Oak Park announces 7 historic preservation awards

The Village of Oak Park awarded seven home projects with historic preservation awards at an in-person awards ceremony at Village Hall. 

Lou Garapolo, chairperson of the historic preservation commission presented the award winners with certificates detailing their accomplishments.

The awards are presented annually, with nominations open to the public in the fall. Awards this year were given in three categories: additions and new construction, renovation, and restoration. 

This year’s selection committee included Cade Sterling, from the City of Evanston; Alice Kloska, from Housing Forward and the former Unity Temple Restoration Foundation; and Sarah Doherty, a representative from Oak Park’s historic preservation commission.

Although he did not serve on the selection committee, Garapolo said the projects all came through the HPC review process, and he’s very familiar with each of them. 

“Having been on the commission for a number of years, this group of winners is really quite nice,” he said. “It represents homeowners who have taken quite a bit of extra steps. The end results are really quite spectacular.”

Jaime Gascón of 606 Design + Construction said the porch restoration of 163 N. Ridgeland was a bit of a challenge, but in the best possible way.

“We had to respect the aesthetic and respect the architecture while also making it practical and structurally sound,” he said.

When the house was built, building code was not what it is today, and there were different standards for spindles and railings. The original porch no longer existed as a reference point for design. The homeowner had researched the home’s history, and when Gascón went before the HPC for approval of the project, the HPC also provided some historic photos that pointed to the home’s original curved front porch design. In designing railings and spindles that met code and fit the historic home, the HPC and Gascón looked to a “twin” house of very similar design in Austin.

Gascón has worked on other Oak Park homes in the past, and said this is his first local project that required approval by the HPC. He said working with the HPC was helpful in making decisions that were appropriate for an architecturally significant home.

Oak Park homeowners Gina Santangelo-Nickels and her husband Mike Nickels are from the area and have spent the last couple of years renovating their first personal residence in Oak Park. The pair both work in the construction field and knew when they purchased the house in an historic district that exterior changes that were visible from the street needed to be approved by the HPC.

Built in 1920 by architect William Bernhard, their stucco home at 154 N. Elmwood has distinctive windows, shutters and ornamental brickwork. Working with Energy Matters and Certified Window Systems, they replicated the original windows with new casement windows. When interior renovations in the kitchen and bathroom necessitated changes to window layouts, the used shutters on the exterior to cover a removed window in the kitchen and halved a window in a second story bathroom to provide coverage without changing the location or size of the original windows when viewed from the side of the home.

The couple restored the home’s original Juliet balcony on the front of the house and also renovated the front stairs. 

“We put in a lot of effort. We grew up in the area, and historic preservation is important to us,” Santangelo-Nickels said. “We are grateful for the acknowledgement.”

Just down the street, 224 N. Elmwood was also recognized with an award. Wednesday Journal featured the home remodel in October.

The Beachy House at 238 Forest Avenue also received an award for restoration of the home’s original clay tile roof. WJ featured the home last year mid-renovation after storms felled two large trees at the house.

Nominations for 2024 awards will open on the village website in the fall. Garapolo said that the awards are a nice way to encourage homeowners to get excited about their homes’ architecture. He added that he was impressed with the 2023 winners.

“Most of these folks are in tune with the guidelines and try to do even more than the guidelines require,” he said. “These are all owner-driven projects, which is even more encouraging and pleasing to see.”

The awards were announced Jan. 24.

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