Docomomo US chapters, friend groups, and partners organized over 25 unique tours across the country for Tour Day 2024.

Many tours "climbed the corporate ladder," exploring the annual theme of Corporate Campuses, and got an inside look at sites such as Bell Labs, GM Technical Center, and the Formica Headquarters. Other tours featured iconic Modern sites of different typologies, from residential to educational and beyond, including The Glass House, McCormick House, UMass Amherst, Raymond Farm and Nakashima Studios, the Midcentury Modern treasures of Midland, Michigan, and many more.

Thank you to all of the host organizations and tour leaders who participated and made this another great Tour Day! Continue reading for some highlights from this year's events.

Docomomo US/DC Tour Day 2024 at the NIST Gaithersburg Campus

Thank you to everyone who joined us for the Docomomo DC tour of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Gaithersburg campus, part of the U.S. Department of Commerce. This event, in line with the Docomomo National 2024 Tour Day theme, "Corporate Campus," offered a unique opportunity to explore a cornerstone of American innovation and mid-century modern architecture. 

Our journey began with an engaging overview of the NIST campus history by Riley Wilson from NIST Public Affairs. Attendees were treated to an in-depth narrative of the campus's origins, from its establishment in 1901 as the National Bureau of Standards, to its critical role in advancing U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness. The tour highlighted the architectural significance of the Gaithersburg campus, designed by Voorhees, Walker, Smith, Smith & Haines. Constructed in the early 1960s, this campus stands as a testament to post-WWII suburban planning principles, blending modernist and traditional design elements in a thoughtfully organized layout. Its designation as a Historic District in 2021 underscores its importance in the history of science, technology, and architecture.

Phillip Neuberg, FAIA, NIST Architect & Federal Preservation Officer, led the walking tour through the campus’s striking modernist buildings and expansive grounds. His expert insights provided a deeper appreciation of the architectural and historical nuances that make the NIST Gaithersburg campus a notable landmark. Participants earning AIA Continuing Education Learning Units left with not only enhanced knowledge but also a professional credit to their name.

We extend our heartfelt thanks to Riley Wilson and Phillip Neuberg for their invaluable contributions to this tour. Their expertise and passion enriched the experience for all attendees. And special thanks to Amanda Edwards, PA-AIC, with MTFA Design + Preservation for bring insights and historical documents from all the work they’ve done to help preserve and tell the story of the NIST campus. We also thank each participant for making the time to join us and engage with this remarkable campus.

Docomomo US/Minnesota Land O' Lakes Corporate Campus Tour

Docomomo US/MN members and followers enjoyed an afternoon tour of the corporate headquarters for Land O' Lakes, a Fortune 500 company. The 50-acre campus is located in Arden Hills. The original campus buildings were designed by Architectural Alliance and the recipient of the 2013 AIA Minnesota 25-Year Award. A 2018 campus expansion by Perkins&Will eliminated the need to lease nearby office buildings, retooled the existing campus buildings, and refocused the campus around a central, open courtyard. Lisa Pool, Perkins&Will Managing Principal and Firmwide Director of Workplace Strategy, and Docomomo US/MN Board Member Patrick Moe, Architect at Perkins&Will, led the group of 30 attendees through the evolution of the campus, sustainable building practices, and changing workplace trends exemplified across the site. The group enjoyed a reception at the new "big stair" and Harvest Table. Attendees also were able to view historic imagery and design models provided by Land O' Lakes and Perkins&Will. Many thanks to all attendees and especially to our hosts and tour guides. 

POST HTX: Adaptive Reuse of the Barbara Jordan Post Office Tour with Houston Mod

Fifteen Houston Mod members enjoyed the tour of POST HTX which was led by Jeannette Shaw, AIA, RID/ Powers Brown Architecture. Most of the members stayed after the tour to have lunch in the food court.

Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia Presents:
A Tour of Raymond Farm and Nakashima Studios

On a beautiful October morning in Bucks County, PA we had the pleasure of meeting up with the stewards of two incredible architectural works; Raymond Farms and Nakashima Woodworking Studios. The Raymond Farmhouse, originally built in the 1700s, is now an incredible mix of traditional and modern thanks to the pioneering Mid-Century modern touches of Antonin and Noami Raymond. William Whitaker, the head archivist of University of Pennsylvania's architecture Library, was kind enough to share the history of the space, with Charlotte Raymond, Antonin and Noami's granddaughter, jumping in with anecdotes here and there.

