Enjoy a great day touring 11 new and renovated Modernist houses around Durham, Carrboro, Chapel Hill, and Pittsboro without the hassle of driving!

Few places have been as nostalgized, or as maligned, as malls. Since their birth in the 1950s, they have loomed large as temples of commerce, the agora of the suburbs. Conventional wisdom holds that the mall is dead. But what was the mall, really? And have rumors of its demise been greatly exaggerated? Join design critic Alexandra Lange on Zoom for a free reading from her new book Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall.

Join the Michigan Chapter of Docomomo US and our friends at the Southfield Public Library and the Southfield Historical Society as we partner with Docomomo US for Tour Day 2022 to explore the history and future of shopping malls across the nation, including Michigan’s iconic Northland Center in Southfield.

Enjoy a casual evening at the Schweikher House. We'll open the doors for an informal social gathering with light food and wine followed by a relaxed tour. Experience the house and studio as if you were invited over by the Schweikhers or Langsdorfs. See the property and grounds in twilight, an experience rarely open to the public.

Join Docomomo US/Minnesota as they explore midcentury homes across the Twin Cities metro; featuring houses designed by renowned MN architects and builders: Close Associates, Michael McGuire, Joe Michels, Richard Lundgren, and others.

The Schweikher House Preservation Trust, in collaboration with Docomomo US, will lead tours through the House & Studio by an expert docent and learn about the history of the property, the Modernist architect who designed, lived and worked in it, Paul Schweikher and the second owner/residents, the Langsdorf family.

Architect Wallace K. Harrison asked, “Have you ever thought what it would be like to live inside a giant sapphire?” With more than 20,000 pieces of glass in 86 hues, the dalle de verre of the First Presbyterian Church in Stamford achieves his goal of creating a building with “soaring space and jeweled light”. The acoustics of the sanctuary drove the form of the building which resembles a fish and led this building to be nicknamed ‘The Fish Church.’ In 2020, The Fish Church was recognized as a National Historic Landmark.

Houston MOD, in collaboration with the Lake Jackon Historical Association, invites the public for a walking tour of mid-century architecture in downtown Lake Jackson. The tour will begin at 10:30 AM at the Alden B. Dow Office Museum with a presentation by Marty Merritt, local architectural historian and Houston MOD board member.

This tour, led by Docomomo US/New England President and Brown University professor Deitrich Neumann, will include short presentations on John Nicholas Brown and Richard Neutra at the John Nicholas Brown Center, and will then visit several modern and postmodern buildings on the Brown campus.

When the Whitehall Mall opened in the summer of 1966 it was the first enclosed shopping center in Pennsylvania outside of Philadelphia, approximately one hour north. A modern wonder with air-conditioning and heating, it offered an impressive 52 stores, a supermarket, and a 1,000-seat movie theater. The local newspaper reported Whitehall Mall was “a fresh, futuristic outlook on retailing and merchandising.” Despite its popularity by the mid 70’s, the next new thing opened directly across the street in 1976. 

Architect Paul Rudolph believed ‘we have still to learn how to add to the evolving city without tearing down everything in sight.’ It is a curious proclamation from someone so intimately involved in re-envisioning the 'Elm City' as the 'Model City.' Nowhere is this more apparent than at New Haven's gateway, and specifically, his work surrounding the Chapel Square Mall.

Visit the Bundy Modern, tour the building and see the exhibit closing October 9. Built in 1962 by Harlow Carpenter, GSD '56, sponsor of Corbu's Carpenter Center for Visual Arts. To Market is a show of paintings by Shelley Reed and cut paper works by Randal Thurston. Tour the grounds with sculptures from the 1960s, described as a mini Storm King by Storm King's director. Dogs welcome assuming positive interaction with gallery dog, Nico.

The Ant Farm Antioch Art Building (or AFAAB), a currently abandoned studio art building, was designed in 1971 by radical architecture and art collaborative Ant Farm and is located on the campus of Antioch College, a liberal arts college and historical hotbed of American left political activism in the 1960s and 1970s. Ant Farm, who had never built anything besides plastic inflatables before getting the contract from Antioch, lived in a treehouse while they worked on this open, flexible space, which was designed for interdisciplinary artistic mingling. 

Throughout October, Docomomo US/Chicago will be exploring Chicagoland’s fascinating history of shopping malls through a walking tour and a pair of virtual presentations. North Michigan Avenue, nicknamed the “Magnificent Mile,” began life as a 1920s luxury shopping district, was revitalized beginning in the 1970s, and faces an uncertain future as the very concept of retail evolves. On Saturday, October 8, we will explore three urban malls that shaped the Magnificent Mile into what it is today.

A close-up tour, inside and out, of Beinecke Library, designed by Gordon Bunshaft / Skidmore Owings & Merrill. The tour will be led Michael Morand, Beinecke Library Director of Community Engagement.

Take a guided architectural tour of the only synagogue designed by Frank Lloyd Wright with Helene Mansheim of the Beth Sholom Preservation Foundation. Beth Sholom is a work of art in glass and concrete. With its design commemorating Mount Sinai, the towering, light-filled space is a symbol the of faith and undying spirit of the Jewish people and the story of how its congregation is dedicated to preserving the architecture is tale we can all learn from.

