 Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage Commissioner in the Department of Planning and Development for the City of Chicago, David Reethman. Well, good evening everybody. Thank you for having me this evening. As I was just introduced, I am the Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Planning and Development. And it's my pleasure, on behalf of Mayor Manuel, to welcome everyone to Chicago for the Past Forward Conference and tonight's opening plenary here at the Historic Auditorium Theater, one of our best-known landmarks from Adler and Sullivan. We're thrilled you're here to discuss the important preservation issues that shape our collective legacy as a country and as a people. And I want to wish you well on a very productive three days. You're in Chicago at a great time. We're on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the city's landmarks ordinance, which has helped preserve approximately 5,000 buildings since its inception as the city's primary preservation tool. It's also been 25 years since my department started serving as staff to the Commission on Chicago Landmarks, which is responsible for making landmark recommendations to our City Council, for monitoring changes to buildings that are protected under the ordinance, for enabling incentives for eligible preservation projects, and for reviewing national register nominations within the city limits. As a member of the Landmarks Commission and as the Planning Commissioner, I know that preservation is as much about the future as it is about the past. And Chicago is an ideal location to see how we embrace the past forward concept where people live, work, and raise families. Every landmark designation we do has a planning component, and virtually every planning project we do has a preservation component regardless of the location or the neighborhood. The key for us has been balance, not only in terms of costs and benefits, but also our neighborhoods. More than ever, our planning and preservation initiatives are a citywide proposition. From our new citywide Adopt-a-Landmark incentives to the financial tools we're using to revitalize our historic retail corridors in the south and west sides. One of the poster children for our preservation initiatives is the Fulton Randolph Market District just west of downtown. The area's landmark designation two years ago was a critical, if not controversial component of its successful transition from industrial to mixed use. And despite the concerns we heard about property value, we've seen record sales prices on precedented rehabilitation projects and enthusiastic compliance with our designation guidelines that preserve and balance growth. Another area is our Michigan Boulevard Historic District, which includes the landmark theater we sit in tonight, as well as the 1971 Johnson Publishing Building that we were proposed for landmark status this year. Our updated design guidelines for the district preserve the historic street along Grand Park, while also balancing the impact of high-rise construction that is moving forward along its lanes. There is also the North Branch Industrial Corridor, where we just completed a year-long planning process that will transition the area from manufacturing to mixed use over the next 20 years. Our plan specifically identifies 40 character buildings that we believe are essential to the growth of this area as a vibrant urban waterfront. We're also working in the Pilsen and Little Village neighborhoods where new preservation strategies will protect the area's unique layering of European and Mexican design and art, while also preserving affordability for the people that have lived there for generations. Many of you will see these areas firsthand during the conference, as well as others, like the newly designated Pullman National Monument, which is revitalizing one of America's most intact historic planned neighborhoods in America, and the historic Lathrop Homes on the northwest side, where preservation is a key component of our public housing strategy. Then there's the individual preservation projects that are serving as community anchors for generations of Chicagoans to come, such as the Southside Community Arts Center in Bronzeville, which the trust recognized as a national treasure earlier this month, our Quincy Street Elevated Station, which we just landmarked as the oldest rapid transit station in the loop, and the recently landmarked and reopened Rosenwald Apartments, where thousands of southern blacks found safe and affordable homes during the Great Migration. We are thrilled to support these projects and to help Chicago maintain a historic role as an epicenter for design, social progress, and neighborhood character. And I encourage you all to explore the city with whatever time you may have available during your stay. Before I close, I'd be remiss not to mention the recent House bill that would eliminate the historic tax credit incentive for eligible restoration projects. I cannot emphasize enough how important this incentive is to our historic buildings and to our ability to leverage preservation as a community improvement tool. Historic tax credits have helped approximately 90 projects with more than $2.4 billion on qualified rehabilitation expenditures in Chicago in the last 10 years. They were directly responsible for nearly 40,000 temporary jobs and an estimated $75 million in local taxes every year. Nearly 40 projects currently are underway in Chicago, many of which were included in the loop for this conference, your tour for this conference. We're working on restorations of the city's old main post office, which is a key to our ongoing West Loop growth, the Congress Theater, which is the largest auditorium on Milwaukee Avenue, multiple adaptive reuse projects involving older office and industrial buildings, and several housing projects that are keeping our neighborhoods affordable. We are working and will continue to work with our DC office to express our vehement opposition to the bill and to underscore the important role these credits play for Chicago and other cities and towns across the state. We're looking forward to working with other municipalities on these and other issues that impact our ability to foster preservation projects and that create the foundations for future growth. Again, I'm sorry the mayor could not be here tonight, but on the