It's time to seek out barns worthy of consideration for Michigan Barn Preservation Network's Barn of the Year! The awards will include four categories:

1. Continued Family/Private Agricultural Use,
2. Family/Private Adaptive Use,
3. Non-Profit Agricultural or Adaptive Use, and
4. Commercial Agricultural or Adaptive Use.

The barn must be used for one of these purposes and must retain its overall appearance, i.e. both interior and exterior barn characteristics.

The barn must have been built before 1959 in order to qualify for the competition. It is not necessary that you own the barn or barns that you nominate.

Please fill in as much detail about the history of the barn and the process of the work done on the barn(s) as possible on or with your application.

Send high-quality copies of photographs or high-quality digital images of all four elevations of the barn and images documenting the barn work process before, during, and after with your application. Sorry, these will not be returned. Do not send scanned images as these are often unsuitable for reprint or enlargement.

Winners receive a plaque, recognition by the MBPN at the annual conference, and media coverage.

The criteria that the judges use include for example, the overall integrity of the structure, the setting, the preservation of original materials, thoughtful changes to the structure that maintain the integrity, careful repair of original materials, photographs that illustrate the work accomplished, etc. Barns will be ranked by committee members until a consensus is reached within each category.

The deadline for this year's applications is Thursday, January 15, 2009.Applications must be postmarked by that date.
Late applications will not qualify for this year's competition, but will be kept for the following year's competition if the applicant so desires.

Send applications and photos to:
Barn of the Year Committee
c/o 3225 Edgewood Dr.
Ann Arbor, MI 48104

An application form can be downloaded at this website.

For more details, contact Kathy Holtz (734) 971-9315.

 Nomination Form
(Download, print, complete and submit.)