Staff report
Salisbury architect Gray Stout received the “Main Street Champion Award” for his dedicated support of downtown revitalization in Salisbury over the past 15 years.
The North Carolina Main Street Center presented Stout with the recognition during the annual N.C. Main Street Conference Jan. 31 in Rocky Mount.
Stout and Max Spear also received an “Award of Merit” in the category of “Best New Development/New Construction Project” for the Firehouse Urban Lofts at East Fisher and South Lee streets in Salisbury.
Stout Studio Architecture ó represented by project architects Michael Lippard and Gray Stout AIA, received another “Award of Merit,” along with Downtown Salisbury Inc. for “Best Facade Rehabilitation” for the McNeely Young Building at 102 S. Main St. Diane Young was the general contractor.
Stout has been chairman of Downtown Salisbury Inc.’s parking and traffic committee for six years, devising ways to add more than 40 on-street parking spaces in and working with the city staff to design the small park and parking plaza at South lee and East Fisher streets.
Gray and Heather St. Aubin-Stout also have partnered with Seamus and Tracy Donaldson, who recently purchased and restored the circa 1900 Hartmann-Lanier rental house at 211 E. Fisher St.
The house was in danger from neglect and disrepair. The Donaldsons and Stouts designed a budget-sensitive restoration and have saved the residential structure, part of the Brooklyn-South Square Historic District and immediately adjacent to the central business district of Salisbury and the East Fisher Street improvements.