Historic resorts, landmarks highlight SOHO’s 2025 PIP awards

From coastal resorts to neighborhood landmarks, the 2025 People In Preservation Award winners showcase the best of San Diego’s historic preservation, announced this week by Save Our Heritage Organisation.

Now in its 43rd year, the annual awards recognize the meaningful achievements of those who protect the region’s historic built environment and ensure that its neighborhoods, cities, and landmarks remain authentic for future generations, according to a news release.

“SOHO celebrates these remarkable individuals who demonstrate what’s possible when dedication, skill, and vision are applied to the ongoing work of protecting our past,” said Bruce Coons, executive director of SOHO. “Their achievements remind us that preservation takes many forms, each essential to safeguarding the identity, pride, and authenticity of San Diego’s communities. This year’s awardees demonstrate how historic preservation not only saves our built heritage but sustains the places and stories that fuel our economy, our cultural tourism, community pride, and long-term prosperity.”

This year’s awards highlight preservation’s impact on cultural heritage tourism and economic vitality, with honorees including four hotel-related projects—three historic resorts and a downtown landmark—as well as a theatre and a major Balboa Park attraction. These sites safeguard history while serving as dynamic contributors to the region’s identity and economy.

The 2025 recipients represent three key preservation themes:

• Legacy leadership, honoring individuals and organizations whose long-term commitment has shaped San Diego’s preservation movement.
• Adaptive reuse, giving historic buildings new life and relevance while strengthening community identity.
• Stewardship of landmarks, from coastal resorts to civic institutions, ensuring that cultural heritage tourism remains an economic force.

2025 People In Preservation Award Winners

• Lifetime Legacy: Marc Tarasuck
• Lifetime Legacy: Alex D. Bevil
• Culture Keeper, Ocean Beach and Point Loma: Eric DuVall
• Culture Keeper, Landscape Heritage: Nancy Carol Carter
• Culture Keeper, Oceanside: Kristi Hawthorne
• Town Crier: Rev. Dr. Mark Hargreaves
• Civic Restoration: Botanical Building
• Restoration & Renovation: Hotel del Coronado
• Keeper of the Flame: Crystal Pier Hotel & Cottages
• Keeper of the Flame: Paradise Point
• Adaptive Reuse: The Joan and Irwin Jacobs Performing Arts Center
• Adaptive Reuse: Granger Hotel, Gaslamp Quarter
  
  Since its inception in 1983, SOHO’s PIP Awards have honored more than 700 individuals and entities with more than 400 unique awards throughout San Diego County. From historic homes and public buildings to cultural landscapes, archives, museums, and advocacy work, the PIP Awards showcase the wide-ranging, distinguished efforts that preserve San Diego’s heritage in all its forms, the news release added.