Joe O. Ciaschi Preservation Excellence Award to be Announced
Posted by Dustin Horton // April 16, 2012 // Education, News
Historic Ithaca will announce the creation of a new award honoring Ithaca’s “grandfather of restoration,” Joseph Ciaschi, at its May 3 Annual Meeting.
Joe died in November 2011 after a life spent transforming local landmarks into viable businesses, including buying the former Lehigh Valley Railroad Station and operating it as the Station Restaurant for 25 years. Joe was also instrumental in saving downtown landmarks such as the Boardman House and Clinton House, and the West End’s Lehigh Valley House. He revitalized the Community Corners Shopping Center and most recently built Island Health and Fitness Center on Inlet Island.
As a long-time supporter of Historic Ithaca and model of a preservation-minded businessman, his family has agreed that a new preservation excellence award will be named in his memory. The Joe O. Ciaschi Preservation Excellence Award, to be first granted in 2013, will honor an individual whose body of work or activities span many years in support of local historic preservation efforts. Historic Ithaca has granted awards since 1968 to acknowledge and celebrate successful adaptive use, restoration and renovation projects by individual homeowners, businesses, nonprofit organizations, government agencies and academic institutions.
Joe received Historic Ithaca’s first ever Preservation Award in 1968 for his renovation of the Station Restaurant. He was honored with subsequent awards in 1983 for his work to save the Boardman House, in 1985 for sensitive infill construction at Community Corners, and in 1998 for his stewardship and dedication to preserving the State Theatre.
May is Historic Preservation Month, which Historic Ithaca commemorates with its Annual Meeting and Awards Ceremony. Free and open to the public, this year the event will be held on Thursday, May 3, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Finger Lakes Wine Center at 237 S. Cayuga St. in downtown Ithaca. The program will begin with the annual meeting and presentation of awards, concluding with wine, beer, and light fare catered by the Wine Center.
Friends and fans of “Joe O.” and Historic Ithaca are invited to attend the celebration. For more information, contact Kristen Olson at (607) 273-6633 or Kristen@HistoricIthaca.org.
