Building Louisiana Receives Award

Building Louisiana: The Legacy of the Public Works Administration by Robert D. Leighninger, Jr.was selected as the 2008 recipient of the Abel Wolman Award from the Public Works Historical Society. The Wolman award recognizes the single best new book published in the field of public works history.

Building Louisiana, released in May 2007, documents the projects erected in Louisiana by the Public Works Administration and places these in social and political context. Most of the edifices mentioned in the book are still in use, yet few people recognize how these schools, courthouses, and other great structures came about

Established in 1987, the Wolman award provides encouragement and recognition to historians whose research and publications have made outstanding contributions to the history of public works.

Winners of the Abel Wolman Award receive a customized marble plaque and cash prize of $500, which will be awarded at the Public Works Historical Society Luncheon and Annual Meeting on Monday, August 18. This year's program will be held, fittingly enough, in New Orleans.

You can read an excerpt from Building Louisiana from the Fall 2007 issue of Louisiana Cultural Vistas.