Applicants Sought for 2025 Kristin Visser Historical Preservation Award

APPLICANTS SOUGHT FOR $10,000 2025 KRISTIN VISSER HISTORICAL PRESERVATION AWARD

 

            The award is named in honor of Kristin Visser and is funded by a bequest from the Visser family. Visser was was instrumental in the restoration of the Seth Peterson Cottage and a tireless worker on its behalf. She is the author of Frank Lloyd Wright and the Prairie School in Wisconsin, and, with John Eifler, A.I.A., Frank Lloyd Wright’s Seth Peterson Cottage: Rescuing a Lost Masterwork. Visser, a planner for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, died in 1998 at the age of 48.

            The Visser Award, with funds from the bequest managed by the directors of the Seth Peterson Cottage Conservancy, is presented every other year. Preference is given to an individual or organization in recognition of past historical preservation work of a Frank Lloyd Wright or Prairie School building in Wisconsin or a contiguous state. In general, buildings constructed between 1900 and 1959 are given preference, and the restoration work shall have been substantially completed within the two calendar years previous to the year of application. The 2025 award will be given for work done between 2022 and 2024.

            Applicants are asked to support their submissions with: a)statement fully describing the restoration project; b)state of completion; c)supporting statement from the building contractor and/or architect; d)letters of support from architecture scholars and/or working professionals familiar with the project; e)photographs of the work completed; f)any other supporting materials.    

            Applications will be judged by a panel of members of the Seth Peterson Cottage Conservancy and several outside architectural experts/scholars.

            Deadline for submitting award applications is March 15, 2025. The award recipient will be announced on April 15, 2025, and the award presented at the Seth Peterson Cottage on June 8, 2025.

            The Seth Peterson Cottage, located in Mirror Lake State Park, near Wisconsin Dells, is Frank Lloyd Wright’s final Wisconsin commission (1958) and, at only 880 square feet, one of his smallest. It was rescued from ruin by the concerted efforts of a local group of lake shore property owners, spearheaded by Audrey Laatsch, and restored through a public/private partnership effort. Dedicated in 1992, it serves today as a unique rental cottage being the first Frank Lloyd Wright home that could be rented and is managed by the Seth Peterson Cottage Conservancy.

Past Kristin Visser Historic Preservation Award Winners

  •       2007 Steve Sikora and Lynette Erickson-Sikora, Willey House, Minneapolis, MN

  •       2009 Paul Harding and Cheryl Harding, Davenport House, River Forest, IL

  •       2011 Mary Arnold and Henry St. Maurice, E. Clarke Arnold House, Columbus, WI

  •       2013 Frank Lloyd Wright Wisconsin, B-1 ASBH, Milwaukee, WI

  •       2015 John Eifler and Bonnie Phoenix, Ross House, Glencoe, IL

  •       2017 Gene Szymczak posthumously, Thomas P. Hardy House, Racine, WI

  •       2019 Doug LaBrecque, Curtis and Lillian Meyer House, Galesburg, MI

  •       2021 Nicholas and Lauren Witkowski, Brookfield Kindergarten, Brookfield, IL

  •       2023 Ellen Bendel-Stenzel and late husband Michael, Jack and Gloria Grabow House, Rochester, MN

Send hard copy applications to: Seth Peterson Cottage Conservancy, PO Box 186 Lake Delton, WI 53940. Digital applications accepted via email at: SethPetersonCottage@gmail.com

For more information contact - SethPetersonCottage@gmail.com.

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