Initially studying art, art history, and mathematics at Bennington, Barbara Goldberg was inspired to become an architect after viewing Marcel Breuer’s Robinson House. This led her to choose the Bauhaus-oriented Harvard GSD program created by director Walter Gropius, becoming one of its first women graduates in 1952.

Docomomo US is steadfast in its mission to protect our Modern heritage. We counter the recent executive order “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” with a renewed commitment to telling the full and diverse stories of Modernism in America.

Howard Mumford Jones Research Professor Lizabeth Cohen adapts her Keynote Address from Preserving the Recent Past 4. "Revitalizing the Post-Covid City: What We Can Learn from the Past," was presented at the conference in Boston on March 20, 2025.

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.

Our gift guide for modernists packs a designy punch across price points with finds for all ages, iconic originals, and a few items inspired by our 2025 visit to Boston for PRP4 (March 19-22). 

Welcome to the second installment of the 2024 Special Edition! We are excited to share the following articles and photo essay, which highlight Eero Saarinen’s outsize influence on corporate modern architecture; the impact of Formica on Cincinnati and other businesses; and how American corporate campuses influenced similar developments in Canada.

I spent an entire day wandering the atrium and manicured outdoor walkways feeling, thinking, and seeing what I imagined Eero Saarinen wanted (or didn’t want!) the inhabitants of this building to see and feel and think, my camera searching for compositions and forms that I hoped would reveal a version of the building that wasn’t the current and familiar depiction of the place. Saarinen’s design impresses as much as it provokes; the otherworldly reflections off the facade; the blissfully smooth curves of the sunken granite lobby and stairways; the linear walkways that seem to float along the perimeter of the atrium like walkways on a ship’s deck. You can’t help but feel transported – time moves differently within the space – and I wanted to try and capture this essence.

In 1949, General Motors officially announced its intention to construct a centralized product development campus, called the “General Motors Technical Center;” the site would finally co-locate all the disparate research, engineering, design and manufacturing activities that had outgrown its previous homes into one cohesive site. The press release read: “Architecturally, the buildings will be of unique design, both modern and functional in concept,” – now an enormous understatement given the legacy of the Eero Saarinen-designed campus and its influence on industrial architecture.

Whether it’s big box chain stores or anonymous manufacturing facilities, wide, flat-faced buildings are a common sight on the route into Rochester, Minnesota, from the north. About five miles from downtown, the IBM Manufacturing & Training Facility has a similar boxy massing to other buildings on the street but has a distinctive blue facade pattern. From the air, the vast scale of this building can start to be understood – in fact, when viewed from above, it resembles a computer chip. IBM Rochester is still the largest IBM facility under one roof, enclosing 3.6 million square-feet on 400 acres. In this city, IBM’s frequent moniker “Big Blue” applies to both the company and the building. Commissioned in 1956 and designed by Eero Saarinen & Associates, the opening of the building in 1958 marks a key moment in IBM’s design legacy and Minnesota’s computing industry.  

Founded in 1913, the Formica Company boasts a rich history intricately linked with the development of Cincinnati. As the company expanded, its manufacturing campus gradually moved northward from the Ohio River, mirroring the city’s own growth. The Formica® brand has made a significant impact on corporate campuses not only through its own unique architectural expansion but also by manufacturing laminate products that have furnished corporate buildings since the 1930s.

The Golden Mile can be found fifteen kilometers to the northeast of downtown Toronto, Canada and was one of the nation’s first industrial complexes that transition to commercial in the post-war area. The Golden Mile was once a place where iconic corporate campuses and companies like IBM. and others served as catalysts for economic development while supporting the growth and expansion eastwards alongside iconic planned residential subdivisions, which sprang up to house the new industrial workforce and support their modern lives. 

Docomomo US is currently seeking qualified applicants to contribute to the ongoing leadership of the organization as a one year student board member – starting on January 1, 2025, and ending on December 31, 2025 – the term is potentially renewable for one year at the discretion of the board.

