Honoring Preservation in a City That Mostly Looks to the Future — Houston’s Good Brick Award Winners Revealed

Due to the COVID-19 cancelation of its annual awards dinner originally scheduled for this coming March, Preservation Houston, while announcing its 2021 Good Brick Award recipients on Thursday, is in the process of reimagining the evening that typically fills the River Oaks Country Club ballroom with preservation enthusiasts. That fails to diminish the just-announced winners, which represent a broad range of preservation projects.

While the 2020 awards were presented to 14 entities last February, the 2021 winners number 10 and includes such diverse properties as Congregation Beth Yeshurun and a mid-20th century skyscraper.

The awards, which have been presented each year since 1979, recognize outstanding contributions to the preservation, restoration and enhancement of culturally and architecturally significant structures. For the most recent rewards Lynn Kelly chaired the jury that was comprised of preservation and design professionals and former Good Brick winners that selected award recipients.

The 2021 Good Brick Awards Recipients

Cara and Ken Moczulski

For sensitively rehabilitating the Mediterranean Revival-style F.A. Heitman House (1926) designed by William Ward Watkin in Shadyside.

Katilyn and Michael G. Scheurich / Arch-Con Corporation

For restoring the Georgian Revival-style Joseph A. Tennant House (1926) designed by John Staub in the Broadacres Historic District.

The Heritage Society

For the comprehensive restoration of one of Houston’s oldest surviving buildings: the Kellum-Noble House (1847) in Sam Houston Park.

Congregation Beth Yeshurun

For restoring its mid-century modern synagogue (1962) by Eugene Werlin and Lenard Gabert, Sr.

Pearl Hospitality

For rehabilitating and repurposing the mid-century modern Medical Towers office building (1954) by Skidmore Owings & Merrill as the Westin Houston Medical Center hotel.

Sara and Thomas Braud

For the preserving the Craftsman-style Hulsey-Davis House (c. 1920) in Woodland Heights.

David Powell

For rehabilitating the Peter F. Tamborello House (c. 1916), a Folk Victorian cottage in the Near Northside.

Lin Chong and Dominic Yap / FW Heritage, LLC

For rescuing and rehabilitating a Folk Victorian cottage (c. 1907) in the High First Ward Historic District. The husband and wife team have now completed six Good Brick Award-winning projects.

Maria and Richard Neel

For carefully preserving their mid-century modern home (1962) in Meadow Creek Village.

Hilary and James Newman

For rehabilitating their Tudor-inspired home (1936) in Riverside Terrace.

Lennie Waite and Matt Hoffman

For preserving their historic duplex (c. 1935) in Mandell Place as a single-family home.

Barrie Scardino Bradley

Improbable Metropolis: Houston’s Architectural and Urban History (University of Texas Press)

Bradley’s book uses the built environment as a guide to explore Houston’s remarkable evolution from 1836 to the present.

Gerald Moorhead, FAIA

Buildings of Texas, Volume 1: South, South Central and Gulf Coast Regions and Buildings of Texas, Volume 2: East, North Central, Panhandle and South Plains, and West Regions. (University of Virginia Press)

Moorhead’s volumes are the first scholarly study to document Texas’ architectural heritage in its entirety from prehistoric times to the present.

Emancipation Park Conservancy

Martha Peterson Award is presented every year in memory of the namesake dedicated Preservation Houston volunteer. The Peterson Award recognizes projects that have a significant community component.

Honored for continuing the legacy of the park’s founders by producing collaborative programs and virtual content to celebrate Juneteenth and for creating four mosaic tile murals to commemorate the African-American community’s history and heritage.