Good Brick Awards 2025

Preservation Houston honors historic buildings with annual awards

Preservation Houston’s Good Brick Awards return for their 46th year celebrating excellence in historic preservation. PH presented the first Good Brick Awards in 1979 to recognize outstanding contributions to the preservation, restoration, and enhancement of Houston’s architectural and cultural heritage. Counting the 2025 recipients, the organization has recognized more than 420 people and projects with Good Bricks in the past 46 years.

“The diversity of the 2025 award recipients reflects the remarkable evolution of Houston’s preservation movement,” says Kathy Washburn, PH’s interim executive director. “These projects are a testament to the dedication of those who care deeply about preserving our city’s heritage, and we’re honored to recognize the people and groups that brought them to life.”

Houston has many things that it does well, topping annual charts for numerous positive achievements — like the abundance of parks and other green spaces. However, the Bayou City doesn’t even rank in the top 20 of cities with beautiful old houses. Aggressive redevelopment and gentrification practices across the city have led to rapidly dwindling numbers of historic homes and other properties. Happily, creative and adaptive reuse practices are seeing more and more historic properties saved, restored, and living fresh lives. The Good Brick Awards serve as a reminder that this city is teeming with capable stewards of these buildings, great and small — and that’s something to celebrate.

So, without further ado, here are the 2025 Preservation Houston Good Brick Award recipients, along with a few words from some of the honorees about what this honor means to them. The 2025 Good Brick Award winners will be recognized during The Cornerstone Dinner on February 28, 2025, at the River Oaks Country Club.

The Preservation Houston President’s Award

Jon Deal for his contributions to historic preservation in Houston.

Deal is founder of The Deal Company, a development and investment firm specializing in repurposing former industrial and retail buildings in the urban core. He has been involved with several prior Good Brick Award-winning projects including the adaptive reuse of the former Riviana Rice silos in First Ward as The Silos at Sawyer Yards.

Juried Awards

Jason Johnson for an addition to the Lighthouse House (1906, Olle Lorehn) in the Old Sixth Ward Historic District.

“I was raised inside the loop. I love this city. I strive to be a good steward of my property. I want to do what I can to help preserve our architectural history,” Johnson says.

Diane and Ray Krueger for the adaptive reuse of the Big Three Industries Building (1974, MacKie & Kamrath) in Greater Heights.

“The Big Three Industries Building is a Houston story. Having the opportunity to acquire and repurpose it to a mixed-use of offices with our home on the top floor was a starting point for it to have a new life. Living there is a singular experience! Receiving a Good Brick Award validates our vision for this Kamrath wonder,” Ray Krueger says.

Julia W. Long for rehabilitating the Warshaw House (1965, Hy Applebaum) in Meyerland.

Hon. Annise Parker and Kathy Hubbard for renovating the Crawford House (1904) in the Westmoreland Historic District.

Mary Patton for rehabilitating the Herzog House (1956, Paul László) in Braeswood.

“I’m deeply honored to receive this award. After a decade in interior design, I’ve come to realize how essential preservation is,” Patton says. “This recognition is especially meaningful because it reflects a shared appreciation for valuing what already exists and finding ways to enhance it, rather than replacing it simply because we can.”

Julia and Thomas Pascal Will Robinson for rehabilitating the Waldo Mansion (1905) in the Westmoreland Historic District.

Charles Stava and Jacob Garber-Stava for restoring the Martha Perlitz House (1912, Alonzo N. Dawson) in the Avondale West Historic District.

“I've known my house for years before I purchased it, as I knew the previous owner,” Chuck Stava says. “He had it extensively modernized in the 1960s, which he later regretted. I could envision what a grand home it once was and felt it was our duty to return it to its rightful appearance both inside and outside. Receiving a Good Brick Award is a vindication of our efforts to restore one of Montrose's original grand ladies.”

Buffalo Soldiers National Museum for the rehabilitation of the Houston Light Guard Armory (1925, Alfred C. Finn) in Midtown/Third Ward.

The Church at 1548 Heights for restoring the historic windows at its building (1924, Alfred C. Finn) in Houston Heights.

Stephen Fox for his book The Architecture of Birdsall P. Briscoe.

The Martha Peterson Award

Southampton Centennial Committee for the Southampton Place Centennial Celebration.

“We are thrilled the Good Brick award honors Southampton’s architectural and cultural history. Our community’s strength and future commitment are enriched by Preservation Houston’s recognition,” committee member Joe Fischer says.

Jim Parsons is the program director for Preservation Houston and believes that highlighting the successes of dedicated preservationists remains important to the continuing efforts of individuals and communities to restore and preserve historic structures.

