Docomomo US is pleased to announce nine winners of the 2017 Modernism in America Awards program. These exemplary projects represent the highest level of preservation efforts and the growing trend to not only preserve but to document and share those findings with the public.
 

The projects recognized for the Modernism in America Awards highlight the diversity of important modern buildings and sites – not only the iconic but also those that are regionally significant - and the increasing importance of regional forces and development.

 

Bell Works and other projects emphasize the importance of partnerships between owners, architects and the community coming together to save and reinvigorate architecture that at one point faced demolition. They highlight the best of preservation practices where preservation often comes with complex financial viability and the need to adapt or add to a project in order for the whole to remain viable.

 

As modern architecture continues to age and face threats of demolition or insensitive restoration, it is paramount to recognize that these projects can be preserved in a meaningful and productive ways that enhances their presence and value in their respective communities.

 

Read the full announcement

2017 Jury


Chaired by Frances Halsband, FAIA the jury includes architectural critic Justin Davidson and architects and leading educators Barbara Campagna, FAIA, Mark Pasnik, AIA, Robert Nauman, Ph.D, Theodore Prudon, FAIA, and Jack Pyburn, FAIA.

Barbara Campagna, FAIA, LEED AP BC+C, has worked for the past 30 years as an architect, planner and historian – reinventing and restoring historic and existing buildings. She is the recipient of the National AIA Young Architect of the Year Award 2002 and was elevated to Fellowship in the AIA in 2009 as “the leading national architect and policymaker for the integration of preservation values into green building practices.” She was the President of APT International from 2005-2007 and served on the APT executive committee for 10 years. During her presidency, APT started their Technical Committee on Modern Heritage. She is the author of two books, Changing Places: ReMaking Institutional Buildings and New York State County Fairs: A History and Architectural Survey, many articles on the integration of preservation, modernism and green building practices, and a popular blog entitled True Green Cities.

 

Barbara grew up in Buffalo, received an Architecture degree from SUNY at Buffalo and a Master’s in Historic Preservation from Columbia University. She was the first Executive Director of the Landmark Society of the Niagara Frontier in Buffalo, ran her own architecture firm for many years in NYC, served as the Regional Historic Preservation Officer for the Northwest Region of the General Services Administration and from 2006-2011 was the Chief Architect for the 29 historic sites operated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, where she oversaw modern icons such as Farnsworth House and Philip Johnson’s Glass House. 

 

Barbara started her firm in 2011, BAC/A+P, which brings together all of her experiences – as both a consultant and client – to create a firm that occupies a unique niche in both the historic preservation, modern heritage and green building fields. She teaches graduate seminars in preservation and sustainability at the University at Buffalo and FIT in New York City including a seminar on “Preserving Modern Heritage.

Robert Nauman, Ph.D, received dual Masters Degrees in music and fine arts before completing his PhD in Art and Architectural History at the University of New Mexico. He currently teaches in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Colorado in Boulder, where his research focuses on art and architectural history of the 19th and 20th centuries. Nauman also has served on the Board of Directors of the Society of Architectural Historians and was co-chair for their annual conference in Denver, on the Publications Committee for Exposure magazine (published by the Society of Photographic Educators), and for 7 years coordinated the reading of the Advanced Placement Art History exam and served on the Test Development Committee for that exam. 

 

His book On the Wings of Modernism: the United States Air Force Academy dealt with issues of American modernism and architecture during the Cold War, a topic he has pursued in subsequent publications that have addressed the work of architects Walter Netsch and Gertrude Kerbis. He has worked as a team member with architectural firms that have included SOM and RNL Design on a variety of projects at the Air Force Academy, including serving as an advisor for the architect selection for the Center for Character and Leadership Development, working on an architectural inventory report for the entire site, and contributing to the 2016 Cadet Area Development Plan. He has written on preservation issues at the Academy for Columbia University’s FutureAnterior (a Journal of Historic Preservation History, Theory and Criticism).

 

Advocacy Award

The Docomomo US Modernism in America Advocacy Award was awarded by the Docomomo US Board of Directors. The Awards will be awarded on October 6, 2017 during a ceremony hosted by the 2017 Awards sponsor Design Within Reach in New York City.

 

 

 


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.  

 

The awards acknowledge the substantial contribution preservation in general and the postwar heritage in particular makes to the economic and cultural life of our cities and towns and their respective communities. The awards also set a standard as to what can be accomplished with the productive preservation of these projects. 

 
View the 2016 Winners

Sponsor

Design Within Reach

Design Within Reach makes authentic modern design accessible. When the company was founded in 1998, the classics were very difficult to find. DWR changed that, making innovative works by iconic designers accessible for the first time and continuing to offer the best in modern design – past, present and future – ever since.

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