National Symposium

2024 Docomomo US National Symposium Miami


May 29 - June 1, 2024
Miami, Florida

Details coming soon. The Call for Abstracts will be announced in Fall 2023. Registration will open in March 2024. 

 

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The 2024 National Symposium is a joint partnership of Docomomo US and its Florida chapter.
 

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. 

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.