“From day one, we’ve believed in celebrating outstanding preservation projects and the people who make them happen,” Parsons says. “It’s not just about honoring their work — it’s about showing Houstonians that we can respect our past while keeping historic buildings a meaningful part of our city’s future.”

Congratulations to the winners of the 2025 Good Brick Awards and their contributions to the preservation of our historic spaces.

For more information about Preservation Houston and the Good Brick Awards, visit the organization’s website.

Preservation Houston Good Brick Awards 2025

Courtesy photo

Church at 1548 Heights.

party down

Design-focused Houston rentals company adds boutique hotel flair to events

Courtesy of Helm House

Furniture upholstery is fully customizable.

The season for end-of-summer parties is approaching. As Houstonians prepare to pack away their swimwear, white linens, and tiki torches, end of summer fêtes are ramping up. Trusted event planning company Planned With has recently launched its sister company — the custom event rentals outfit named Helm House — just in time to make a splash.

Unlike traditional event rental companies, Helm House focuses on design-forward pieces that are fully customizable — down to the upholstery. Each piece in their finely-curated collections can be reupholstered on-the-fly, should a client require something a little more jazzy. Browse fabric collections from Nuage Designs, trimmings from luxury design house Samuel & Sons, and fun options from Chasing Paper to get a truly one-of-a-kind look.

In order to offer truly unique designs, the team at Helm House regularly shops the antiques fair at Round Top for accessories and lighting. Fixtures and other pieces are available from artists like Ken Bizzell of KB Design. His handcrafted works made of recycled tire rubber and other materials are a constant standout in the Excess tents during the fall and spring shows.

“We don’t want to do it cookie-cutter,” says co-founder and director of design Hannah Goetz. “We want it to be very niche, special, and unique. Really one-of-a-kind pieces that you can’t find anywhere else.”

Helm House will paint, paper, or vinyl wrap just about anything in its inventory, even offering custom vinyl designs for tabletops. The design team, led by Goetz, has taken the guess work out of the selections process by finely-tuning preset collections, should clients want a one-and-done experience. Helm House is certainly the first events company in the Houston and Austin market to allow clients to shop by vibes.

“We have collections. So, on the website there are ten collections, and for each of them there is a lounge set up, bar set up, and a dining set up,” explains Goetz. “You can just go on the website and it’s configured and designed and can be added to a wishlist. It’s just easy premade items if you want something pre-designed or even just to get some ideas. But each collection has those three spaces that people can just shop for. If a client really wants to customize fabrics or any pieces for the bars or tables, pillows, or anything like that, then we can provide that for them.”

One of the things that clients appreciate is the ability to work with an in-house interior designer. That being said, there are no pieces in the collections that aren’t design-forward, but with the ability to fully-customize any aspect of the project, it’s easy to get a little lost along the way.

“It depends on the client, but we are a full design house, so we offer those services to clients,” says Goetz. “If they need help with the actual design of the event, then we will present the full design space and say exactly where things are supposed to go. Then we will actually help implement all of the furniture on-site at the event.”

All of this flexibility comes at a price, of course. Helm House typically has a $5,000 minimum per project. As seen in the photo above, a table for six rents for $350. Customers can add a custom vinyl topper for $100 and place settings from $40-60 per seat, meaning place settings for a table of six run from $240-360 per day.

While clients are more than welcome to use their own event planners, the Helm House team’s experience with their sister company gives them a leg-up on other event rentals companies. Traditionally, the rental company will send items to the venue with a single delivery driver with no knowledge of the project. However, Helm House insists on being on-site for the delivery and to have the ability to make any necessary minor adjustments.

“We’ve found that people aren’t usually on-site who are actually part of the rental company, and we want to make sure that everything is placed where it should be, but also just that we are taking that off of our client’s hands,” explains Goetz.

Founder and CEO Emily Rudelson (Full disclosure: Rudelson once worked for CultureMap) wants to provide a rental experience that allows clients to feel that their space offers something different — better sight lines, frames, fabrics, and place settings and linens that feel anything but temporary.

"We started Helm House because we felt there was a void in the market. We were constantly inspired by the incredible design in restaurants, hotels, and boutique spaces, but that same level of thoughtful furniture simply wasn't available for events,” explains Rudelson. “Helm House was built to change that: bringing hospitality-inspired design to the event industry through elevated, design-forward rentals that can also be customized. From fabrics and finishes to one-of-a-kind details, we want every client to have the opportunity to truly make it theirs.

“As the founder of Planned With, I also love that I now get to furnish our own events with pieces we truly believe in, while Helm House operates as its own independent rental company serving planners, designers, brands, venues, and clients across Texas. We believe rentals shouldn't feel rented; they should feel like they were designed specifically for your event.”

Courtesy of Helm House

Furniture upholstery is fully customizable.

home-design parties business