Modernism in America Awards

Nominations open March 2, 2021

Nominations for the 2021 Modernism in America Awards will open on March 2, 2021.


Now in its eighth year, the Awards celebrate the documentation, preservation and reuse of modern buildings, structures and landscapes built in the United States or on U.S. territory. The Awards recognize those building owners, design teams, advocacy and preservation organizations that have made significant efforts to retain, restore and advocate for the aesthetic and cultural value of such places.

View the award categories and and eligibility guidelines below. Please contact awards@docomomo-us.org with any questions.

Deadline

Early nominations must be submitted by 5:00 PM Eastern on April 29, 2021

All nominations must be submitted by 5:00 PM Eastern on June 2, 2021

Award Categories

Design

This juried award recognizes informed, thoughtful and creative design efforts to preserve, restore or adapt a modern building, structure or landscape of local, regional or national significance, securing its presence for future generations. Design Awards are recognized in the following subcategories:

  • Residential
  • Commercial
  • Institutional/Civic

Inventory/Survey

This juried award recognizes exceptional efforts to document, inventory and/or create a preservation plan for one or more modern buildings, structures or landscapes of local, regional or national significance. Nominations may be submitted in the form of a website, book, publication, or exhibition.

Advocacy

Presented by the Docomomo US Board of Directors, this award recognizes outstanding efforts to preserve and advocate for threatened modern buildings, structures or landscapes of local, regional or national significance through advocacy efforts. This award seeks to recognize preservation and advocacy organizations and other groups (including Docomomo US chapters) who have gone above and beyond to work collectively and collaboratively to advocate for a modern site or structure.

Mark your calendars

Join us for the 2021 Modernism in America Awards Ceremony

 

 

The Awards Ceremony is tentatively planned to be a virtual ceremony taking place Thursday November 11, 2021 at 8 pm EDT. The date may change if it becomes possible to hold an in-person event.

2021 Awards Committee

The Awards Committee helps shape the annual program by reviewing nomination and eligibility guidelines, selecting jury members, and providing guidance on submissions on a case by case basis. A sincere thank you to this year's committee, Theodore Prudon, Meredith Bzdak, Tonia Moy, and Gregory Ibañez.

Theodore Prudon, FAIA, FAPT

Theodore Prudon is a leading expert on the preservation of modern architecture and a practicing architect in New York City. Dr. Prudon has worked on the terra cotta restoration of the Woolworth Building, the exterior restoration of the Chrysler Building, and of a 1941 Lescaze townhouse in Manhattan. Dr. Prudon teaches preservation at Columbia University and Pratt Institute. He is the recipient of a Graham Foundation Individual grant for his book “Preservation of Modern Architecture.” He is the founding President of Docomomo US and a board member of Docomomo International.

Meredith Arms Bzdak, PhD

Meredith Arms Bzdak, an architectural historian, is a Partner in the Princeton, NJ firm Mills + Schnoering Architects, LLC. She has over twenty years of experience in the field of historic preservation, and has produced numerous documents pertaining to historic architecture. As Associate Graduate Faculty at Rutgers University in the Art History Department, she teaches classes on the development of the modern city (specifically New York and Los Angeles), the preservation of the recent past, and modern Italian architecture. Meredith is the Chair Emeritus of the National Alliance of Preservation Commissions, and the author of Public Sculpture in New Jersey; Monuments to Collective Identity. She holds a BA in Art History from Mount Holyoke College and a PhD in Art History from Rutgers University. She serves on the Docomomo US Board of Directors as the Vice President of Development. 

Gregory S. Ibañez, FAIA

Throughout his forty years of practice, Gregory Ibañez, FAIA, has become a recognized design leader and passionate advocate for progressive architecture within both the profession and the community. His work has been recognized and published widely. Greg has developed an approach that is driven by program and characterized by formal restraint, frank and inventive detailing, and an abiding reverence for the experience of the occupants. In an era of ever-increasing specialization within the profession, Greg practices architecture as a generalist. His projects are diverse in every way- location, type, scale and budget- including buildings for universities, corporations, arts organizations, and homeowners. Greg has also practiced internationally, designing projects in Europe, Asia and Mexico. His significant body of work led to his elevation to the AIA College of Fellows in 2012 for achievement in design. He is past Chair of the Fort Worth Public Art Commission, and has led studios at Texas Tech University and the University of Texas at Arlington. Greg has also served as Contributing Editor to Texas Architect Magazine and has been a guest speaker for the Dallas Architecture Forum and the Texas Society of Architects Convention.

Tonia Moy, AIA

Graduating from the University of Hawaii at Manoa with a Masters in Architecture, Tonia Moy is a founding member of Docomomo US, Hawaii Chapter and was active in the Docomomo Symposium held in Hawaii in 2019. Ms. Moy is the Vice-President of Fung Associates, Inc. (FAI). Prior to joining FAI in 2004, Ms. Tonia Moy was the Architecture Branch Chief of the State Historic Preservation Division (SHPD). Ms. Moy meets the Secretary of Interior’s Professional Qualification Standards as an Architectural Historian and Historic Architect.

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About


The Modernism in America Awards is the only national program that celebrates the people and projects working to preserve, restore and rehabilitate our modern heritage sensitively and productively. The program seeks to advance those preservation efforts; to increase appreciation for the period and to raise awareness of the on-going threats against modern architecture and design while acknowledging the substantial contribution preservation in general and the postwar heritage in particular makes to the economic and cultural life of our communities.

 

Past Modernism in America Award Winners

2020 Award Winners

2019 Award Winners

2018 Award Winners

2017 Award Winners

2016 Award Winners

2015 Award Winners

2014 Award Winners

Award Winners in the news