Throughout October, Docomomo US/Chicago will be exploring Chicagoland’s fascinating history of shoppingmalls through a walking tour and a pair of virtual presentations. On Wednesday, October 12 at 6 p.m. CST, join us for “Shopping can be a pleasure: Chicagoland Malls, 1916-2000.” This (virtual) trip to Chicagoland’s malls will explore the good, the bad, the demolished, and theunderappreciated. 

Join Docomomo US/Southern California and the Society of Architectural Historians/Southern California Chapter for a look at the global shopping designation, South Coast Plaza. This free Zoom program will feature three experts: Alan Hess, author and advocate from Preserve Orange County; Matthew Parrent, AICP, Principal Associate at Gruen Associates; and Ashok Vanmali, AIA, Partner at Gruen Associates.

Modernism Week, the annual festival that highlights midcentury modern architecture, art, interior and landscape design, and vintage culture in the Palm Springs area of Southern California, will offer Modernism Week – October from October 13-16, 2022. While smaller in scope than the 11-day festival held annually each February, the October event offers more than 50 events during 4-days, including several free and low-cost programs.

A walking tour that will take you down the famous Fort Street row, from the early 1880s the road out side the prison to the 1950s booming shopping district to 1960s the rise of a pedestrian friendly street blocked to traffic. Walking down Fort Street under the swaying palms, you will see a mix of building styles that will transport you back in time!

Following this year’s Tour Day theme, the North Texas Chapter of Docomomo US will host a tour of one of the nation’s most architecturally significant malls, NorthPark in Dallas. This unique tour will be personally led by Nancy Nasher, current NorthPark lead executive and the daughter of Raymond and Patsy Nasher, the noted art collectors and original mall developers.

John Portman’s Embarcadero Center in San Francisco is the city’s most compelling (and sometimes confusing) example of interior urbanism. Designed as a ‘city within a city’ connected by landscaped plazas dotted with massive public artworks, the Embarcadero Center is, in part, suburban shopping malls. This five-block complex has a three-story hive of public and private activity including retail, entertainment, dining, and the other services, terminating in a dramatic atrium hotel lobby. Join us to explore this megastructure within the context of 20th century retail trends and Late Modernist architecture and urbanism.

Minoru Yamasaki, Detroit’s best-known midcentury architect, left his mark all over the city. Locally he designed office buildings, houses of worships, educational institutions, and residences. Learn how Yamasaki came to Wayne State University in the mid-1950s to extend and execute their master plan with new buildings and a pedestrian-friendly campus, and then helped to establish the College for Creative Studies' new 1950s campus. This tour explores Yamasaki’s legacy in Detroit's Cultural Center, including a stop at Wayne State University’s magnificent McGregor Memorial Conference Center and reflecting pool.

Ohio’s first auto-oriented (strip) mall, Greenhills Center, was built in 1938 as part of the federal government’s New Deal greenbelt towns project. In 1951, work began on the city’s first modern-style shopping mall, the open air Swifton Center in Bond Hill. The region’s first enclosed shopping center, Kenwood Mall, was built in 1966. Two years later, an open-air mall previously built in 1960 in Springdale was enclosed to create Tri-County Mall. The fascinating stories of these community destinations continue to evolve today.

Inspired by “A Bit of Japan is seen in the Eaves”, a handmade photo album that Junzo Yoshimura made during the time he lived and worked at the Raymond Farm Center for Living Arts and Design (1939-1940), this exciting tour will take visitors on a trip to New Hope, Pennsylvania, to find “a bit of Japan ” in its architecture and landscape.

On October 23, 2022, the Southern California chapter of Docomomo US and Society of Architectural Historians/Southern California Chapter are presenting a thematic tour of South Coast Plaza. The original design for South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa embodied Victor Gruen’s seminal ideas that defined shopping malls across the country. Built by the Segerstrom Co. in 1967 on agricultural fields next to the newly minted 405 freeway, South Coast Plaza helped open a new chapter in Orange County living by providing both retail stores and a social center for the new suburbs. 

Throughout October, Docomomo US/Chicago will be exploring Chicagoland’s fascinating history of shoppingmalls through a walking tour and a pair of virtual presentations. On Wednesday, October 26 at 6 p.m. CST, we’ll explore “The Modernism of Carson Pirie Scott & Company.” Chicago-based Carson’s is perhaps best known for their downtown Chicago flagship store designed in 1899 by Louis Sullivan (recently nicknamed the “Goth Target”). Less appreciated, however, is Carson Pirie Scott’s patronage of modern design. 

As part of Docomomo US Tour Day 2022 with its thematic focus on Modern shopping malls, the New York Tri-State chapter is presenting an in-person talk by Caroline Zaleski on Long Island’s Roosevelt Field Shopping Mall. Although now greatly altered, in its original form Roosevelt Field was the second largest mall in the country and the most distinguished in the region. Zaleski, the leading authority on the Modern architecture of Long Island, will delve into its fascinating and little known history.

In the generation following the Second World War, the University of Massachusetts Amherst engaged in one of the most ambitious academic building programs in the United States. Following a 1963 master plan by renowned landscape architect, Hideo Sasaki, UMass Amherst employed some of the most distinguished architects of the time such as Marcel Breuer, Kevin Roche, and Edward Durrell Stone, who remade the campus in a distinct Brutalist style.

Join the Docomomo US/DC chapter at America's Mall on Saturday, October 29 to explore the challenges of caring for Modern Museums on the National Mall.