Proctors Collaborative has been named one of this year’s Excellence in Historic Preservation award winners. Proctors is being recognized this year for their dual restoration efforts on behalf of the Capital Repertory Theatre in Albany and Universal Preservation Hall in Saratoga Springs. Since 1984, the Preservation League’s statewide awards program has highlighted projects, organizations, publications, and individuals that exemplify best practices in historic preservation and recognize the people who are using historic preservation to build stronger neighborhoods, create local jobs, provide affordable housing, open our eyes to overlooked history, and save the places that are special to all of us.
Additional information about the 2021 Excellence Award winners, including interviews, videos, and more, can be found on our website: https://www.preservenys.org/excellence-awards
“What a fantastic honor. We celebrate our historic properties and their reuse as cultural and community centerpieces,” said Philip Morris, CEO of Proctors Collaborative. “As we Restart our events, post-Covid, this award buoys us and reminds us of our hopes for our region.”
The 28,000-square-foot industrial building in Albany’s Arbor Hill neighborhood that is now home to Capital Repertory Theatre (theRep) and the formerly condemned church that is now Universal Preservation Hall (UPH) represent very different preservation projects. The fact that Proctors Collaborative had the vision and dedication to see them both through simultaneously, especially considering additional challenges presented by the pandemic, is quite extraordinary. Perhaps best known for their flagship theatre in Schenectady (which also won an Excellence Award from the League back in 2008), Proctors serves the wider Capital-Saratoga region through a wide variety of programs, with a focus on education, civic engagement, and economic development. The successful restorations of theRep and UPH will certainly help them meet that mission.
Both restorations serve as models for how historic preservation promotes the reuse of vacant buildings to stimulate the business and creative economy and revitalize downtown neighborhoods. Both buildings sat vacant and suffered serious deterioration. Now they are points of pride for their neighborhoods – and state-of-the-art performing arts destinations.
“Proctors Collaborative is a vital resource for the Capital-Saratoga Region,” said Preservation League President Jay DiLorenzo. “Their high-quality performing arts programming reaches a large and diverse population, and the recent restorations and adaptive reuse projects in Albany and Saratoga Springs will allow them to better serve their audiences. Proctors has long demonstrated a commitment to preservation. Bringing these two very different buildings back to active use will undoubtedly have positive effects on their communities for years to come.”
