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Thursday, August 11, 2005

HUD Wins ACHP Chairman's Award for Federal Achievement in Historic Preservation

Holsten Corporation, Chicago Housing Authority, Illinois Historic Preservation Agency Among Partners Honored for Effort to Preserve Raymond M. Hilliard Center Historic District

Aug. 5, 2005, Evanston, IL—The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) received the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation's (ACHP) Chairman's Award for Federal Achievement in Historic Preservation for its successful and innovative efforts to preserve, renovate, and appropriately use Chicago's Raymond M. Hilliard Center Historic District complex.

"The private-public partnership created to preserve, update, and appropriately use the Raymond M. Hilliard Center complex exemplifies the concept of preservation with a purpose," said John L. Nau, III, chairman of the ACHP.

"Renovation and use of this historically and architecturally significant site is a key effort in revitalizing Chicago's unique urban core, and it is also important because it saves for present and future generations an important example of the work of internationally renowned Chicago architect Bertrand Goldberg."

Hilliard Center Complex, Chicago, Illinois. Left: Renovated seniors building; right: family housing. (Photo courtesy of Holsten Real Estate Development Corporation)

The award was presented to HUD during the ACHP's summer business meeting. Other groups, which received ACHP partnership certificates for working with HUD to preserve the historic complex, were the Holsten Real Estate Development Corporation, the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA), the Illinois State Historic Preservation Officer, and local offices of HUD.

CHA, with financial assistance from HUD, developed the Hilliard Center in the early to mid-1960s. By the mid-1990s, however, the complex had badly deteriorated and the structures were only partially occupied. Responding to the need to save this architecturally and historically significant landmark, CHA designated the Hilliard Center to be the first redevelopment project completed under its massive transformation plan.

Although CHA is demolishing most of its public housing high rises, the agency is preserving and rehabilitating one of the few architecturally notable sites among them--the Hilliard Center complex, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places--by transferring it to a developer with covenants that ensure historically accurate rehabilitation.

The ACHP, an independent federal agency, promotes the preservation, enhancement, and productive use of the nation's historic resources and advises the President and Congress on national historic preservation policy. It also provides a forum for influencing federal activities, programs, and policies that impact historic properties. In addition, the ACHP has a key role in carrying out the administration's Preserve America program.

Learn more about the ACHP