A selection of recorded sessions from the 2024 National Symposium in Miami, Florida are now available to view on Vimeo.

The 80,000 square foot headquarters of Timex, the iconic American Watch company, designed by Fletcher Thompson, Inc., and opened in 2001, is under threat of demolition. The multiple award-winning building combines modern design, open floor plan democratization, and blends into the natural landscape.

The overwhelming share of responsibility in the preservation field concerns the innumerable everyday local treasures that make up the greater wealth of any community’s architectural fabric. However, in a field of advocacy where the public often remains unfamiliar with the urgency or value of conserving our Modern heritage, there is an extraordinary amount to gain from focus on exceptional monuments and their uniquely accessible interest to the public. With the potential to catalyze a broader awareness and understanding of the modernist legacy, as the outsized example of Penn Station, among others, did for our 19th- and early 20th-century inheritance, such ambassadorial sites are a tremendous asset to the modern built environment.

Next week, Wednesday, September 25, we’re gathering at Saint Peter’s Church in midtown Manhattan for A Tribute to Theo (our first-ever gala) to celebrate Theo Prudon and kick off the new Theo Prudon Fund for Preservation Education. It's going to be a memorable evening in a gorgeous, modern space. As we look forward to the event, I’d like to focus my President’s Column this month on Theo, and my appreciation for his steadfast leadership and his dedication to preservation, education, Modernism, and Docomomo US.

All of these homes have a story to tell, but with architecturally-significant home ownership comes great responsibility. The moment one of these properties hits the market, there's always a risk that it'll get stripped of original details or become a development opportunity. It takes the proper steward, someone with curiosity and passion, to preserve their narrative and architectural integrity. So tighten your purse strings, and let's make some new homeowner matches in the name of Modernism.

After months of discussions with our Finnish colleagues, the Alvar Aalto Foundation along with the Consulate General of Finland in New York, Finnish Cultural Institute in New York and managing firm Office of Tangible Space have released a press release regarding the future of the interior. While we are disappointed the interior could not have remained in situ, Docomomo US is grateful to our colleagues for mobilizing and protecting this very important piece of our legacy.

The Goldman House, a unique remnant of the Stelton Colony in Piscataway, New Jersey, is at risk. Notable for its artistic touches including bas reliefs, sculptural elements and interior details, it embodies the aspirations of a community that sought to challenge societal norms and experiment with new ways of living and thinking.

In 1970, then Herman Miller CEO Max De Pree began a poetic brief for a Herman Miller manufacturing facility in the United Kingdom by stating, “Our goal is to make a contribution to the landscape of aesthetic and human value.” The building that resulted from what became titled A Statement of Expectations was a pioneering High-Tech project by Nicholas Grimshaw that recently saw its own award-winning adaptive reuse into, very fittingly, an art and design school. We are happy to share a story originally published by Herman Miller’s WHY Magazine in 2014 that tells the story of The Bath Brief, and Herman Miller’s collaboration with Grimshaw.

It's been way too long since our last commercial real estate round up, and this year's annual theme, Corporate Campuses, provides the perfect opportunity for a revisit. We hope you enjoy perusing some of our finds, including: a Pomo headquarters that's instantly recognizable as a Michael Graves design; an elegant Yamasaki in Michigan; a former church looking for a new use designed by Elizabeth Wright Ingraham; and if you've ever dreamed of an office space in "The Pyramids," now is your chance.

The Texas Instruments Semiconductor Building and headquarters in Dallas, Texas, is an example of a much lesser explored, yet no less historically relevant, corporate research facility from the same era as the well-publicized industrial complexes by Eero Saarinen. In 1958, Texan architects O’Neil Ford with Richard Colley, Arch Swank and Sam Zisman conceived of the massive complex (Fig 1), which typified Ford's daring creativity and stands as what has been considered the most technologically innovative design of his career. The Semiconductor Building serves as a larger artifact of twentieth-century technology, showcasing both advancements in concrete structural design and pioneering breakthroughs in the field of digital electronics.

