Congratulations to the city of Quito, Ecuador, for its project Investment programs and projects for the rehabilitation of public space on private heritage property in the Historic Center winner of the Jean-Paul-L’Alllier Prize for Heritage, 2017 edition.

The Architect Angélica Arias, Executive Director of the Metropolitan Institute of Heritage of the Municipality of Quito was awarded a certificate of honour by the Secretary General of the Organization of World Heritage Cities (OWHC), Mr. Denis Ricard, during a ceremony organized within the 14^th World Congress of the OWHC, which was held in Gyeongju, Republic of Korea.

The city of Quito has been rewarded for its ambitious project that offers a concrete and viable solution to a frequent consequence of the inscription of a Historic District, namely, the impoverishment of the latter and the problems of renovations that result. Quito has implemented a redistribution of wealth to preserve its World Heritage by putting the local community and building owners at the heart of the project’s success. This has allowed to rebuild a neighborhood life based on the preservation of the cultural richness of the district and moreover, this project has already been successfully taken over by other cities and, therefore, can be reproduced in the cities of the OWHC.

Like its previous editions, the prize aroused great interest and nine finalists were selected for this fifth edition: Cidade Velha, Cabo-Verde; Cordoba, Spain; Cuenca, Ecuador; Ibiza, Spain; Konya, Turkey; Mexico City, Mexico; Quebec, Canada; Querétaro, Mexico and Quito, Ecuador.

Their evaluations were done professionally and objectively by a jury of 6 people, namely: Ms. Sofia Avgerinou-Kolonias from Athens (Greece), President of the International Committee on Historic Towns and Villages (CIVVIH) from ICOMOS and Mr. Samir Abdulac from Paris (France), Vice-President of CIVVIH/ICOMOS, Mr. Michael Turner from Tel-Aviv (Israel), Adviser to the Director of UNESCO’s Heritage Division and UNESCO World Heritage Center; Ms. Regina Wiala-Zimm, from the Department Office of Internationals and European Relations of the City of Vienna (Austria), Mr. Geoffroy Coomans de Brachène, Alderman of Town Planning and Heritage of the City of Brussels (Belgium) and Mr. Denis Ricard, Secretary General of the OWHC.

Their choice was based on 4 criteria:

• the exemplary nature of the project for the conservation of urban cultural heritage;
• the involvement of local stakeholders and the partnership development process;
• concrete outcomes of the project on local communities;
• the pedagogical impact of the project and its educational and enrichment value for the international community.

The Jean-Paul-L’Allier Prize was created in honour of the founding president of the OWHC, Mr. Jean-Paul L’Allier, mayor of the city of Québec from 1989 to 2005, who passed away in 2016.

We present our sincere thanks to Mr. Serge Martin who contributed financially to the realization of the Jean-Paul-L’Allier Prize for Heritage.

Once again, congratulations to the city of Quito and to its mayor, Dr. Mauricio Rodas Espinel!