mayor's behalf, again, I want to welcome you. Wish you a very productive, fast-forward conference. It's an exciting agenda tonight with very insightful speakers. And I'd like to now introduce Bonnie McDonald, the president and CEO of Landmarks Illinois. Thank you for your time. Thank you, commissioner. Good afternoon. And on behalf of our preservation community, welcome to Chicago and to the state of Illinois. My name is Bonnie McDonald, and I am the president of the statewide nonprofit organization Landmarks Illinois. We have been helping people save places that matter to them since 1971. Actress Sarah Bernhardt said of Chicago that it is the pulse of America. Our places are your places. Behind our impressive skyline, we wrestle with gentrification, economic inequality, structural racism, depopulation, and Chicago's infamous politics. But there are many places that demonstrate hope for our city with equitable development, urban activations, dreamers remaking abandoned places, and people out to prove that our very health and well-being is tied to place. We may be people saving places, but as one new preservationist on Chicago's south side said to me recently, places are saving people in our city. Landmarks Illinois is proud to be the presenting partner of Pass Forward and to join with the National Trust. Our sponsorship is possible thanks to Chicago's dedicated group of foundation, individual, and corporate donors that supports our robust preservation community year round. We express our gratitude to the many representatives of these partners that are in the room with us now. Now chief amongst these supporters is the Elfwood Foundation, which has provided funding to provoke conversations about our responsibility toward projects that promote inclusion, equity, and social and economic justice. Together, we can explore how our people and place-based actions improve public health and reduce the violence that is the focus of national media attention about this city in particular. Convening these courageous conversations and thousands of preservationists is a monumental effort. Dozens of trust staff members, its board of directors, advisors, and partners come together to generate dynamic content and platforms for dialogue at this conference. Would you join me in thanking Stephanie Meeks and her entire team for their effort? Now equal gratitude is given to the Landmarks Illinois Board of Directors for their support of this partnership as well. Here tonight are Chairman Mark Heading, Vice Chairman Sandra Rand, the Chair of the National Trust Advisors and the Landmarks Illinois Board Member Jean Follett, our Chairman Emeritus Will Tippens, and several other board members with us tonight. Let me also recognize my team of smart, engaged, and amazing professionals for their efforts to help us implement our role in past forward. Maria Rich, Suzanne German, Lisa DeKira, Frank Butterfield, Tiffany Williams, Amy Eggy, Caitlin McEvoy, and Emily Stennett. Thank you very much. Now I'll conclude tonight with a short tribute to our city's most notable preservationist, Richard Nicolle, who lost his life in 1972 while salvaging another building built by this theater's architects, Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler. In truly memorable fashion, Nicolle summed up our ongoing challenges. Quote, great architecture has only two natural enemies, water and stupid men. End quote. None of you are in the room, of course. So let's work together now to innovate our strategies and ensure our cause is relevant in the America to come. Now it is my privilege to also introduce tonight the First Lady of Illinois, Diana Rauner, who has been an advocate for investing in our state's heritage since she took office in January of 2015. The First Lady brings her experience in business and nonprofit management to her role as a champion for our state's 56 historic sites as well as other state-owned historic resources. Her lead project is the revitalization of the executive mansion in Springfield, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The First Lady has led planning, fundraising and implementation of a $15 million campaign for the 160-tier year-old mansion, which last received capital repairs in the 1970s. Thanks to the First Lady's strong vision and advocacy for this investment, funded entirely through private donations, the executive mansion project is moving forward despite our state's budget challenges. The unveiling will come just in time to be a showcase for our state's 2018 bicentennial celebration. Now please join me in welcoming to the stage First Lady Diana Rauner. Thank you, Bonnie. Good evening. I'm very excited to have the opportunity to share a restoration project here, and I love the story about water and stupid men because there's a lot of that in the story of the Illinois Executive Mansion. So, as Bonnie mentioned, this is one of the oldest and largest executive mansions or governor's mansions in the country. It was built in 1855, and it has been in continuous use since its opening, and it has been, again, a living and breathing place, which, as you can see over the years, has been a victim of both fashion and time, and we are very excited to have the opportunity now to bring it back to a version of glory, not its original shape, but something that approximates what it can be for us now and for the future. I want to put this all in context for those of you who are not from Illinois. Our state capital, Springfield, Illinois, is well known, particularly as the most important home of our most important president, Abraham Lincoln. And in Springfield, we have a number of very important historic sites that celebrate the life of Abraham Lincoln, particularly his home and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. And then, of course, the old state capital, which was in operation when he gave his great speech, the House Divided Speech, and where he actually worked as a state senator. Lincoln, of course, never lived in the Illinois Executive Mansion, but he probably dined and danced there. And we have a number of his artifacts, and we celebrate his time in Springfield as part of our heritage. Also in Springfield is the beautiful Dana Thomas House, one of Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpieces. So there's quite a lot to see in Springfield, and I encourage you all to take a trip there sometime after