It’s time again for the Landmark Society’s 2016 Annual Awards Ceremony. Join us on Sunday, November 13 at 3:00 p.m. at Rochester’s historic City Hall, a dramatic 1880s landmark built as the Federal Court House and Post Office that was rehabilitated and re-opened in 1978 as the new City Hall.

A highlight of the calendar year, the Awards are given to individuals and organizations in our nine-county area that have made outstanding efforts in the preservation of their homes, public buildings, historic properties, and landscapes.

Over the next two weeks, we’ll be previewing the winners for each category. First up is the Barber Conable Award, which recognizes a large-scale rehabilitation of a historic building in our region completed within the past two years. This includes buildings listed in the National Register of Historic Places and projects utilizing the Federal Investment Tax Credit Program.

This year’s Conable Award recognizes the “M+M” project — Michelsen Apartments, located at 182 Avenue D, and Mills III Apartments, located at 281 Mills Street, City of Rochester, Monroe County. M+M was completed by the Urban League Economic Development Corporation, with Edgemere Development Corporation as project contractor.

The former George G. Michelsen Furniture Factory, built in 1914, housed one of Rochester’s longest-running family businesses, dating from the 1860s to the late 1950s. Located adjacent to the El Camino Trail and Avenue D Community Center in northeast Rochester, the Michelsen business moved from a downtown location on Water Street to this location, with its proximity to the railroad, as part of the decentralization movement of that time.

A prominent landmark in the High Falls area, at the corner of Mill and Factory streets,  Mills III is the third and final phase of “The Mills at High Falls” project.  It dates from 1850-70 during that area’s build-up of flour mills. Tenants in this complex included woodworking, a foundry, tin shop and cornice works and, around 1920, the Rochester Marshmallow Company. Shortly afterwards, Rochester Plumbing Supply moved to this location, where it remained until several years ago.

Listed in the State and National Registers of Historic Places, these two properties were rehabilitated using the Federal Investment Tax Credit program.  The $18.5 million rehabilitation of these former industrial properties created a total of 59 affordable, one- and two-bedroom apartments.  The Michelsen Apartments were designed by Glasgow Simmons Architecture LLP, with Jason Simmons as lead architect. Mills III was designed by Barkstrom and LaCroix, with Rich Lindner, lead architect.