It’s March! Nominations are now open for the 2025 Modernism in America Awards, and it’s also Women's History Month, which inspired us to take a look back at the award-winning initiatives where women played a central role in commissioning, designing, restoring, documenting, educating, and advocating for our built environment. Their contributions emphasize the importance of partnerships between owners, architects and the community and the interconnectedness that originates from the lifecycle of a project.

In this month's column, Docomomo US President Katie Horak acknowledges the emotional toll of 2025's early months, marked by natural disasters, political unrest, and uncertainty. Yet hope abounds, as recovery from the Eaton and Palisades fires continues in Los Angeles, and Docomomo US looks forward to the Preserving the Recent Past (PRP) 4 conference in Boston, celebrating progress and reflecting on the ongoing preservation efforts over the last 30 years.

Take virtual tour through the recent past of Boston's Roxbury neighborhood. As part of the Preserving the Recent Past 4 conference happening in Boston this March, participants have a chance to tour the diverse Roxbury neighborhood. If you aren’t attending the conference but are local to Boston, tours are now open to the public for registration. Here is a sneak peek of some of the significant midcentury and recent past sites featured on the tour. 

The Docomomo US Board of Directors has added Nina Chmura of New Jersey as a new director, while Zoe Detweiler and Tyler Jones – both based in Los Angeles – join as student directors for 2025.

In honor of Black History Month we have compiled a list of some Black Modernist architects and designers you should know and some of the important projects they worked on. 

Docomomo US is thrilled to announce student scholarship applications are officially open for the first time through the Theodore Prudon Fund for Preservation Education Grant Program.

At a time when the effects of climate change are everywhere, we believe that our resources would be better directed by promoting the preservation of our existing historic architecture and reducing building emissions and the environmental impacts of demolition and sourcing new materials.

Our recent field trip to Boston gave us so many reasons to be excited to PRP4. Here are five reasons to bundle up and join us in Boston this March!

Docomomo US President Katie Horak addresses the heartbreaking devastation and loss of homes as well as modern heritage sites resulting from the fires that broke out in Los Angeles on January 7. At Docomomo US we stand together with our Los Angeles family.

We’re dedicating the July special edition newsletter to articles addressing the Docomomo US 2025 theme: Places of Worship. We invite article proposals that seek to explore and understand the multitude of religious, spiritual and faith-based sites across the country – illuminating their distinct styles, development, and community impact – and represent a diversity of communities, historic resources, and the individuals associated with them.

As Docomomo US closes out its third decade of education and advocacy work in the United States, Executive Director Liz Waytkus shares her thoughts on the significant issues the preservation community must confront to continue making meaningful progress.

Each holiday season, we select an image for our member holiday card that inspires and draws attention to the work of an architect, artist, or designer important to the Modern movement. This year, we highlight the work of Jane Slater Marquis (1922-2021), an American artist who worked predominantly in stained glass, completing major commissions throughout the American West.

As we conclude this year’s exploration of suburban corporate campuses, our thematic focus for 2025 shifts to the multitude of religious, spiritual and faith-based sites across the country – illuminating their distinct styles, development, and community impact. A deeper examination of this common typology furthers our understanding of Modern architecture and design in the United States.

Docomomo US and its New York Tri-State Chapter continue to successfully work to designate and protect Marcel Breuer’s iconic inverted Brutalist ziggurat, the former Whitney Museum of American Art at 945 Madison, as a New York City Individual and Interior Landmark.

Docomomo US is thrilled to announce its selection as the nonprofit beneficiary of the 21st annual DWR Champagne Chair Contest. Now through January 7, craft a mini modern chair from champagne corks and enter for your chance to win up to $1,000 in prizes from DWR. For every entry, MillerKnoll Foundation will donate $50 (up to $20,000 total) to Docomomo US.

The National Park Service has formally listed the Louis Kahn-designed Arts United Center on the National Register of Historic Places with National Significance.

It's not quite official yet (still needs approval of the Mayor and City Council), but this has been a long time coming and we are thrilled to report that Boston City Hall was approved as a City of Boston landmark by the Landmarks Commission this past Tuesday.

Wondering what to read in the new year? We've compiled 60 must-read titles on architecture and design, as well as recommended reading to get you thinking about on-theme topics for 2025 and beyond. Our Annual Theme for next year focuses on Places of Worship (more on that soon), and we're looking forward to the PRP4 conference, March 19-22, in Boston. Further afield, check out recommended reads about Los Angeles, our host city for the 2026 International Docomomo Conference.

As I write this, I join Docomomo US Executive Director Liz Waytkus and President-Elect Meredith Bzdak in Santiago, Chile, for the 18th Annual International Docomomo Conference. Convening with our friends from across the globe reminds us of the international impact of Docomomo and our place in this incredible community of scholars, practitioners, and lovers of modernism. There is already a little buzz in the air about the 19th Annual IDC, which will take place in Los Angeles in March of 2026. As an Angeleno, I can’t wait for the opportunity to welcome the international Docomomo community and all of you to this city that I love so much.

Docomomo US chapters, friend groups, and partners organized tours across the country for Tour Day 2024. Many tours explored the annual theme of Corporate Campuses, visiting sites such as Bell Labs, GM Technical Center, the Formica Headquarters, while other tours featured iconic Modern sites of different typologies, from residential to educational and beyond.