National Symposium

2024 Docomomo US National Symposium 


May 29 - June 1, 2024
Miami and Coral Gables, Florida

Join us in Miami and Coral Gables, Florida, from May 29 to June 1, 2024, and experience one of the country’s richest collections of mid-century and postmodern architecture. Entitled Streams of Modernity: Postwar to Postmodern, the 2024 National Symposium is a collaboration of Docomomo US and the Docomomo US/Florida chapter.

Miami is a city whose location, diversity and vibrant growth have made it an ideal destination for international travel, business, culture, and leisure. Incorporated in 1896 - though Native Americans inhabited the region for millennia - the city and its greater region are a remarkable landscape described by native Amerindians as a slowly flowing “river of grass,” with a thin strip of buildable land stretching along its coastline. The region became an escape for post-World War II middle America, shaped largely by the desire for leisure and entertainment. Over the past decades, Miami has become a laboratory to explore new urban patterns, building types, evolving aesthetics, and emerging environmental consciousness.

The symposium seeks to promote a broader understanding of the accomplishments of postwar to Postmodern architecture and culture in regionally specific contexts such as South Florida, the Caribbean, and Latin America. Themes to be explored include: Tropical Brutalism, Postwar campus planning in the (sub)tropics, LGBTQ+Modernism, Postwar tourism, urban renewal and Interstate infrastructure, Modern architecture and popular culture in south Florida, polychrome Modern & the integration of the arts, and more.

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Call for Abstracts

The Call for Abstracts is now open. Submissions are due January 11, 2024. 

Researchers, practitioners, and enthusiasts involved in the process of preservation, conservation, renovation or transformation of buildings, sites and neighborhoods of the Modern Movement are invited to submit abstracts that align with the stated thematic goals. Topics outside of the suggested areas will also be considered. We welcome submissions that take a holistic approach to Modern resources and consider the social context, technical merits, aesthetics, and settings when evaluating them. Abstracts should include how the subject contributes to the broader discussion of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice, either generally or in relation to a specific field of study.

Please review the instructions carefully before submitting, and reach out to symposium@docomomo-us.org with any questions.

The 2024 National Symposium is a joint partnership of Docomomo US and its Florida and Puerto Rico chapters, along with the University of Miami School of Architecture, Florida International University, Miami Dade College, Florida Atlantic University, Friends of the Miami Marine Stadium, the Historical Preservation Association of Coral Gables, and the Miami Beach Preservation League.
 

The National Symposium is only possible thanks to the generous support of partners and sponsors. Sponsoring the Docomomo US National Symposium presents a prime opportunity to support national preservation efforts of modern structures while at the same time promoting your own brand to hundreds of like-minded preservationists. 

Miami National Symposium Sponsors

Glass Block

Louvers

About

The Docomomo US National Symposium is the primary event in the United States for professionals to discuss and share efforts to preserve modern architecture and meet leading practitioners and industry professionals.
 

The Symposium developed as a result of the Docomomo US Board of Directors’ annual “Face to Face” meeting. The first expanded event took place in Los Angeles in 2010 with an open forum for local individuals actively engaged in the discussion of modern architecture. Docomomo US hosted its first National Symposium in Sarasota, Florida in April 2013. Held annually, this multi-day conference seeks to engage local participants in cities across the United States, offering participants the ability to interact with and explore a wide variety of significant modern architecture and sites.

Featured Sites

Bacardi Headquarters

The Bacardi Headquarters, designed by Enrique Gutierrez and completed in 1963, represents a unique interpretation of American Modernism through a Latin American lens. Miesian in form and Latin in style, the Bacardi Headquarters is an architectural contradiction. The complex consists of three elements: the 1963 tower, the 1974 square annex, and a plaza. Looking outward towards the city, the headquarters are positioned to address Miami through its use of massive blue and white mosaic tile murals, as well as an overt structural expressionism creating the illusion of a large floating tower amidst an elevated plaza. Through the combination of architecture and artwork, Gutierrez presented Bacardi as both a pan-Latin and global corporation that could rise above politics, sending a message that Miami’s Cuban population should do the same.

Featured Sites

Miami Marine Stadium

During its heyday, powerboat races, Easter sunrise services, and concerts under the stars all drew thousands to Miami Marine Stadium. Hundreds of boats would surround the floating stage to enjoy the festivities. The experience was authentic Miami—there was nothing else like it, anywhere. The 6,566-seat stadium was designed by 27-year-old, Cuban-born architect Hilario Candela. When it was poured in 1963, its 326-foot, fold-plate roof was the longest span of cantilevered concrete on earth. It is a masterwork of civic architecture and modern construction. As of early 2017, the stadium has been shut off from the Miami entertainment scene for over 20 years. Its abandonment has led to significant deterioration, environmental damage, and extensive graffiti.

Featured Sites

Babylon Apartments

The Babylon Apartments is a six-story multi-use “elongated ziggurat with a red front and ship-like balconies” that sits on a long narrow site across from the bay on Brickell Boulevard. The building stands out among the rest of the buildings in an area that has been overdeveloped with surrounding high-rise buildings.  It was the first major project for Arquitectonica, which launched their career, and it served as a model for other projects by the firm in the Brickell area.  In 1978 the Babylon won a Progressive Architecture Citation Award, the first international award for the firm.