Roosevelt School Apartments honored for excellence in historic preservation

Roosevelt School Apartments in Clinton, formerly the Clinton Community School District’s administration building, has been recognized as Iowa’s top historic adaptive use restoration for 2017 by Preservation Iowa, a statewide nonprofit advocate for historic preservation.

Roosevelt School Apartments received the “Preservation at Its Best” award June 8 at the 2017 Preserve Iowa Summit, in Fort Dodge, Iowa.  Sam Erickson, chief operating officer, accepted the honor on behalf of Community Housing Initiatives (CHI), and was joined by project architect Patrick Denahey of ASK Studio, Des Moines, and site manager Mike Brown of Ringland-Johnson Construction in Cherry Valley, Illinois.

“The whole team is honored to receive this recognition, which we share with many leaders and community members in Clinton whose efforts made protecting this gorgeous building possible.  We couldn’t be happier to bring this honor to Clinton, a community that has worked so hard and achieved so much to protect its rich history,” said Sam Erickson.

Each year, Preservation Iowa recognizes individuals, organizations, projects, and programs whose work demonstrates a commitment to excellence in historic preservation. Projects are judged on degree of historic preservation excellence, community impact, and quality of work completed.

Over more than 20 years in business, Community Housing Initiatives, a nonprofit developer of affordable housing, has received Preservation at Its Best honors before for several of its apartment conversions of historic buildings. Van Allen Apartments, a Clinton landmark that was designed by the renowned architect Louis Sullivan, received the same award in 2004.

Roosevelt School Apartments is CHI’s newest apartment community in Clinton, and its fourth historic adaptive use of a historic building located there.  Roosevelt School opened as apartments in October 2016.