July of 2018 when you can see our new mansion. So the Illinois Executive Mansion, as Bonnie mentioned, has not had any real repairs since 1972. And like many executive buildings, like the White House, it has been lived in up until the point of being practically dangerous, at which point families move out, and then as much restoration as can be afforded is undertaken. The last time this happened was 1972, and I'm sorry to say that it probably wasn't the best time for anyone to be thinking about historic preservation. It was also the time in Springfield when seven beautiful movie theaters were torn down, and there is some unfortunate architecture in Springfield, along with some beautiful architecture. But as you can see from these photographs, by the time we moved into the Executive Mansion in 2015, things are looking pretty grim. Run wood, leaking roofs, and stairs that couldn't be stepped on because you would fall through them. It's actually true that when we moved in, of course my husband said, well, it's better than my fraternity, which that's not much, saying much, but we literally had buckets underneath some of the holes in the ceiling. We had crumbling walls and some really unpleasant mold and a non-functioning elevator that had been out of service for at least five or six years. And the entire place had never been ADA compliant, astonishingly, a public building that was not ADA compliant. So we took upon ourselves the goal of restoring this mansion to pride. And for those of you who have read about the travails of Illinois, they mostly are true, but Illinois is an extraordinary state with extraordinary people and extraordinary history and a promising future. And what we wanted to do was show in a very concrete way what we, where we came from and where we were going. And so this became really an opportunity for us to speak about restoring the pride in the state of Illinois, restoring our vision and restoring our future. And of course the timing couldn't be better because 2018 next year is our bicentennial year. So we have the opportunity to restore this mansion to something approximating its previous condition just in time to celebrate our third century. And as you all know, this preservation takes on many forms. What you can see from this slide and from one of the first slides is that in 1972, again, maybe not the best time to have taken on this project, it was decided to double the size of the building. The first part of the building that you can see on the left with the widow's walk is essentially the original building. And then another 25,000 square feet was appended to it in 1972. We have focused our restoration on the original part of the building with some health and safety and life safety and structural issues in the back of the building. But this is really the front of the building and the original, close to the original design of the building from 1855. It was, again, restored in 18, it was restored in the 1880s. And again in the 1890s, there was cosmetic work done in the 50s and then a huge restoration in the 70s. So a lot of work's been done to this building over the years and what we're trying to do is reclaim and restore as much as we can to its original shape. So we thought about particularly the facade and how, and this really is the view and the vision that we wanted people to see. So this is our most important elevation. It is also the chance for us to restore the general proportions and some of the details and features of the original 1855. So a big part of that really is how this is, this building is seen from the street. One of the things that you learn when you go into public office is everything's about leadership and in the absence of leadership, people do what they did yesterday and the day before and the day before and little by little plants grow up and things overgrow and nobody says the vision is this. So what we found when we came to Springfield was not only a building that was a metaphor for the state. If you don't fix your roof, you will eventually have water leaking into your walls and you'll start to rot out your foundations. That's one metaphor. Another metaphor is if you don't have a vision of what you want to see, you'll eventually volunteer trees and all sorts of things will accumulate and you won't be able to see your building from the street. So we've been engaged in a fair amount of pruning and focusing and visioning over the last few months and we're hard at work at the restoration. One of the things that we wanted to do was make this a space that was welcoming to all and a real site for education. We receive thousands of visitors every year who come to see this building along with the other historic sites in Springfield but we didn't really have an adequate way of moving visitors through the building, providing an orientation and educational space and being able to use the space in a wise way. So we created here a new way of entering the building and restored the original pork courchere and the original stairs up to the entrance. We're very excited to be able to have a better way for students and other visitors to orient themselves to the experience and also to have this beautiful restored entry which was the original entry. It still has its original doors and it will now have stairs that approximate its original entrance. So this will be our entrance for events and for all sorts of historic activities. The building is used both as the residence of the governor and as in many public buildings. It's used for all sorts of official events. It's used by legislative and agency functions and of course for a legislative meeting. So now it will have an elegant entry. It used to be that these stairs that the porch that is described here was literally, if you stood on it, you would fall through. So it's very exciting to be able to have this new entry. The other thing we're very excited about is the opportunity to use the interior space, the parlors and the ceremonial spaces as an art museum, as a gallery for Illinois art, fine and decorative arts and we will have 90 pieces, we'll open with 90 pieces of fine and decorative art that are on loan from museums and private collections and frankly schools across the state. So we're very excited to have the beginnings of what we hope will be an ongoing art collection and art exhibition space that we'll be able to use going forward. This