Stephen Macknight, of Dunedin, received the Southern Heritage Trust’s Bluestone Award for services to heritage protection on Wednesday evening.
"Yeah, it was quite a surprise, quite a shock, actually, but quite an honour as well. I was absolutely thrilled."
Mr Macknight has been a heritage advocate for decades, from his early career as a structural engineer more than 30 years ago before starting his own practice in 2003.
He has helped restore dozens of buildings around or near Dunedin’s CBD.
"It’s a challenge. You never really know what you're dealing with until you start getting into the building.
"So you have to be pretty hands-on and working out solutions as you go to fix issues that you might find.
"It's not just sitting back in the office and sit in front of a computer. It's a far more sort of interactive and hands-on thing."
Mr Macknight said even in Dunedin, which has a wide variety of heritage buildings and structures, it was an uphill battle.
"Well, we've got to keep fighting for it. There's always pressures.
"We've seen, even recently, quite a lot of demolitions. As the city grows, there's more demand for land. The rules change and make things more difficult and costly."
Mr Macknight’s varied CV of heritage restoration included the art gallery project in Dunedin in 1994, the 1997 adaptation of an old cheese factory in Anzac Ave into the new Hocken Library, and the main courthouse strengthening in 2002.
Dunedin mayor-elect Sophie Barker said Mr Macknight was the city’s "go-to" structural engineer, especially for people "striving to maintain heritage character in the face of concerns about the safety of these buildings".
Mr Macknight said people’s perceptions of heritage were often clouded by seeing neglected older buildings.
"You can never sit back and say, look, we've done the job. You've got to just keep on chipping away and getting people to appreciate.
"The thing about it is that when a building's looking really tired and run down, people think it has no value.
"But once you've done it up, they can see it. So you've got to have people with the vision or the knowledge that can turn the buildings that look beyond repair into something very worthwhile."
As the government introduces changes to planning rules to allow for more density in city centres, as well as upwards building, Mr Macknight said people needed to be careful not to lose the character of a city.
" I think having intensified housing in a city is a good thing, but it does have to be done with real care.
"It's certainly easy to pick on some of the buildings that are the most important because they were built in the best location and they often have big sections and whatnot. So they can easily be the ones you lose first if you're not careful."
Having a passion for heritage was also necessary, he said.
"It’s wanting to do something that's sort of challenging, but very satisfying as well.
"They often take a long time to see the results, but when you're finished, it's something that is there for a long time.
"So that side of it is very satisfying."
