SESAH BEST OF THE SOUTH (BOTS): PAST AWARDEES

Established in 2006, SESAH’s annual Best of the South: Preserving Southern Architecture Award honors a project that preserves, restores, or educates the public about a historic building, or complex of buildings, in an outstanding manner and that demonstrates excellence in research, technique, and documentation.

2022: The Marine Residences, Memphis, Tennessee, 2019-20
Original construction: 1880s and 1930s
Owner: Lauren Crews
Project Manager: Kyle D. Archer (LRK)
Architect: LRK (Looney Ricks Kiss, Memphis, TN)
General Contractor: Montgomery Martin Contractors (Jeff Emmerson)

2021: Yaryan-Phoenix Naval Stores Paymaster Office in the Turkey Creek Community of Gulfport, Mississippi, 2020-21
Original construction: ca. 1920
Owner: Derrick C. Evans, founder, Turkey Creek Community Initiatives
Project Manager: Judy Steckler, Land Trust for the Mississippi Coastal Plain
Architect: unabridged Architecture (Allison Anderson and John Anderson)
General Contractor: Rip Daniels

2020: Lyon Farmhouse, Stonecrest, Georgia, 2019
Original construction: 1820s, 1853, 1892
Rehabilitation and interpretation: Arabia Mountain Heritage Area Alliance, DeKalb County Department of Watershed Management, Flat Rock Archives
Structural Engineer: Stability Engineering
General Contractor: F. H. Paschen

2019: Crosstown Concourse in Memphis, Tennessee, 2011-17
Original construction:  Sears distribution center, 1927-67
Owner: Crosstown LLC
Architect: Looney Ricks Kiss in association with DIALOG and Spatial Affairs Bureau
Interior Designer: Looney Ricks Kiss in association with DIALOG
Structural Engineer: Structural Design Group
MEPF Engineer: OGCB, Inc.
Civil Engineer: SR Consulting Engineers
General Contractor: Grinder, Taber & Grinder, Inc. 

2018: Miller Theater, Augusta, Georgia, 2016-17
Original construction:  1938-40 (Roy Benjamin, architect)
Owner: Symphony Orchestra of Augusta
Architects: Lord Aeck Sargent and 2KM Architects, Inc.
Construction manager: The Christman Company
Structural engineer: JLA
Mechanical engineer:  Pruett Ford & Associates
Electrical engineer: EDC
Civil engineer:  Cranston Engineering Group
Acoustic engineer:  Kirkegaard Associates
Theater consultant:  Theatre Consultants Collaborative
Other partners:  Historic Augusta; Brian Wishneff & Associates

2017: Piedmont Flour Mill, Lynchburg, Virginia, 2015-17
Original construction: 1870s
Owner: NRM, Associates (Andrew Namrow)
Architect: Todd Dykshorn, Richmond, Virginia
General Contractor: QHCI
Project Manager: Mitch Namrow

2016: Johnny Cash Boyhood Home Restoration, Dyess, Arkansas, 2011-14
Original construction: 1934
Owner: Arkansas State University
Organization:  Heritage Sites Program, Arkansas State University
Special Commendation: Ponce City Market in Atlanta, Georgia, 2014
           Original construction:  Sears, Roebuck & Company, 1926-66
           Owner:  Jamestown Properties
           Architect: Surber Barber Choat & Hertlein Architects PC
           Preservation consultant:  Ray, Ellis & LaBrie

2015: Tallahatchie County Courthouse Restoration, Sumner, Mississippi, 2010-14
Original construction:  1910
Client: Tallahatchie County Board of Supervisors
Architect:  Belinda Stewart Architects

2014: Charnley-Norwood House, Ocean Springs, Mississippi, 2011-13
Original construction: 1890, 1897 (Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, architects)Client: Mississippi Department of Marine Resources and Mississippi Department of Archives and History
Architect:  Albert and Robinson

2013: Randolph Hall, Towell Library, Porter’s Lodge, College of Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina,  2006-11
Original construction:  Randolph Hall, 1828-9 (William Strickland, architect) and 1854 (Edward Brickell White); Towell Library, 1854-6 (George E. Walker); Porter’s Lodge, 1852 (Edward Brickell White)
Architect:  Dan Beaman and Jerry English from Cummings and McCrady, Inc. 

2012: Mission Concepcion, San Antonio, Texas
Original construction:  1755
Architect:  Ford, Powell and Carson

2011: Texas Historic Courthouse Preservation Program, Texas Historical Commission, Austin, Texas, 1999-present

2010: E. 6th Street USO Club, Hattiesburg, Mississippi, 2009
Original construction:  1942
Owner:  African American Military History Museum
Architect: Albert and Robinson

2009: Beauvoir, Jefferson Davis Home and Presidential Library, Biloxi, Mississippi, 2005-8
Original construction: 1848-52
Client:  Mississippi Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) and State of Mississippi
Architect: Albert and Robinson

2008: Hampton Heights neighborhood (Carlisle Street) revitalization, Spartanburg, South Carolina, 2008
Original construction: 1890s, 1930s
Organization:  The Preservation Trust of Spartanburg

2007: Walker Hall, South Carolina School for the Deaf and the Blind, Spartanburg, South Carolina, 2004
Original construction: 1859 (Edward C. Jones, architect); 1884 (Samuel Sloan); 1921, Edwards & Sayward)
Architect:  McMillan Smith & Partners Architects

2006: Roundhouse Railroad Museum Complex, Savannah, Georgia
Original construction:  1850s (Augustus Schwaab, architect)
Organization:  The Coastal Heritage Society, Savannah, Georgia
Honorable Mention: Lovely Lane United Methodist Church, Baltimore
          Original construction:  1885 (Stanford White, architect)
          Architect:  Kann and Associates
Honorable Mention: The Prizery, South Boston, Virginia
          Original construction:  1890s (tobacco processing plant)
          Architect: Hanbury Evans Wright Vlattas & Company
Special Award
          Jennifer Baughn (Mississippi Department of Archives and History)
          For her work along the Gulf coast after Hurricane Katrina’s destruction (August 2005)