About this Event
Join City preservation staff, local preservationists, and historic home owners for a chat about preservation and architecture in Columbia. Past Mabel Payne Award winners will offer tips and tools for tackling local renovation and preservation projects. Join in the conversation with your own stories or come ready with questions about your project. Speakers for this event are past Mabel Payne Award winners that have worked on residential and commerical projects in Columbia.
About the Speakers:
, President of Garvin Design Group, is a local architect and developer. Scott founded Garvin Design Group in 2003 and has guided some of Columbia’s most impactful revitalization projects, including the adaptive reuse of Olympia and Granby Mills, 701 Whaley, Palmetto Compress Warehouse, Central Energy, Mast General Store, and Gervais Place. Scott won the Mabel Payne Award in 2025.
Kandie Wright is a local resident and retired civil servant who brings new life to houses within the Historic Melrose neighborhood. Kandie has transformed dilapidated “lost cause” buildings into some of the most desirable houses in the neighborhood, including her own home, the Prairie Style Powell House, which stands today as a rare, gorgeous example of the Prairie style in Columbia. Kandie won the Mabel Payne Award in 2023.
Richard Burts is a local developer whose rehabilitation projects include 701 Whaley, the Palmetto Compress Warehouse, numerous buildings in Five Points, mill houses in the Granby Mill District, and other buildings which range from 2,000 s.f. to well over 300,000 square feet. Richard won the Mabel Payne Award in 2022.
Mabel Payne Award:
Given annually by the the City of Columbia Planning Division, the Mabel Payne Award is named for one of the City’s first planners whose dedication and advocacy for historic structures laid the groundwork for preservation in Columbia and made her a trail blazer in preservation. The award recognizes individuals, organizations, and neighborhoods for their outstanding efforts in education, leadership, conservation, or stewardship which supports our built environment and, ultimately, the entire City. Mabel Payne Award winners may work behind the scenes or they may be front and center, but their work has had a significant impact on Columbia and its historic built environment through their outstanding efforts in education, leadership, conservation, or stewardship of the City’s historic resources.
About Mabel Payne:
Mabel Payne was a City of Columbia employee whose work in the 1950s documenting and preserving historic structures laid the foundation for preservation in the City. Her records of historic properties are often the only surviving information available on demolished buildings that were once a part of the City’s historic downtown.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
All Good Books, 734 Harden Street, Columbia, United States
USD 0.00
