Two with Point Loma-OB ties win People in Preservation awards

For making a mark on local historic preservation, a resident and a project with connections to the Point Loma-Ocean Beach area have been honored with People in Preservation awards from the Save Our Heritage Organisation.

The awards — 12 in all — are now in their 43rd year, highlighting excellence in restoring, reusing, promoting and protecting San Diego’s historic places, according to SOHO.

The new Joan and Irwin Jacobs Performing Arts Center in Point Loma — named for late San Diego philanthropist Joan Jacobs and her husband, Irwin — received an Adaptive Reuse Award. The center, nicknamed “The Joan,” is the conversion of an old Navy building at Liberty Station, formerly Naval Training Center San Diego.

Eric DuVall, president of the Ocean Beach Historical Society, was given a Culture Keeper Award for his work as “a leading steward of Ocean Beach and Point Loma’s historical and cultural identity and one of the community’s most engaging advocates for local history,” SOHO said.

“[The honorees] embody what preservation is all about — saving historic places and keeping their stories alive,” said Alana Coons, SOHO’s education and communications director.

Joan and Irwin Jacobs Performing Arts Center

The reuse of Liberty Station’s Building 178 respects the structure’s original scale, decorative features and materials while reimagining the interior to serve as the new home of Cygnet Theatre and the broader performing arts community, according to SOHO.

The 42,000-square-foot project includes the 280-seat proscenium-style Joseph Clayes III Theater and the 150-seat Dottie Studio Theater, along with rehearsal rooms, green rooms and gallery space. It opened to the public Sept. 5.

“This thoughtful restoration and adaptation honor the building’s Spanish Colonial Revival style, NTC’s architectural signature, which unified the campus and reflected San Diego’s regional design identity,” SOHO said. “Historic arcades, windows and colonnades that had been sealed over in prior remodels are prominent again. The careful blend of historic fabric and contemporary function results in a new cultural landmark for San Diego. … It also reinforces the ongoing vitality of Liberty Station’s Arts District, where historic structures are reborn as centers of community, culture and creativity.”

Eric DuVall

In addition to leading the OB Historical Society, DuVall is a board member of the La Playa Trail Association and writes the “A Page from History” column for the Point Loma-OB Monthly, sharing historical tales of the area’s people and places.

The local native is a 1972 graduate of Point Loma High School.

“Eric’s preservation work goes beyond the all-important task of raising awareness of historic places through his storytelling. He is a passionate advocate for saving the irreplaceable, be it sidewalk stamps or threatened neighborhood landmarks,” according to SOHO. “Through his writing, lectures, personal archives and collaborative projects like the book ‘Point Loma’ (with Kitty McDaniel) … Eric has earned his reputation as one of Ocean Beach’s most trusted cultural historians and keepers of memory.”

— Union-Tribune Community Press staff writer Ashley Mackin-Solomon contributed to this report.