really is the first time that we've ever had an art in Illinois curated exhibit. And so we're very excited about that. What you see here is one of our signature paintings from Roger Brown called Lost America. We've also been able to take some of the upstairs spaces and create period rooms that will be again, experiential learning for students and those who come through. This is what the suite that represents the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition will look like. The other suite will focus on the lives of the Illinois Civil War governors, Yates and Oglesby. And again, we're able to collect artifacts and historical documents from those periods and put them in situ and examine them. As I mentioned, this site was overgrown. You couldn't see the governor's mansion from the street and you couldn't access it if you came by wheelchair, which was really stunning and horrifying. We have re-envisioned the landscape so that, first of all, we'll have an ADA accessible site, a walkway and site, and we'll have an opening out that looks out over the city and across to the state capital so that the building will be visible and it will be beautifully sited. So we're excited about that. And also very excited that across and around the mansion, there's restoration going on around Springfield that's really been initiated by this project and will create a much more revitalized city and visitors experience. The final thing I'll say is that for, as I said, this building was a metaphor for the state in so many ways. Not the least was that it was never actually professionally managed. It was treated as a sort of strange outpost of our historic preservation agency. And we're very excited now that the mansion and its grounds will be managed by a team of qualified museum and preservation professionals from our Illinois Department of Natural Resources and our historic preservation agency. We'll be able to now to have volunteer tour guides, but tour guides who were trained. We've been able to engage many historians across the state to help us create a visitor experience and an orientation center that is truly professional and highlights the best parts of our state. So we're thrilled to be able to show and showcase a beautiful and important part of our history to bring it back to some level of glory and to restore the pride that all of us in Illinois feel for our history and for our future. And I do encourage you to make a trip to Springfield at some time after July 2018. We will welcome you at the governor's mansion and across our city of Springfield. Thanks very much. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage National Trust for Historic Preservation Board of Trustees Chairman, Timothy P. Whalen. Hello everyone. Good evening and welcome to the opening plenary session of Past Forward, the 2017 Preservation Conference. It's my great pleasure to welcome you all, this remarkable, creative and committed community of preservationists to Chicago in this spectacular room. Welcome to Chicago, everyone. It's such a pleasure to be here in Chicago. The loop here just yards away from some of the most groundbreaking and inspiring architecture in the United States. So I encourage all of you to get out there and see it, please. I'm delighted to be here at my first pass forward as chair of the National Trust Board of Trustees. It's a great honor and I'll work hard on behalf of each of you and what you accomplish across the United States. Last year in Houston, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the National Preservation Act and the trust laid a strong foundation for momentum and positive change. This week in Chicago, over the course of power sessions, learning labs, field studies and trust lives, we plan to keep building momentum and further strengthen that foundation. We plan to expand and capitalize on the many opportunities out there to use preservation as a vehicle for economic growth and a means to enhance the quality of life for all Americans. Over the next few days, we will delve into all the ways preservation can help address the challenges and controversies that communities are facing in the 21st century. We are going to share technological tools and innovative research that makes it easier to save places that matter and tell the full American story. We will discuss and demonstrate preservation's potential to bring communities together and to live healthier, more enriching lives. And of course, we'll be catching up with old friends and sharing wisdom, possibly a drink and trading stories. And I look forward to it all. Organizing a conference of this scale is not done alone. It's always done together with great partners and collaborators. On behalf of all of us at the National Trust, let me offer our profound thanks to our presenting partner, Landmarks Illinois, as well as the Alphawood Foundation. This week will be a great success because of their engagement and support. So thank you very much. Before we roll up our sleeves and get to work, it falls on me to lead us in a fast forward plenary tradition. So you can kind of think of it as a preservation wave. So let me take a minute to get reacquainted. I would first like to ask this year's diversity scholars to stand and then you keep all standing. So please stand diversity scholars. And can we please get our Treehouse scholars to stand? The Treehouse scholars are sponsored by the Richard H. Treehouse Foundation and I'm so pleased that Richard is here with us this evening. Now I invite all of our young leaders, everyone under 35 to stand please. Are there any first time attendees to pass forward? Please stand. And what about people joining us from outside the United States? Please stand. And warm welcome to you. And what about our conference veterans, those of you who have been to more than 10 preservation conferences, please stand up. If you can. All of us at the trust are pleased that all of you are here and we look forward to being together with you all this week. It's time for business. I will now call the annual meeting of the National Trust for Historic Preservation to order. As many of you know, this opening plenary also serves as our annual meeting of members with the sole order of business being the election of trustees to the board of the National Trust. The National Trust Board is made up of talented and dedicated individuals who serve not only