Mount Holly, NJ, 25 May 2011 – At this month’s Burlington County Freeholders meeting, the firm of Regan Young England Butera: Referendums Engineering Architecture Design (aka RYEBREAD) received an award for Preservation Leadership. The award is part of the Freeholders annual recognition program for National Historic Preservation Month.

RYEBREAD was recognized for consistently demonstrating an awareness and familiarity with local history and incorporating this knowledge into their design and restoration of public buildings A specific work cited is the recently completed Warden’s House in Mount Holly, a project by RYEBREAD partner-in-charge Scott Charles England, AIA. Another project commended by the award committee is the Green Bank Elementary School, led by partner-in-charge Angelo P. Butera, AIA, LEED AP.

“We are pleased to have been able to restore this important part of South Jersey history,” said England of the Warden’s House. “And recycling buildings is the most profound strategy of Green Architecture,” added RYEBREAD partner Butera. The Warden’s House renovation has also received awards from the Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, as well as the New Jersey Historic Preservation Office.

The Warden’s House is connected to the Burlington County Prison Museum, an 1811 structure designed by famed Philadelphia architect Robert Mills. The County of Burlington constructed this two-and-one-half-story, Second Empire Victorian red brick addition in 1888 to house the Burlington County Warden and his family. The building is located within the Mount Holly National Register Historic District.

Having fallen into underutilization and disrepair over the decades, the Burlington County Freeholders decided to restore the building’s exterior and in the same project, perform needed interior repairs and improvements. RYEBREAD renovated the building in accordance with Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation.

The new Green Bank Elementary School is a reinterpretation of the adjacent 1919 schoolhouse. While clothed in a compatible historic style, the structure contains all the spaces and equipment needed for a modern education. At the same time, both exterior and interior design reflect its Pinelands context & heritage.

The Burlington County Preservation Awards selection committee was comprised of County Historian Joseph M. Laufer and fellow historians Paul W. Schopp and David Kimball. They recommended the recipients for the awards to the Freeholders.