Named in honor of James Marston Fitch (1909-2000), the founder of the Historic Preservation program at Columbia University, this prize is awarded annually for a paper or project completed during the first year of studies. Your submission should reflect Preservation Alumni’s mission to advance preservation as a diverse field of public and professional endeavors. The topic explored should be one that is particularly meaningful to you in that it helped to define your understanding of preservation, and the project or paper should demonstrate a thoughtful analysis of a preservation issue. In addition to the paper or project, please also submit:

  • a statement of no more than 200 words explaining why your work was impactful to your understanding of preservation. If your project is selected, your statement may be published in the PA monthly newsletter. 

The submission should be a paper or project completed by an individual student. One submission per student will be accepted. If you are submitting a group paper or project, please specify what sections you wrote individually. Through the generous contributions of PA members, the prize consists of a $500 award.

 

Past Winners

Fitch Prize 2019 winner Claire Cancilla with PA President Jennifer Whisenhunt
Past PA President Jennifer Whisenhunt (R) presents the 2019 Fitch Prize to Claire Cancilla at the annual PA Fall Party.

2023

Daniella Martinez for Rubber: The Cost of Modernity

2022

Schuyler Daniel for Tangential Histories: Tungsten

2021

Lindsay Papke for The Lasting Effects of the Aramco Compound on the Built Environment of Saudi Arabia

2020

Emily Kahn for Questions of Authenticity: The Restoration & Museification of the Eldridge Street Synagogue

2019

Claire Cancilla for The Didactic Function of Reconstruction: Making the Past Present at Manzanar

2018

Maura Whang for The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum: A Preservation Controversy in Color

2017

Nilika Mistry for Humayun's Tomb – Critical Assessment of the Restoration by Aga Khan Trust for Culture

2016

Allison Semrad for Preservation Decisions at Taliesin East

2015

Alexander Ford and Nicholas Gervasi for A Design Intervention for Terrace on the Park, Flushing Meadows - Corona Park

2014

Angela Wheeler for Kuleana: Heritage Law and Social Justice in 21st Century Hawai'i

2013

Andrea A. Tonc for The Ruins of War: Coventry Cathedral Resurrected

2012

Kate Reggev for Seen but Dismissed, Designed but Disguised: Outhouses at Single-Family Dwellings in the American Mid-Atlantic

2011

Tatum Taylor for Undeniable Conjecture: Placing LGBT Heritage

2010

Kerensa S. Wood for Alvar Aalto's Viipuri Library: Identity Through Restorations

2009

Yiannis Avramides for The Hirshhorn Museum, the Smithsonian Institution Competition of 1939, and the Delayed Actualization of Modernism on the National Mall

2008

Xsusha Carlyann Flandro, Christine Huh, Negin Maleki, Mariana Sarango-Manaças and Jennifer Schork for Progressive Housing in New York City: A Closer Look at Model Tenements and Finnish Cooperatives

2007

Richard Handler for A Brief History of the Transformation of Fifth Avenue and Park Avenue into Luxury Apartments

2006

Christopher Brazee

2005

Jessica Williams for Labor, Silence, Penitence: the New Jersey State Prison at Trenton

2004

Laura Buchner for Ornamental Terra Cotta Along the Harlem River

2003

Andrea Ruedy and Becky Walldorf

2002

Melissa Baldock for The Elliott Houses

2001

Gregory Dietrich for The Austin, Nichols & Company Warehouse

2001

Cindy Chang and Kisa Hooks for Domino Sugar Refinery

2000

Michele A. Boyd for The Mile Square City: Preservation Planning Issues in Hoboken, New Jersey

2000

Lucien Sonder for 7 Bleecker Street

1999

Regan Tuder for The Escuelas Nacionales de Arte and the Search for Cuban Architectural Expression

1998

Nadya Nenadich for Ridgewood Savings Bank

1997

Sarah Ingle for City College Y Building

1997

Barbara Mitchell for An Architectural Study of the Sheffield Farm Stables, Manhattan

1996

Lisanne Renner for From Farm to Factories: The Evolution of Patterson's Urban Form

1995

Katherine Rodway for Maiden Lane: A Survey of the History and Architecture of New York City's First Jewelry District

1994

Kevin Daly

1993

Barbara Mishara for The Bright Lights of Times Square

1992

Josie Fowler and Ken Lustbader

1991

Christopher Neville and Kathleen Randall

1990

Matthew A. Bauer and Vicki S. Weiner

1989

Elizabeth Lee Dassler and Hoanh Viet Tran

1988

Claudia Kavenaugh

1987

Linda Cook

Subscribe to the Preservation Alumni Newsletter