Maine Biz: Team behind Lemont Block renovation receives Maine Preservation award

See the excerpt of the entire story published in Maine Biz on 3/30/23 below:

“The team behind the resurrection of the historic Lemont Block in Brunswick received a 2023 Maine Preservation Honor Award for its work. 

Nancy Barba and Tim Morrison of Barba + Wheelock headed up project design with Mike Cunningham, of Lincoln/Haney Engineering Associates, serving as the structural engineer. The late Peter Warren and his team at Freeport-based Warren Construction led construction; Warren passed away before completion of the project. The owners of the building are Aaron Turkel and Cleo Vauban.

The four-story Lemont Block building, at the corner of Pleasant and Main streets, was built in 1870 for the Knights of Pythias, a fraternal order established during the Civil War. According to the Pejepscot Historical Society, Lemont Hall served as the venue for many speeches and events in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Last September, Turkel and Vauban, owners of the Lemont Block, unveiled the finished project, which featured luxury apartments and the reopening of Lemont Hall, with a capacity of 299 people. It was the first time in generations that the hall has been open for weddings, public gatherings and lectures. 

"We've always thought the Lemont Block was special, and enough hard-working people agreed with us to get this momentous job done,” Aaron Turkel said in September, when the project opened. “It makes us so proud to bring back a cornerstone of Brunswick.””

We’re grateful for the opportunity to have teamed up with Barba + Wheelock Architecture out of Portland, Maine for the restoration of the Lemont Block. They’ve been instrumental in pulling together all of the pieces needed to complete the project, from funding, to design + build, to the management of NPS submissions.