The Ford Motor Company corporate campus is located in Southeast Michigan, about 10 miles west of Detroit in the city of Dearborn. Ford first began purchasing property here along the Rouge River in 1915, but it was not until 1917, with the impetus of World War I, that they completed the first structure to produce eagle boats for the war effort. Countless additions later, the Rouge complex, now referred to as the Ford Rouge Center, is still operational and is itself a hallmark of adaptive reuse. The expansion of production at the Rouge anchored Ford in Dearborn, where the company would continue to expand its campus, especially after World War II.

Postwar corporate campuses were an important proving ground for architects to demonstrate the core principles of modernist design: that form should follow function, and that the honest expression of building materials should put their inherent qualities on display. Because corporate campuses in this era were also seen as rural oases, set apart from their urban high-rise counterparts on large plots of land, landscape design played an essential role in the expression of place. In many cases, the architectural expression of a modernist corporate campus required that it borrow some drama from its surrounding landscape. And, in some cases, this meant bringing the outside in.

This year’s Docomomo US theme “Corporate Campus” has sought to “explore and understand the influence of suburban corporate architecture and corporate campuses on the edge of more urban cores, their peaks, and now their valleys.” In a post-pandemic world, and in the past year in particular, the evolving role of the corporate campus, and the office in general, has proven to be on trend across culture.

Escape into our annual Summer Reads list, and take a modern architecture and design trip around the world. Like any good travel companion, these titles are up for anything (read them on the beach or a shady bench in the park), and they keep the drama contained (to their pages). 

Docomomo US Chapters Chicago, New York/Tri-State, and Northern California announce the recipients of their 2024 National Symposium scholoarships. 

Docomomo US is pleased to announce two scholarship recipients for the 2022 National Symposium taking place in Miami: Arièle Dionne-Krosnick and Angela Fernandes.

The seven-acre Modern corporate campus once home to Sunset magazine is under threat of demolition. The site captures the essence of “California Modernism” in both its physical design and cultural significance.

It's our first-ever spring shopping guide and we've rounded up a seasonally-inspired assortment of goodies that'll put a smile on your face and refresh your home from the inside out.  

The National Symposium in Miami is just weeks away. Docomomo US President Katie Horak reflects on Symposia past where visiting amazing Modern sites, gathering with friends, and holding challenging discussions all combine to create lasting memories.

Sometimes we all need a little extra push. We get it, so we’ve expanded upon our initial list of why you absolutely, positively cannot miss the 11th annual Docomomo US National Symposium, taking place May 29–June 1, in Miami and Coral Gables, Florida. Plus, there are some important updates about the Miami Marine Boat Tour and the Alfred Browning Parker Tours that we thought you’d want to know about it.

Amy Auscherman’s work spans conservation and collections management, archival product development, and communications – she’s authored a couple of books, digitized the collection of the Miller House & Garden, and currently runs the corporate archives of MillerKnoll brands (there are 15 of them, now, including Herman Miller, Knoll, and Design Within Reach). We’re super excited to have her join us as the guest editor of July’s Special Edition Newsletter and recently took the opportunity to chat with her about cubicles and corporate campuses.

In 1967, two young developers, Ray Graham III and Didier Raven, chose an equally young Antoine Predock to plan and design the residential community of La Luz (The Light) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Predock’s first independent commission received national acclaim for its skilled application of contemporary theories of urban planning and for its convincing synthesis of modern and regional forms of architecture.

The 11th annual Docomomo US National Symposium takes place May 29–June 1, in Miami and Coral Gables, Florida. It is THE primary event in the United States for professionals and enthusiasts to discuss and share efforts to preserve Modern architecture, but just in case you still need some additional persuasion, here are five great reasons why Miami is not to be missed!

The Docomomo US Study Grant program provides financial support for qualified individuals whose work or educational focus demonstrates a continued interest and commitment in the area or subject of exploration for which the particular study grants are being offered. The Study Grant program has been made possible with the generous support of an anonymous Docomomo US supporter. 

