Savannah State University will present three urban planning awards Wednesday to individuals and organizations who have made what the school calls outstanding contributions to planning, design and development in the Savannah area.
The recognition will go to:
• Paula Wallace, president and co-founder of the Savannah College of Art and Design, will receive the URP Star award, which recognizes significant contribution in historic preservation and adaptive reuse or development of urban spaces. Under Wallace’s leadership and vision, SCAD has supported the stability of Savannah’s Landmark Historic District by assisting in anchoring neighborhoods and encouraging greater redevelopment, the announcement says.
• Savannah-based Hansen Architects, P.C., will receive the URP Design award, which recognizes excellence in architectural design in the historic district.
Led by principal-in-charge J. Paul Hansen, the design firm’s completed projects include the Lane Morrison House, Carnegie Library, the Marshall House and SCAD’s Arnold and York halls, among others.
• Sylvester Formey, president of Vanguard Companies, and Earline Wesley Davis, executive director of the Housing Authority of Savannah, will share the URP Development award, which recognizes excellence in sustainable redevelopment and/or sustainable new construction that significantly supports the area’s history and culture.
Formey and Davis were involved in redeveloping the city’s former 26-acre Fellwood Homes site into the mixed-use, mixed-income Sustainable Fellwood project.
The awards will be presented at a conference sponsored by SSU’s urban studies and planning program with the theme “City-Building: The Key Role of Urban Planning in Historic Preservation and Economic Development of Savannah.”
It will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. in the new Student Union at SSU.
