Vision Award: Lori Houston

Lori Houston’s favorite place in San Antonio is the River Walk, the first place she went when she visited in 2000. Five years later, she got to work on the Museum Reach Urban Segment of the San Antonio River Improvements Project. This award video for the Power of Preservation (PoP) PROM honors Lori, a former San Antonio Assistant City Manager, who received its Vision Award.

Phil Hardberger, a former San Antonio mayor, remembers that Lori, a former intern, hadn’t been at the city long when she was appointed to help him get that project done. He says she has “a lot of perseverance” and overcomes objections “with such grace and intelligence.”

That project started her love of historic preservation, Lori says. Shanon Miller, director of the Office of Historic Preservation, says that when Lori worked on housing and other incentive policies, she always factored in historic preservation, as a way to earn more points or maybe qualify for more incentives.

Being a visionary, she’s always said, means believing in your cause. She spent 23 years at the city improving San Antonio and preserving its cultural assets and buildings. “It’s because I believe in us,” she says. She also helped imagine PROM from the start. “There’s a lot more people with visions than there are doers,” Phil says. “She happens to do both very well.”