Built in 1929 as the headquarters of Western Electric, a major division of AT&T, the Michigan Bell Building sat vacant for years before a Detroit nonprofit, Neighborhood Service Organization, stepped in. The group organized a $50M renovation that converted the warehouse into permanent housing for 155 homeless men and women.

In 2003, the owner of Las Vegas' iconic midcentury La Concha Motel—Lorenzo Doumani, a descendant of the original commissioner—decided to replace the motel with a more spacious and modern structure. Sensitive to the historic significance of the lobby, he sought to move the swooping building to a different site. This year, the restored lobby finally opened on the grounds of the Neon Museum.

Wake Forest University revamped a disused tobacco factory building into a state-of-the-art life sciences research center that will employ 450 workers. The development created more than 600 construction jobs and was completed in March.

Denver's historic Emerson School building was donated to the National Trust in 2010. The Trust spent $3.2M to rehab the 1885 schoolhouse and it now houses the Denver field office, along with the offices of seven other non-profits, in environmentally friendly office space.

A groundbreaking ceremony in June marked the beginning of a massive restoration project that will convert the historic, 117,000-square-foot Ames Shovel Shop into 113 residential units. After a long battle with a would-be developer who sought to drastically alter the existing structures, the land was sold to Beacon Communities, who plan to preserve as much of the eight-acre complex as possible.

In September, President Obama named Chimney Rock a National Monument. The ancestral home of the Chacoan Indians, the site is, according to the National Trust, "the single most important cultural site managed by the U.S. Forest Service."

International coffee shop behemoth Starbucks may seem like an odd partner for midcentury preservation, but the company helped save this iconic former gas station when they signed a lease to occupy the "flying saucer" building. "Exceptional" public outcry convinced the demolition-mined landlord to change his plans.

The home of legendary labor organizer and civil rights César Chávez was named a National Monument in October. The former headquarters of the United Farm Workers and Chávez's grave are included in the La Paz monument.

The site of an 1862 battle during the Civil War, this historic farmland became part of the battlefield park, increasing the size of said park from 65 to a total of 285 acres. A year-long funding campaign and partnership with the Commonwealth of Virginia generated the $3.2M necessary to secure the historic site for future generations.

The National Trust believes one of the largest preservation failures this year had nothing to do with brick and mortar. Since 2000, funding for natural resource preservation has soared, while historic and cultural funding lags more than $100M behind.

In what Federal archaeologists described as the "worst act of vandalism ever," four petroglyphs were stolen and another defaced in the Volcanic Tablelands near Bishop, Calif. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the petroglyphs are roughly 3,500 years old and still hold ceremonial and religious significance. No one has yet been apprehended in connection to the theft.

When the Seneca County Courthouse was torn down in January, it became the first National Register-listed Ohio courthouse to fall victim to the wrecking ball.

The supposedly innovative retractable roof barely ever worked, but Pittsburghers bemoaned the demolition of the landmark Civic Area, the longtime home to the beloved Pittsburgh Penguins, which was reduced to rubble in September.

In November, the Hojack Swing Bridge, a Rochester icon, was removed at the behest of the Coast Guard, which claimed it had become a hazard to navigation. The bridge was designed to carry trains across the river and then rotate to allow ship traffic to pass. No trains had passed over the bridge since the mid-1990s, and the control house has been set aside for preservation.