Docomomo US kicked off its 2024 Suburban Office Campus theme with a special tour of the former General Foods building in Rye Brook, New York, designed by Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo Associates and opened in 1984.

In her first column of the year, Docomomo US President Katie Horak welcomes new members of the board and reflects on 20 years of membership and why it’s a great time to be a member.

The Docomomo US Board of Directors welcomed its new President Katie Horak and designated Meredith Bzdak as president elect at its January meeting. The Board also added three new members: Tonia Moy of Hawaii; Bob Thomas from New England; and Jingyi Luo, who is a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania.

Docomomo US is pleased to announce that Rosa Lowinger and Uta Pottgiesser, internationally recognized experts in the realm of Modern preservation, will present the opening and closing keynote addresses at the 2024 Docomomo US National Symposium.

Docomomo US accepts article submissions on an ongoing basis for publication on our website and in our monthly newsletter on a wide range of issues concerning Modernism. In particular, this year we invite submissions on the annual thematic focus of "Corporate Campuses."

After thoughtful consideration, Docomomo US will be holding the next National Symposium in Miami and Coral Gables, Florida. Recently, the state has introduced and passed many bills and laws that threaten already vulnerable sectors of the population. These policies do not align with the core values of Docomomo US or any of its chapters.

When considering what’s at stake for the coming year, I always reflect on what challenges we have faced and what we should celebrate. Like nearly every year prior to this one, the highs and lows were unique and involved multitudes of resilient partners and preservation organizations joining coalitions and speaking out on behalf of Modern sites and our built heritage.

Every year, Docomomo US selects a historical image for its member holiday card, something that pertains to the culture of Modernist architecture and design. This year, on the occasion of the Cooper Hewitt exhibition A Dark, A Light, A Bright: The Designs of Dorothy Liebes, one of Ms. Liebes few known annotated design drawings graces the front of the card. 

Docomomo US is pleased to welcome one of the masterworks of architect Vladimir Ossipoff, the Liljestrand House, to the Explore Modern Partnership.

Last year we explored suburban development’s impact on our communities as a component of our Revisiting Urban Renewal theme. The conversations we had were often challenging and many touched on highway development and how car culture impacted communities and radically changed our built environment. In 2024 we will continue that exploration by following where some of those highways lead – to suburban corporate campuses – and examine their impact on the style, development, and furthering of Modern architecture in the United States. 

Evelyn and Jerome Ackerman shared their creative way of life with the world. As pioneers of California modernism, their expansive body of work embodies the optimistic spirit of the movement. It's warm and colorful. It's innovation applied to craft. They created pieces that were affordable and meant to be lived with and enjoyed.

Consider your holiday fully booked. 

Tour Day is a great way to get out and see some amazing Modern resources across the country. This year's tours covered a variety of resources, from large-scale urban renewal projects to Brutalist college campuses to well-preserved Modern residences and beyond.

This year's gift guide is a roundup tour de force for the aesthetes and design lovers on your list. It's got it all: recommendations from stylish Doco friends, travel-inspired picks by our executive director, variations on two themes for the new year – Miami and the Suburban Office Park – and finally, curated picks that'll woo, ahh, and wow! We hope you enjoy!

Last month, the city government of Boston, led by Mayor Michele Wu, took steps to put decades of architectural drama at its back, when it announced its support of landmarking Brutalist beaut Boston City Hall.

Docomomo US is currently seeking qualified applicants to contribute to the ongoing leadership of the organization as a one year student board member starting on 01 January 2024 and ending on 31 December 2024 – the term is potentially renewable for one year at the discretion of the board.

Docomomo US is pleased to share the following selection of articles and recorded presentations that explore an extensive range and breadth of topics under the subject of this year's thematic focus, Revisiting Urban Renewal. 

