The Eleven Most Enhanced and Eleven Most Endangered Lists
The National Trust for Historic Preservation compiled its first list of America's Eleven Most Endangered Places in 1988. A call to action, the tally was designed to demonstrate the diversity of the nation's imperiled historic resources and to identify the variety of threats that plague them. In 1992, Landmarks Association decided to follow the Trust's lead, but limit our eleven examples to properties located in St. Louis City, and occaisionally in surrounding communities.
In 1996, Landmarks inaugurated a ceremony honoring the city's Eleven Most Enhanced Places. Designed to balance the yearly endangered roll call, most of our Enhanced Awards have gone to outstanding rehabilitation projects. A few, however, have recognized notable additions to historic buildings and/or new buildings that respected but did not mimic an historic context. Award winning buildings demonstrate the amazing culture of rehabilitation that thrives in St. Louis and are a testament to the skills and vision of the local development community. They also represent an enormous investment in St. Louis; since 1998 when we started keeping close tabs, award winning projects have had a cumulative budget of close to three BILLION dollars!