this organization, but like you, the preservation movement broadly. The National Trust trustees serve in their capacity as volunteers, a status that will be familiar to many of you in this room. The state, the slate of trustees presented by the trustee and governance committee includes current trustees proposed for reelection after completing their first and second terms. For a second three year term, they are Kevin Gover of Washington DC and G. Jack Tankersley of Denver, Colorado. For a third year, for a third three year term, they are Susan Chapman Hughes of New York City, Fernando Loveres, San Miguel of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Charles Royce of New York City, and lastly, First Lady Laura Bush of Dallas, Texas, and nominated to serve their first term are Christina Lee Brown of Louisville, Kentucky, Linda Bruckheimer of Los Angeles, California, and Samuel B. Dixon of Edenton, North Carolina. Detailed biographical sketches on each of these individuals has been shared online at savingplaces.org, and I hope you'll take a moment to read it. At this time, it creates me great pleasure to present this slate of nominees for election as trustees of the National Trust, and I ask for your approval of the slate by acclamation as indicated by your enthusiastic response. Thank you all. Now before we get on with the show, there are a few other points of important business. As you all know, one of our nation's most significant federal investments in preservation, the federal historic tax credit is currently under threat. Since 1981, when it was expanded by President Ronald Reagan, the federal historic tax credit has created millions of jobs, created more than 100 billion in private investment and transformed tens of thousands of underused commercial buildings for new and productive uses. Even better, the Treasury makes $1.20 on every dollar invested and 75% of the economic benefits stay in state and local communities, which is why, naturally, 34 states have created their own state historic tax credits. Unfortunately, and despite these clear benefits, the federal credit is in grave danger of being lost amid the current tax reform debate. I know I'm preaching to the choir, but I want to urge everyone here today to tell your representatives in Congress to fight for the federal historic tax credit. Every call, letter, or personal plea you make gets us closer to the goal of saving the HTC. To help make the case, let's journey back for a few moments to September 18th, 1984. Adjust your shoulder pads, everyone. This is when President Reagan himself made the case for the historic tax credit and here he is. I'd like to draw your attention to a major innovation that our administration put into effect less than three years ago. Increased tax credits for the renovation of older buildings. With that one initiative, we help to send your tax dollars back into your communities. Across America, people are getting the message. Our tax credits have made the preservation of our older buildings not only a matter of respect for beauty and history, but of economic good sense. I know your efforts will help to give our towns more restored buildings, more jobs, and a renewed sense of pride. And that will be good for our entire nation. For while our country's muscle may lie in our great industrial cities, America's heart is in our small towns. Since President Reagan delivered these remarks more than 30 years ago, the historic tax credit he put in place has played a critical role in our country. Revitalizing small towns, creating jobs, and increasing economic activity, all while preserving our nation's historic buildings. The statistics are impressive. More than 42,000 buildings have been restored. Over 130 billion dollars in private capital has been reinvested in our communities. Nearly 2.5 million jobs have been created. And an average of $1.20 has been returned to the Treasury for every dollar invested. As tax reform legislation takes shape in Washington, let's not lose sight of the reasons President Reagan chose to make the historic tax credit a permanent part of the tax code. The historic tax credit is a pro-growth investment that works. Your support of the historic tax credit is urgent. If we are to continue the important legacy started by President Reagan. No matter what our political persuasion is, we can all agree that the past 33 years have proven that the federal HTC is good economic sense. So let's make that an action item while we're here in Chicago this week. Let's ask our members of Congress to put the HTC in the reform tax code undiminished. To send that message directly to tax staff in your members' offices, please stop by the table operated by the National Trust's Government Affairs team in the registration area at the Palmer House. So we made it easy for you. Please do that. I want to say a brief word tonight about some of the terrible tragedies we have experienced as a nation since we last convened. A year ago this week, many of us were together in Houston. As you all know, that community and much of coastal Texas was devastated by Hurricane Harvey this past August. Florida, the Caribbean and the Southeast were then confronted with another powerful super storm in Hurricane Irma. And of course, Americans in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands had been facing an existential crisis in the wake of Hurricane Maria. Nearly two months later, a majority of citizens are without power. It will be months before the basic necessities of life are available to all once again. Then there are the wildfires that have devastated the West Coast, especially in Central and Northern California and Oregon. Over the next few days, we'll be discussing the impact of these events on historic resources and assessing how communities can best prepare for future disasters. But right now, let us take a moment to recognize the profound human cost of these catastrophes. If you do all join me in a moment of silence for all of those who lost their lives or lost loved ones and for all those whose lives have been inalterably affected by these events. Thank you to the people of Texas and Florida and California and the Caribbean, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, we stand with you. We have not forgotten you and we pledge to support you in our efforts and yours in rebuilding your homes and your resources. Let me now turn things over to our next speaker, Lee Bay, who will welcome us to America's second city, Chicago. A former Chicago Sun Times architecture critic and an active writer, lecturer and photographer of the built environment, Lee is currently vice president of the DuSable Museum of African American History. He has also been a Chicago mainstay for more than two decades in the fields of urban planning, architecture, arts and culture. And his writings and photos have appeared in the Chicago Reader, Cranes, Chicago Business, Site Magazine, The Guardian and a number of other outlets. It is my pleasure to welcome to the stage Lee Bay. