Docomomo US, a nonprofit committee of Docomomo International, has announced winners of its 2017 Modernism in America Awards. Founded in 1995, the organization is committed to preserving America's modern architecture, landscape, and design, and every year since 2014, Docomomo US has recognized projects that show excellent preservation practices and documentation efforts. According to the organization's website, the nationwide program “seeks to acknowledge the substantial economic and cultural impact such projects had and continue to have on our local communities and to set a standard for how preserving modern architecture can be accomplished." The recognized projects highlight diversity of modern architecture on both a regional and national scale. "[The] program continues to grow and bring well deserved attention to a broad collection of award winning projects across the United States featuring the monumental alongside the vernacular and the urban versus rural designs," says Theodore Prudon, FAIA, founding president of Docomomo US, on the organization's website.
This year, five projects received a Design Award of Excellence: Bell Works in Holmdel, N.J.; the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Conn.; Bubeshko Apartments in Los Angeles; Heroic in Boston; and Save the Reactor in Seattle. Four more projects each received a Citation of Merit Award: the Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer in Grand Island, Neb.; the Boston University School of Law in Boston; American Enterprise Group in Des Moines, Iowa; and the Vincent G. Kling Midcentury House in Gladwyne, Pa. These are all commendable examples of how partnerships between different stakeholders can save and revive architecture facing demolition, and how viability of a project is best retained while facing complex financial constraints.
This year's jury was chaired by Frances Halsband, FAIA, founding partner of New York–based Kliment Halsband Architects; and was filled out by architecture critic Justin Davidson; Barbara Campagna, FAIA, principal at Barbara A. Campagna/Architecture + Planning; Mark Pasnik, AIA, founding principal at Over,under; Robert Nauman, senior instructor of art history, modern art, and architectural history at University of Colorado Boulder's department of Art & Art History; Theodore Prudon, FAIA, founding president of Docomomo US; and Jack Pyburn, FAIA, director of Historic Preservation Studio at Lord Aeck Sargent.
Design Award of Excellence Winners
Bell Works
Original Architect: Eero Saarinen, Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates
Restoration: Paola Zamudio; Alexander Gorlin Architects
Yale Center for British Art
Original Architect: Louis Kahn
Restoration: Knight Architecture; Peter Inskip + Peter Jenkins Architects; The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Bubeshko Apartments
Original Architect: Rudolph M. Schindler
Restoration: Eric Haas, AIA, principal at DSH Architecture; Chava Danielson, AIA, principal at DSH Architecture
Heroic
Project Team: Mark Pasnik, AIA, principal at Over,under; Chris Grimley, principal at Over,under; Michael Kubo, director of Pinkcomma gallery and a collaborator with Over,under
Save the Reactor.
Organization: Historic Seattle; Washington Trust for Historic Preservation; Docomomo WEWA
Citation of Merit Award Winners
Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer
Original Architect: Edward Durell Stone
Restoration: Dan Worth, AIA, principal at BVH Architecture; Greg Munn, AIA, architect and senior associate at BVH Architecture
Boston University School of Law
Original Architect: Josep Lluis Sert
Restoration: Bruner/Cott & Associates
American Enterprise Group
Original Architect: Gordon Bunshaft, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Restoration: BNIM
Vincent G. Kling Midcentury House
Original Architect: Vincent Kling
Restoration: K Yoder Design
On Oct. 6, Docomomo US will recognize this year's award recipients in a ceremony host by sponsor Design Within Reach at the studio's Third Avenue location in New York City.
Read about our past coverage of last year's award recipients here.
