The City of Fresno’s Planning and Development Department has been
awarded a 2009 Governor’s Historic Preservation Award for its 2008 publication,
Architecture, Ethnicity and Historic Landscapes of California’s San Joaquin Valley.

Fresno is one of 12 statewide projects that will be honored at a ceremony and reception at the Leland Stanford Mansion State Historic Park in Sacramento on January 20th.  

Karana Hattersley-Drayton, Historic Preservation Officer for the City, will accept the
award on behalf of the Department.  Ms. Drayton served as the Executive Editor for the publication and also wrote several of the illustrated essays.  Kevin Enns-Rempel,
archivist for Fresno Pacific University who served on the editorial board, will join Ms. Drayton at the ceremony.

Architecture, Ethnicity and Historic Landscapes of California’s San Joaquin Valley is the first-ever published collection of essays, short articles, historic photographs and original art to examine the vernacular architecture and cultural heritage of the region. 

The work includes 29 essays by 22 authors and is collated into seven sections by themes which were developed for the Vernacular Architecture Forum’s annual conference held in Fresno in May 2008.  The preface was written by author Gerald Haslam.  Although the publication was produced by the City of Fresno’s Planning and Development Department as a companion volume for the conference, the intent was for this work to have a life well beyond that of the conference.  Copies of the publication were subsequently distributed to libraries and archives throughout California.

The publication won a 2008 California Preservation Foundation Award and in a review published last year the work was described as an “extraordinary little volume.”  Copies of “Architecture, Ethnicity and Historic Landscapes…” are available for sale from the Planning and Development Department.