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you and good evening. And welcome to this beautiful city of Chicago and welcome to this beautiful space, which I am flabbergasted to actually be staying on a stage of this beautiful space and talking to you because this is one of the finest places in the city. So welcome and thank you. Just wanna tell a little story if I can, which is every year, usually in the spring, I get the same call. A preservationist or a preservation organization, no need to name names here because there's enough guilt to go around. Once to rally people around a particular issue, they wanna save a building or save a piece of legislation that's preservation friendly, but at the last minute, they realized it would be good to have some black people aboard their cars, brown people aboard their cars, especially some community-based black and brown people. Then something else hits them. They don't know any community-based black and brown people. So you remember how Mitt Romney had binders of women, supposedly? Well, surely Lee Bay has binders of black folk and brown folk, so my phone begins to ring. And to be honest, for years, I'd help them out. You know, I'd open the binders if you will. The preservation game should be more diverse, especially in a city like Chicago. So I was doing my bit to help out, to bring black and brown folks into the fold. But three years ago, I stopped. Calls like that joined the Do Not Return list, right next to the Comcast Marketing Department calls, and calls from my ex-wife. And that's because in a city of 2.7 million people, that's a third black and a third Latino, 66% minority. A city that's had black residents since this gentleman behind me, became Jean-Baptiste Point DeSable, became the town's first non-native settler 230 years ago. A call like that is not a sign of a well-meaning person or organization, at least not by my eye, looking to make their latest campaign more diverse. No, it's a sign, a big sign, that that organization has made no place for black and brown people, not in their outreach, not in their leadership, and improves the worst of what people say about this industry, about the preservation movement, that it is overwhelmingly white, it is overwhelmingly elitist, and it is exclusionary. So let me make this plain. Given the times in which we find ourselves and which people are struggling, as we've talked before in the stage, to fight against the racial and societal, to fight racial and societal battles, that we thought were long one, in which racism and xenophobia have tightened their grip over almost every aspect of America, if you or your organization are not diverse in your membership, not diverse in your partnerships, not diverse in your approach, not diverse in your leadership, you are as much an obstacle to creating a fairer and more just America, as are many of the people, thank you, as are many of the people we shake our fists at when we watch Fox News. If the south and west sides of Chicago or their counterparts across urban America are a mystery to you as preservationists, no more than the subject of a field study and no more. If that's the case, you are a barrier to any effort designed to create a proper, true, and equitable preservation mechanism no matter where you are. Let me be very clear about this, too. This isn't about making black and brown people feel good about being included. Believe me, we got our own clubs, our own things, we gonna be all right, right? It's done about making yours, and it's done about making yourself feel good about finally letting people of color into the game. It's about creating a stronger hand for us all to save buildings and to build and maintain the communities across the nation. Let me show you a thing if I may. This is, of course, leave it to me, not to go the right way. This is Chicago's Malcolm X College, located a few minutes west of downtown Chicago. Built in 1971, this building, by my view, should have been a contender for six years, city landmark status, and a national register listing. The building was designed by Gene Summers, who was the architect who executed Mies van der Roos designs for the new gallery in Berlin in 1968, which is now undergoing a redo by Mies's grandson, Dirk Lohan. And Gene also designed the modernist masterpiece, McCormick Place, on the lake, also in 1971. In addition, the school was the first public building in America named for Malcolm X. In its early days, there was a robust Afrocentric curriculum reinforced by murals and artwork created by leaders of the nationally recognized black arts movement here in Chicago. This was a modern architecture, meeting modern thought about black people. And it happened right on Chicago's west side, while literally the embers of the King Riots are still burning. But this is what happened to Malcolm X College. It was demolished in 2016, and a new college was built across the street. Dare I say, it was a needed new college, but we're talking about the preservation of this building. And when it was demolished, the architecture, the murals, the place, the stories, the narrative are gone. Now, those doors I showed you were saved. They were displayed, thankfully, by the city's cultural affairs department earlier this year, and they'll be on display once more next year in a different fashion at the Disciple Museum, which I humbly am vice president of. In Chicago, we can tear down, and Chicagoans know this, in Chicago, we can tear down the building or even an airport in the middle of the night. But in this case, it took four years for the city to phase out and close Malcolm X College. That's enough time for the preservation mechanism in Chicago to sound the alarm, and enough time to build the real coalitions to push for