I have lived in Southwest DC for the past seven years in a 1963 cooperative housing “campus” that was built as part of the 1945 Redevelopment Land Agency (RLA). Considered to be the first formal urban renewal project in the United States, the RLA dislocated thousands of residents and their intact community of mainly Black Americans. The photograph that I was most familiar with that depicted the “before” community was the 1939 image (image #1) that shows the proximity of Southwest, District of Columbia, to the U.S. Capitol Building. Many residences in the foreground were built in “alley ways” and did not have electricity, running water, or indoor plumbing. 

Taking measure of a life’s work as complex as Ed Logue’s raises challenges. He described his career to an oral historian from the Library of Congress in 1995 as “a helluva ride.”

Rushed design processes, poor construction quality, post-occupancy mismanagement and a general lack of maintenance characterize the typical modernist public housing estate; their decline symbolic of the cycle of neighborhood obsolescence and redevelopment that once enabled these projects. While originally conceived as alternatives to blighted post-war urban neighborhoods, these stigma-prone estates throughout Europe and the Americas have ironically become convenient targets for demolition. It is no surprise that proponents for their preservation are first confronted with poor public perception and ideological conflicts – fundamental issues that are often more inhibiting than the physical viability of preservation.

When Docomomo US was created over 25 years ago, we set out to build a network of like-minded individuals to offer leadership, knowledge, and enthusiasm for the Modern Movement, which was little understood and little appreciated. We could not have envisioned the remarkable change in public attitude toward modernism we see today. That enthusiasm is due in large part to the dedication, interest, and support of our longstanding members in advancing the understanding of modern architecture and design.

2024 will mark the 20th anniversary of the publication of Root Shock: How Tearing Up City Neighborhoods Hurts America and What You Can Do About It. The book explores the long-term consequences of urban renewal in Black neighborhoods and has many lessons to help us understand the complex problems we face today. Root Shock was written by Dr. Mindy Fullilove with support from the research team she co-founded, the Community Research (now known as the Cities Research Group).

In an article entitled "Pragmatic Preservationist: Docomomo's Liz Waytkus on Modern Architecture, Advocacy, and Natalie DeBlois," Julia Gamolina profiles Docomomo US Executive Director Liz Waytkus for Madame Architect, a digital magazine and media start-up celebrating the extraordinary women that shape our world.

During the 1950s and 1960s, architectural models, maps, and renderings helped local boosters justify and build support for urban renewal in communities across the nation. New York City’s master planner Robert Moses helped pioneer this practice. Urban historian Themis Chronopoulos has analyzed how brochures produced by Moses’ Committee on Slum Clearance juxtaposed images of actual (if outdated) places – tenements, corner stores, back alleys – against illustrations depicting the sleek, modern residential and commercial structures that might be built in their stead.

A selection of recorded sessions from the 2023 National Symposium in New Haven, CT, are now available to view on Vimeo.

The Louis I. Kahn designed Margaret Esherick house, located in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia, has been added to the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Department of Interior. The private residence was listed on the Register on August 21 due to its architectural significance as an iconic modernist building, universally recognized as a premier example of Kahn’s design principles.

Docomomo US seeks a full-time Communications and Membership Coordinator.

Citing concerns about condition and repair costs, leadership of the Church of Saint Mary in Alma, Michigan is seeking to demolish the town's "most architecturally significant building," as described by William Scott Jr., biographer of William Wesley Peters, the church architect and long-time Frank Lloyd Wright associate. Local groups including Docomomo US/Michigan are advocating to save it.

In Coral Gables, an ongoing conversation concerns the beauty of our architectural heritage. Does our design sensibility begin and end in the 1920s, when the city was founded as part of the City Beautiful Movement? Or do we view our built environment as a dynamic work in progress – a “moveable feast” of diverse building styles that reflect changing standards of beauty, utility, and sustainability.

It's officially summer and one of the ways we mark the start of the season is with our Summer Reads book list. Whether you are headed on vacation or just to the backyard hammock, make sure to take one of these modern architecture and design titles with you.

