The 2026 DeMuro Award Winners

Congratulations to the Award-Winning Projects and the People Who Made it Possible

  • Preservation

    Honoring communities, organizations, and individuals around the state who preserve and restore historic places.

  • Reuse

    Existing homes and buildings are among Oregon’s greatest renewable resources. As such, their restoration and reuse should be promoted as an effective strategy for meeting carbon reduction goals statewide.

  • Revitalization

    Uplifting communities with reimagined, rescued, and revived meaningful places.

  • Community

    People saving remarkable historic places snatched from the wrecking ball or rescued from decades of neglect.

Outstanding Projects in Historic Preservation

Learn More About Our 2026 DeMuro Award Judges

Paul Falsetto

Paul Falsetto is a Portland architect and the founder of Paul M. Falsetto Architect, a Portland firm specializing in historic preservation work. Over his three decades of service, Paul has developed preservation plans and performed involved rehabilitations on dozens of buildings listed in the National Register. Seven projects in which he held primary roles of responsibility have received DeMuro Awards, including three separate projects in the town of Dayton, Oregon. Paul is a graduate of the University of Oregon, receiving a Master of Architecture and Master of Science in Historic Preservation. Since graduating, he has originated and taught a variety of courses for the UO’s Department of Architecture and the Historic Preservation Program, covering topics such as preservation theory and ‘eco-preservation’. Paul firmly believes that sustaining both historic properties and the natural environment are mutually-inclusive goals, and has managed two complex historic projects that have achieved LEED Gold ratings. He was recently awarded a 2026 Oregon Heritage Excellence Award, which recognizes outstanding heritage work that demonstrates an exceptional level of innovation and distinction.

Jessica Engeman

Jessica Engeman believes in the power of transformative redevelopment and urban planning projects to create architectural and economic vibrancy. As the founding principal of Continuum Preservation Consulting, She is a specialist in historic preservation with over 22 years of experience working on high-profile historic redevelopment projects in a variety of roles, including project manager/owner’s representative. Her range of consulting services touches most aspects of historic preservation and adaptive reuse—from feasibility studies to historic tax credit applications to strategic guidance on land use reviews. Developers, architecture firms, nonprofits, and local governments seek her unique expertise that blends a deep knowledge of real estate economics along with a holistic understanding of historic preservation constraints, opportunities, and best practices. She is also a University of Oregon alumna with bachelor and master’s degrees in architectural history, historic preservation, and planning.

Amalia Leifeste

Amalia Leifeste is an associate professor, the Veneurable Chair, and the Director of University of Oregon’s Historic Preservation program, in Eugene.  She spent the past decade plus as a professor in Charleston, SC and is delighted to have returned to Oregon to be part of a program with great legacy and impressive reach in the region’s preservation education landscape. Amalia is a preservation architect and brings that experience, as well as educational training in sustainable design, to the rich medley of faculty in UO’s HP program and Department of Architecture.   Amalia’s research agenda revolves around fostering a sustainable building culture and sees preservation practice as essential to any serious view of sustainability.  In research and through her teaching role she is interested in how we educate practitioners, how place fosters group identity, and in defining how much and what kind of change can keep buildings useful for current needs without erasing essential touchstones of meaning for people who care about their historic places.

Zachary Stocks

Zachary Stocks is a public historian, interpreter, and the Executive Director of Oregon Black Pioneers. Zachary previously served as Program Director of Historical Seaport and Visitor Services Manager of Northwest African American Museum. He is a former intern of Colonial Williamsburg and Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, and a former seasonal Park Ranger at Lewis & Clark National Historical Park. He holds a BA in History from the College of William & Mary with a certificate in Public History from the National Institute for American History and Democracy, and an MA in Museology from the University of Washington. Zachary is a 2025 graduate of the prestigious History Leadership Institute, sponsored by the American Association of State and Local History. Zachary lives in Astoria.

Cassie Hibbert

Cassie Hibbert has served on La Grande’s Landmarks Commission since 2017 and is a Senior Project Manager for Wenaha Group, a native-owned Owner’s Representative and Construction Management firm that serves tribal governments and public agencies throughout Oregon and Washington. After receiving a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and years working in design and owner’s representation in Seattle, she returned to her hometown of La Grande in 2017, driven by a desire to support the vitality of rural communities. Cassie previously served on Seattle’s Landmarks Preservation Board and as a volunteer for the Seattle Architecture Foundation.

Celebrate the DeMuro Awards at the Restoration Celebration

The Restoration Celebration

When: October 23, 2026

Restore Oregon will host the annual party and fundraiser at The Historic Dance Pavilion at Oaks Park. Tickets on sale now

 

Become a Restoration Celebration sponsor!

Are you an industry professional looking to network, promote your business, and celebrate historic preservation throughout Oregon? Check out our sponsorship options or email keith@restoreoregon.org with questions or to sign up today!

Celebrating Oregon’s Built Environment and Diverse History

Congratulations!