Attention to detail: A passion for perfection paid off for architects Richard and Nancy Becker, who recently won a preservation award for the rehabilitation of their Highland Park home. The Beckers, who moved to Highland Park from Manhattan two years ago, designed a two-story addition for their 75-year-old red brick colonial home. The house was also gutted and renovated, Nancy Becker noted.
”It looks like we just restored it, but in truth, we added a lot of things to dress it up. The original house was basically just a summer home. It was very simple. We added things like moldings and a marble floor in the foyer that look like they were there originally,” she said.
The Beckers and their four children moved into the home of her parents, Sidney and Eunice Lieberstein, during the six-month renovation period.
As architects, the Beckers have done a number of residential and commercial renovations, including three apartments they lived in while in Manhattan. ”It`s hard for us to be the homeowners because everything just has to be perfect. We`re probably over-attuned to details and problems,” she added.
Other winners of the preservation awards, handed out by the Highland Park Historic Preservation Commission, included David and Janet Wigodner, Jonathon and Andrea Zakin, Howard and Carol Kaplan, Michael and Joy Segal, the South Deere Park Homeowners Association, the Highmoor Nature Preserve and the Highland Park Historical Society. The Bob Robinson award, given to the project deemed the most outstanding of the 21 nominated, went to the Rosewood Park and Beach landscape preservation project completed by the Park District of Highland Park.