its reuse, using that unique intersection of modernist architecture and modern black Chicago history and Latino history, because many of the murals inside the building celebrated Mexican and Puerto Rican culture as well. Put that together to make a compelling reason for this building to be saved. Would it have helped? Sometimes in this town, we don't know. I would say yes, but at the very least, this effort would have laid the cornerstone, laid the groundwork for a stronger, more diverse preservation community that could rally around the next endangered building or endangered historic tax credit that we all know about now under attack in Washington. This credit, as you know, has been a useful tool for rebuilding thousands of communities across America, including black and brown communities. One more of Malcolm X. Here in Chicago is one project which has been referred to to date, I understand many of you have seen it, the Rosenwald departments at 47th and Michigan in the Bronzeville neighborhood. It took $132 million to restore and renovate this building. 18 million came from historic tax credits, but 41 million came from federal low-income housing tax credits, which are also under fire. You want to save this tax credit and save more buildings like the Rosenwald? When you go home, be intentional about working with these communities that I'm talking about, and with their lawmakers and with their leaders, make the connections, have them advocate with you as partners, not to help, summon for a single issue, not to help, summon for a single issue, then keep and strengthen those connections after the battle is over. This is about survival, not just for buildings and neighborhoods, but organizations and groups and governmental units like the ones represented here that are in a position to speak up for the preservation of our built environment and the stories those places yield. Those of us here know, we know better, perhaps better than anyone, that things that seem permanent, things that seem erected in stone and commissioned for the ages are not always that way. When a building owner fails to adapt with the times, doesn't properly anticipate the future, that is when a building can often become most vulnerable and in danger of being wiped away. And we also know and should remember the institutions and organizations and movements that don't adapt, don't change, don't open doors, don't bother to read the present or see the future, can easily suffer the same fate. Thank you. Lee, thank you for delivering important words with both gravity and humor, so thank you very much. I now have the honor of introducing a born and raised Chicago native, a true and lifelong friend of the preservation movement and a strong benefactor of the National Trust, of landmarks Illinois, and of many, many other preservation organizations across the country. That is Richard H. Drehouse. Richard grew up here in Chicago and has joined enormous business success over the course of his life. Success which he has parlayed into rich dividends for his hometown, the state of Illinois, and the nation as a whole. Richard is a renowned figure in America's investment management industry and the founder and captain of Drehouse Capital Management, LLC, a financial powerhouse here in Chicago. He's also known as one of the city's foremost art collectors with a taste for art nouveau, including Alphonse Mucha, Art Deco, French Posters, the glass and design work of Lewis, Comfort, Tiffany, and Automobiles. You can see some of his impressive collection at the Drehouse Museum, which houses one of the largest collections of Tiffany glass anywhere. Above all else, Richard is a remarkable philanthropist. Through his Richard H. Drehouse Foundation, he has used his resources to strengthen our democracy, advance economic opportunity for all, support arts and culture, and combat persistent urban problems such as poverty. And he has worked to enrich all of our lives through preservation, urban planning, and better design. Over the years, Richard and his foundation have helped to preserve historic residences across Chicago, including countless examples of Chicago's unique architectural styles, including its bungalows and gravestone houses. He owns many restored landmark buildings as well. He has supported the preservation and upkeep of Chicago's parks and greenery, such as Millennium Park, the Caldwell Lily Pool in Lincoln Park, and the Garfield Park Conservatory. He has invested in any number of preservation organizations over the years and promoted excellence and innovation in our field by supporting a program of awards, including the Richard H. Drehouse National Preservation Awards, which celebrates our nation's most cutting edge preservation projects and achievements. His decades of support for the National Trust included early multi-year support to increase the number and effectiveness of statewide and local preservation organizations. He continues that support with annual contributions to the Richard and Julia Moe Family Fund for partner innovation and capacity building. With his support of the conference's Technology Trust Live and Education Track, all of us will be able to explore how preservation organizations can apply 21st century tools to our work. This week you'll learn how new technologies such as GIS, 3D modeling, and laser scanning can be used to preserve the built environment. Such forward thinking about new ways to advocate for and save old places can also be seen in the foundation's commitment to research and convenings that explore the connection between architecture, design, place, and human flourishing. Finally, he has helped bring preservation to new audiences. To take just one example, he is supporting 50 Drehouse scholars to attend our conference this week, and you saw some of them this evening. I can think of no one better to welcome the National Preservation Community to Chicago than this native son, one who has done so much to grow our movement and save cherished places here and all over the United States. Ladies and gentlemen, Richard H. Drehouse. Thank you, Tim. It's a great introduction, thanks. First lady, Rauner. Commissioner Reifman. National Trusts, trustees, and ladies and gentlemen. It is enormously rewarding to know that for the next few days, Chicago is the nexus of historic preservation. I hope all who are visiting can see and experience our