Just a mile down the road sits George Nakashima's original furniture studios, an archipelago of buildings that house the woodworking studios, display buildings, and homes of the famed Nakashima furniture empire. We were lucky enough to meet Mira Nakashima, George Nakashima's daughter and current head of the family business, who explained the space in a very sentimental and personal way. 

Learning about the history, friendship, and connections of these two spaces and their founders was fascinating. Walking through the grounds and beautifully maintained spaces acted as the perfect escape from city life and the outside world, as their original owners always intended them to be. The JASGP holds these tours once a year in October, and always seems to get perfect weather and amazing fall colors. We hope you can join us next year!

UMassBRUT: Windows on UMass Symposium & Walking Tour

The UMass Amherst Docomomo Tour Day on October 25, 2024 was a resounding success!  It began at the UMassBRUT Windows on UMass exhibit and introduced about two dozen visitors to the windows and forms of the Brutalist buildings of UMass Amherst, including the Fine Arts Center by Kevin Roche and the Murray D. Lincoln Campus Center by Marcel Breuer.  The tour was led by UMassBRUT founding member Timothy M. Rohan, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of the History of Art & Architecture and student docents.

Schweikher House Trifecta Tour

Our Trifecta Tour over the weekend was incredibly fun. A full day touring Bruce Goff's Ford House, Mies van der Rohe's Edith Farnsworth House and Paul Schweikher's Home and Studio delighted all of us. A perfect fall day to experience world class residential Modernist architecture. We plan to do it again next year!

Long Wharf: Sargent Drive Walking Tour with New Haven Preservation Trust

Led by Kyle Driebeek, participants on this tour enjoyed a beautiful fall day exploring the history of Long Wharf and its architectural heritage.

Docomomo US/New York Tri-State hosted two tours!

Marcel Breuer Buildings at Lehman College CUNY

We toured two connected buildings on that Bronx campus designed by Marcel Breuer, his first permanent buildings built in New York City. The Fine Arts Building (1960), originally designed as a library, features a notable and structurally daring roof of six hyperbolic-paraboloid concrete shells. 3-story Shuster Hall (1959) was originally a combined administration and classroom building. Its distinctive facade is partially comprised of sunscreens of terra cotta flue tile. Designed by Breuer with Associate Robert Gatje and Eduardo Catalano as design consultant, these buildings appeared twice on the cover of Progressive Architecture magazine. In 1963, Ada Louise Huxtable described them as “novel, daring, and unlike anything the city has built before or since.” 

Endo Laboratories: Paul Rudolph's Pharmaceutical Fortress

The tour, entitled Paul Rudolph's Pharmaceutical Fortress, was led by New York Tri-State Treasurer Sean Khorsandi and Dan Webre. Built as a corporate campus for a pharmaceutical manufacturer, Endo's design employs many of the features common to Rudolph's work of the period, like corduroy concrete, orange carpeting, and inset plate glass. Formally, the headquarters is defined by its novel cylindrical elements and undulating Baroque access ramps. Our sold-out tour had 30 participants. In addition to seeing the exterior, we had a thorough tour of the interior. Many of the interior spaces have been altered over the years but portions of Rudolph's original interiors are still visible.

Docomomo US/Oregon Tour of Bradford Island

We had an amazingly informative, misty, and eventually groovy time on the Oregon and Washington sides of the Bonneville Lock and Dam complex for Tour Day 2024! A huge thanks to the staff of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for showing our group around so many corners and sharing a wealth of intel on this astounding piece of infrastructure.

If you missed the tour: exploring the Bradford Island Visitor Center, powerhouses, and navigation lock are well worth your time if you can make it. But the Washington Shore Visitor Center has the resplendent carpet, and it might just change your life. See it there while you still can!

Exploring the Landscape Design of Levi's Plaza with Docomomo US/NOCA

The Northern California chapter led a sold-out tour of Levi’s Plaza in San Francisco on October 26! We took a deep dive into the history of this section of the Northern Waterfront, discussed the development controversies of the 1960s, the history of Levi Strauss & Company, and the unique design of Lawrence Halprin’s landscape design for the park! Huge thank you to those who joined us!

From Bell Labs to Bell Works

Docomomo US members and supporters were treated to a tour of one of the most iconic corporate campuses, Eero Saarinen's Bell Laboratories building in Holmdel, NJ. Thank you to Alexander Gorlin, lead architect for the building's amazing restoration, who led our tour, and to the creative team at NPZ Studio for making this event possible. 

Stay tuned for more details coming soon on Tour Day 2025 and next year's thematic focus, Places of Worship.