Every year, the Symposium goes by faster than we think. As the dust settles, we finally have some time to reflect on the many wonderful moments that we experienced with our friends, colleagues, teachers and mentors. By no means a complete account, here are some of our favorite images that we captured this year. We hope you'll enjoy them as much as we did!  

The 18th Docomomo International Conference in Chile 2024 will have a call for sessions first, then a call for papers. The submission of session proposals in a comparative and interdisciplinary way will be greatly encouraged.

The innovative convergence of modern architecture with 19th century styles, mid-century design innovations and cutting edge modern art were all represented in the interests of the architects Gordon Chadwick and George Nelson and their industrialist/art collecting clients Otto and Eloise Spaeth.

The moment a private home goes on the market is a precarious one - there is always the chance it could be sold to a developer, or to a homeowner who plans to make big changes. The goal of our real estate round ups is to connect modern properties with the right stewards and to show real estate agents the value in these historic homes.

With close to a month left to our National Symposium in New Haven, Docomomo US President Robert Meckfessel admits an embarrassing secret; he has never been to New Haven. In this month’s President’s Column, read about what Bob is most excited to see when he visits this “architectural cornucopia” for the first time next month.

The elegant Historical Studies and Social Sciences Library at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, built in the early 1960s by Wallace K. Harrison, is under threat. Resulting from an exemplary collaboration between the architect of the United Nations and the physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, who headed the Institute, this graceful building is a well-kept secret, deeply ensconced in the recesses of the campus, invisible from the road and known only to its users. The minimalist vocabulary of the interior is striking, but the library's most salient feature is its inventive roof structure, which is at the core of the current crisis. 

Docomomo US/Chicago and coalition rally to stop a major threat posed to a Chicagoland modern campus.

Interested in hearing more about Modern Travel: Finland? Docomomo US President Robert Meckfessel shares his own Finnish travel experience, a Modernist pilgrimage sure to “affirm one’s life as an architect.” Read more in this month’s President’s Column.

After a precipitous, seven-year rollercoaster of preservation initiatives, the National Park Service has rejected a nomination of the James R. Thompson Center to the National Register of Historic Places. The rejection was primarily due to objections by the site owner, Prime Group.

The Italian-born photographer and, of course, long-time Docomomo member, Andrea Brizzi has been capturing the built environment for 40 years. His most recent photography features a series of forgotten Modernist works in northern Italy and Sardinia. 

The Modern architecture movement in the United States has a rich but complicated history, one that Docomomo US is committed to explore, even as we advocate for its preservation. This history is closely intertwined with that of Modernism in Europe, but the post-war American version has its own flavor and context, driven by our own unique demographics, economics, cultures and politics. Out of that complex mix arose countless examples of innovative, thought-provoking architecture and landscape, both by transplanted Europeans and by our own home-grown American practitioners. Several aspects of that, however, are less admirable and merit further examination to understand the true and complete story of Modernism.

The Alfred Noble Library is located in Livonia, Michigan just outside the City of Detroit. This Late Modern structure was designed by world-renowned architect Gunnar Birkerts. Although the previous administration promised that the local community would have input into the future of the building, the current mayor's office plans to request demolition in early 2023.

Docomomo US seeks a guest editor for its July 2023 newsletter which will focus on the annual theme of "Revisiting Urban Renewal." A stipend of $500 is available for the position.

Docomomo US accepts article submissions on an ongoing basis for publication on our website and in our monthly newsletter on a wide range of issues concerning Modernism. In particular, this year we invite submissions on 2023 thematic focus of "Revisiting Urban Renewal" as well as explorations of Modernism in set design for TV and movies. 

Tour Day 2022 featured over 30 tours across the country, many of them to sold out crowds. Docomomo US chapters, partners, and friend organizations embraced this year's theme of Shopping Malls, taking participants on tours of historic shopping centers both thriving and struggling, and hosting both virtual and in person lectures and book talks to explore the history and future of the classic American mall.  Aside from malls, tours also features iconic modern sites and crowd-pleasing favorites.