successes and understand our lessons learned. I hope all that live here take a moment to see Chicago through the eyes of our visitors. Tonight, we honor preservation excellence. This year's Drehouse National Preservation Awards recipients have undertaken projects with broad and long lasting implications. They impact countless people across many disciplines. You will see examples of a community-wide effort to provide affordable housing in Pittsburgh, a comprehensive survey of the preservation assets in Los Angeles, and a multi-purpose performance space in Seattle. The multiplier effect of these hard-won victories has no limits. These are priceless investments in places and people. I am passionate about great old buildings. I appreciate seeing all types of capital leveraged, older buildings in particular that can be adaptively reused and reintegrated. They have untapped precious capital. They are also often critical anchors for psychological well-being. I submit to you that old buildings are like grandparents and great grandparents. They are our ancestors speaking to us about who we are and what we've been. Winston Churchill once said that the United States usually does the right thing after exhausting all the other possible options. Unfortunately, this has been the case with historic preservation. We took too long to act. But I sense this fairly young movement has the wind at its back, among others, positive indicators, cognitive neuroscience, science and technology are constantly informing us. The point to the importance of old buildings and how the human mind perceives and responds to them this is a new and exciting frontier. One I believe will help you in the highly complex work. You do. You have my heartfelt admiration. And now I would like to turn your attention to the screen as we honor this year's three Richard H. Streehouse Foundation National Preservation Award winners video. And now let's watch the videos of the winners work. Survey LA, the result of a 10 year partnership between the city of Los Angeles and the Getty documents more than 30,000 historic resources, including residential and commercial districts, industrial complexes, bridges, street lights and public art. The project resulted in several technological innovations, including a custom GIS based mobile survey application that allows surveyors to quickly record sites of interest, a citywide historic context statement and historic places LA, a publicly available online inventory of historic resources. Survey LA also took a unique approach to public engagement, producing materials in multiple languages and enlisting hundreds of volunteers to engage an inclusive set of LA's residents in identifying places of social and cultural importance. Most significantly, Survey LA is a proactive tool for incorporating historic fabric into city planning. It broadens the meaning and influence of preservation and serves as a model for preservation nationwide. Nine miles east of downtown Pittsburgh sits the Hamnet Place neighborhood, a community of 20th century homes and businesses that was once so consumed by blight, its real estate market had virtually collapsed. Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation took action, coordinating a property tax study and proposing a 10 year tax abatement program to encourage investment in the area. But the organization didn't wait for the market to stabilize. They began restoring the neighborhood one building at a time. Today, an astounding 67 units of housing and historic buildings have been restored, almost all reserved for low to moderate income tenants. Two vacant lots have become community gardens and a former auto repair shop now hosts community workshops. With a revived real estate market and a focus on providing the community with affordable housing, Hamnet Place neighborhood looks to a bright future. Washington Hall in Seattle has served as a Danish community center, performance venue for Jimi Hendrix, meeting space for union workers, place of worship, hub for LGBTQ artists of color, dinner theater and youth club dance hall. It has welcomed waves of Jewish, Filipino, Korean and Eritrean immigrants and comfortably made space for all. After more than 100 years of continual use, Washington Hall came under threat of demolition in 2007. Historic Seattle stepped in to purchase the building, launching four phases of reconstruction, including stabilization, seismic retrofitting and elevator installation. Today, Historic Seattle is watching not the revival but the continued vibrant use of a space that has frequently been called a hall for all. Three anchor partner organizations manage the hall, keeping a hard-earned sense of pride within the community that it continues to nurture. I'm the former chair of the National Trust Advisors Program, Bance Kelly, and I'd like to invite back to the stage Richard H. Dreehouse and welcome Stephanie Meeks, president and CEO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation to present our Richard H. Dreehouse Foundation Preservation Awards. I'm happy to begin with SurveyLA, a project of unparalleled proportions, a true trailblazer in the industry and here to accept the award are Ken Bernstein, manager and principal city planner, office of historic resources, city of Los Angeles, Janet Hansen, deputy manager, office of historic resources, city of Los Angeles, Allison DeGetty, manager, web and digital initiatives of the Getty Conservation Institute and Annabelle Enriquez, digital project specialist, the Getty Conservation Institute. Good evening. I'm Jean Follett, the new chair of the National Trust Advisors Program and I'm thrilled to be here tonight to present a Dreehouse Preservation Award to Hamnet Place Neighborhood, an outstanding case of both real estate and preservation work. Here to accept the award is Michael Cepersert, president of Landmarks Development Corporation and Landmarks Community Capital Corporation. Good evening, everyone. I am Horace Foxall, one of the National Trust Washington State Advisors from Seattle. I'm happy to present a Seattle project, Washington Hall, with a Dreehouse Preservation Award. Thank you for your leadership and meaningful community engagement and preservation. Here to accept the award is Kai Kelly, executive director, Historic Seattle, Kate Kraft, chair of Historic Seattle Council and Ron Wright, architect of Ron Wright and associates.