Untapped New York has been honored with a 2021 Grassroots Preservation Award from the Historic Districts Council! The award recognizes advocates of preservation throughout New York City. Untapped New York will be presented with the award in a special virtual celebration on Thursday, May 13th at 5pm ET. The event will include a presentation by Untapped New York’s Chief Experience Officer Justin Rivers that will explore Untapped New York’s involvement in various New York City preservation projects.

Tickets to the event are $10-$15, but Untapped New York Insiders can attend for free! You can also add an additional donation to the Historic Districts Council along with your ticket purchase.

Grassroots Preservation Awards

This year, the Grassroots Preservation Award ceremonies will feature virtual tours and talks from the award winners. In Thursday’s event, Rivers will explore the various preservation projects and campaigns Untapped New York has been a part of throughout the years including the S.S. Columbia Project, Partners in Preservation with American Express, the TWA Flight Terminal/Hotel with Port Authority, and the abandoned Ellis Island hospital complex. You will also learn about Untapped New York’s latest preservation efforts to save the Penn Station Powerhouse, one of the last remnants of the original Penn Station, with other founding organizations of the Coalition to Save the Penn Station Powerhouse.

The Walentyna & Aleksander Janta-Polczynski House Coalition will also be honored at Thursday’s event. The Coalition is comprised of several groups that came together for the common goal of Landmarking the Walentyna & Aleksander Janta-Polczynski house and highlighting the brave and honorable work of Walentyna & Aleksander Janta-Polczynski. . The groups will discuss how Walentyna was pivotal in revealing Nazi atrocities to the world and how Walentyna and Aleksander’s home in Elmhurst, Queens became a safe haven for Polish Ă©migrĂ© elite in the United States. 

Other fellow 2021 recipients of the Grassroots Preservation Award include Green-Wood Cemetery and East 25th Street Historic District Initiative, Upper Riverside Residents Alliance, Judy Stanton, and Councilmember Daniel Dromm. Virtual award celebrations will also be held on May 12th, May 19th, and May 26th. You can register for all upcoming events here. Untapped New York Insiders can the virtual event on Thursday, May 13th for free! Not an Insider yet? Become a member today and you can gain access to unlimited events per month and unlock a video archive of 100+ past virtual experiences starting at $10/month.

The SS Columbia steamboat docked at Silo City in Buffalo, New York

Grassroots Preservation Awards

Next, check out Don’t Demolish Penn Station Twice: Save the Powerhouse and At Risk: The Landmark Eligible Buildings Around Penn Station