EAST BOSTON - The 2014 Boston Preservation Alliance Awards have been announced.  Among the 10 high profile, big budget projects that received the award year is an unusual entry from a local husband and wife team using their own funds and labour.  The owners of Maverick Marketplace (the former East Boston Welfare Building at 154 Maverick Street), John and Melissa Tyler, are proud today that their renovation this building has been recognized by the BPA.

The competition was fierce. According to the BPA this years entries were "our strongest group of nominations in the Award's twenty-six year history.” The Alliance selected winners based on their “outstanding contributions to preservation and the character of Boston's built environment.

“Recognition of the hard work of our team that completed this two-year renovation is important to us” said John Tyler. “I am really proud of my wife, Melissa who was not only the vision and driving force of this project but also the General Contractor in charge of the day-to-day work on the building.”

“The award is really a great accomplishment for our neighborhood project,” said Melissa Tyler. “But what really makes us proud is the 17 new businesses that call the building home.  They are generating jobs and wealth for their families on a corner of Maverick square that had been abandoned and empty for 24 years"

In a joint statement John and Melissa Tyler said "We wish to thank the City of Boston Department of Neighborhood Development, and First Priority Credit Union whose faith in us enabled this project to go ahead and allow us to show that small, local developers can invest in their communities and produce huge results.  We would like to thank our elected officials who helped support this project from the initial Request For Proposal, to zoning and permitting and to occupancy permit.  Most of all we would like to thank the whole community of East Boston that visit the building and do business within it."

Other winners this year include Liberty Mutual's headquarters in Back Bay, the LogMein Headquarters in Fort Point Channel and the North Bennet Street School in the North End.

Previous years winners include the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Isabella Stuart Gardener Museum extension and the new Spaulding rehabilitation hospital facility in Charlestown. Previous winners from East Boston include the Sumner Street Firehouse that houses Zumix and the Barnes School at 127 Marion Street.