On October 22 at the Plaza in New York City, WMF honored Roberto Hernández Ramírez with the twenty-sixth Hadrian Award for his leadership in the preservation of Mexico's cultural heritage. Andrew B. Cogan and Knoll received the Watch Award for their commitment to modern sustainable design. The third annual Hadrian Gala After Party was held in Knoll's new showroom. Galleries of photos from the gala and after party are on our website. 

The launch of the project to preserve Christ Church Cathedral, Zanzibar, and create a heritage center on the site of the last open slave market in East Africa took place on October 9, 2013 in Stone Town. The project is funded by the European Union through the European Development Fund, and the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation. The project is implemented by WMF Britain and its partners, the Anglican Church of Tanzania, the Zanzibar Stone Town Heritage Society, and the UK charity Christian Engineers in Development. Christ Church Cathedral was included on the 2014 World Monuments Watch, and this project will help to ensure the survival of one of Stone Town's most iconic structures. The Heritage Center will commemorate the abolition of slavery, but will also improve the site as a visitor destination, which brings important economic benefits to Zanzibar.

From September 28 to October 5, WMF participated in a workshop called "Ani in Context," sponsored by the Norwegian Embassy in Turkey. Although WMF's conservation work at Ani has focused on the cathedral and Church of the Holy Savior, the workshop offered an opportunity to situate the sites in a broader regional context. The cultural landscape of the region surrounding Kars, as defined by its numerous structures and a vast array of architectural remains, only serves to enliven and complete Ani's rich history.

One of the primary goals of the workshop was to bring together an international group of scholars and professionals to survey and consider 21 significant sites within Turkey, both on their own and in relation to Ani, many of which are undocumented and disappearing at an alarming rate. By gathering a group of experts from Armenia, France, Macedonia, Norway, Russia, Turkey, and the United States, it was possible to access a variety of information about the sites, and to develop competence and a deeper understanding of the architectural significance of the region.

On October 24, U.S. Ambassador to Jordan Stuart E. Jones traveled to Qusayr 'Amra, an eighth-century bathhouse complex and focus of a multi-year WMF conservation project, to announce a new grant from the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation. The award to WMF will support the cleaning and consolidation of paintings in the apodyterium. An overview of our involvement at the site, dating back to its inclusion on the World Monuments Watch in 2008, can be found on our website in a Reports from the Field presentation from March 2013.