The University of Mary Washington Center for Historic Preservation has awarded the 2013 Historic Preservation Book Prize to “SynergiCity: Reinventing the Postindustrial City,” edited by Paul Hardin Kapp and Paul J. Armstrong.

Paul Kapp and Paul Armstrong received the 2013 Historic Preservation Book Prize for their book “SynergiCity.” Image courtesy of University of Illinois Press.

“In response to the gripping question of how to renew the postindustrial city, the authors of the essays in the book propose a fascinating viewpoint,” said Cristina Turdean, jury chair and assistant professor of historic preservation. “The book does a superb job in making the reader think in a holistic and practical way of the forces and factors that could and should play a role in the transformation of dormant industrial infrastructure and communities into vibrant urban centers.”

The center awards the Historic Preservation Book Prize annually to a book that a jury deems has made the most significant contribution to the intellectual vitality of historic preservation in America.

Kapp is an associate professor of historic preservation at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is a licensed architect in Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina. He served as the historical architect and campus historic preservation manager at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for more than five years.

Armstrong is an associate professor of design at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he has taught for more than two decades. He has presented lectures across the country and is co-author of “The Skyscraper and the City: Design, Technology, and Innovation.”

This year, the jury for the $500 prize also included Julia King, associate professor at St. Mary’s College of Maryland; Kaitlin O’Shea, historic preservation specialist at the Vermont Agency of Transportation; Sarah Sanders ’13; Gary Stanton, associate professor of historic preservation at UMW; and Jason Vaughan, director of historic preservation and interpretation at the Baltimore National Heritage Area.

Entries may come from any of the disciplines that relate to the theory or practice of historic preservation. To be eligible for the 2014 prize, a book must be published first in the United States between Jan. 1, 2013 and Dec. 31, 2013.

Established in 1980, the Center for Historic Preservation is a research and public outreach organization affiliated with the UMW Department of Historic Preservation. The center sponsors lectures, seminars, workshops and conferences for students and faculty in the historic preservation department, and it offers programs for the public.

For more information, contact Andrea Livi-Smith, assistant professor of historic preservation, at alsmith@umw.edu or (540) 654-1316.