21c Museum Hotel founders Steve Wilson and Laura Lee Brown won the top state award for historic preservation in Kentucky, given annually by the Ida Lee Willis Memorial Foundation and the Kentucky Heritage Council. They were honored for starting their Louisville-based boutique hotel chain in rehabilitated, historic commercial buildings here and elsewhere and for garnering “national and international attention for their innovation and hospitality,” a council spokesman told The Courier-Journal.

Founded in 2006, 21c now has locations in Louisville on West Main Street, and in five other cities: Bentonville, Ark.; Cincinnati; Durham, N.C.; Lexington, and Oklahoma City. Watch Wilson and Brown talk about 21c:

Related: 21c is a New York Times favorite.