper interviews, write more comprehensive newsletters, and engage more on social media. These activities resulted in more buildings saved, more preservation-oriented decisions, and greater attention to lost buildings with the long-term vision of catalyzing healthy, sustainable, prosperous and equitable Chicago communities.1. Our high-level advocacy reached more decision-makers and yielded more Preservation wins; including new protected landmarks, greater preservation-sensitivity on development projects, and strengthened relationships with stakeholders and decision makers.2. Our expanded staff capacity has allowed us to proactively engage communities of stakeholders in their own neighborhoods to help to create the conditions to promote healthy communities by leveraging historic preservation.3. And our expanded staff capacity has allowed us to rapidly produce high-quality Chicago landmark designation reports to allow for the creation of new designated Chicago landmarks.4. To leverage our impact, we actively nurture informal alliances with advocacy organizations where we share similar or complimentary goals.5. Our newsletter, social media, petitions, and press contacts continue to expand with the primary goal of increasing the visibility of Preservation and widening the base of support for historic Preservation by helping to reinforce ways that Preservation can serve as a powerful tool for creating healthy, sustainable, and equitable neighborhoods.