Now in its eighth year, the Awards celebrate the documentation, preservation and reuse of modern buildings, structures and landscapes built in the United States or on U.S. territory. The Awards recognize those building owners, design teams, advocacy and preservation organizations that have made significant efforts to retain, restore and advocate for the aesthetic and cultural value of such places.

View the award categories and and eligibility guidelines below. Please contact [email protected] with any questions.

Award Categories

  • Design: This juried award recognizes informed, thoughtful and creative design efforts to preserve, restore or adapt a modern building, structure or landscape of local, regional or national significance, securing its presence for future generations. Design Awards are recognized in the following subcategories: Residential, Commercial, and Institutional/Civic
  • Inventory/Survey: This juried award recognizes exceptional efforts to document, inventory and/or create a preservation plan for one or more modern buildings, structures or landscapes of local, regional or national significance. Nominations may be submitted in the form of a website, book, publication, or exhibition.
  • Advocacy: Presented by the Docomomo US Board of Directors, this award recognizes outstanding efforts to preserve and advocate for threatened modern buildings, structures or landscapes of local, regional or national significance through advocacy efforts. This award seeks to recognize preservation and advocacy organizations and other groups (including Docomomo US chapters) who have gone above and beyond to work collectively and collaboratively to advocate for a modern site or structure.

Eligibility and Guidelines 

All projects must have been completed between January 1, 2016 and June 2, 2021, with an allowance for advocacy efforts that are ongonig.

All Submissions

  • Buildings, structures and landscapes must be located in the United States or on U.S. territory and have originally been completed between 1940 and 1980. If you would like to nominate a building or site that falls outside of these parameters, please email [email protected].
  • Nominations must be the work of architectural design teams, preservation and/or advocacy organizations and persons located in the United States or its territories.
  • All submissions must demonstrate significance if the site is not listed on the National Register of Historic Places or recognized by local landmarking laws.
  • Submissions should have preservation as a core component of the treatment, design concept and/or strategy.
  • Special consideration will be given to submissions that showcase an informed, well-executed, thoughtful, creative and holistic approach to the preservation of modern architecture.

Design Submissions

  • For design projects, original construction materials and/or design intent must have been retained and/or restored. A significant loss of such may cause a submission to be deemed void.
  • It is strongly recommended design submissions include before and after photographs taken from the same vantage point.
  • It is strongly recommended design submissions include before and after floor plans where an addition or alteration has occurred. A site plan and/or section drawings can be included if relevant.

Inventory/Survey Submissions

  • Inventory/Survey projects can include, but are not limited to: inventories, surveys, historic structure reports, conservation plans, design guidelines, exhibitions, books, publications, student thesis projects, mapping projects, apps, documentaries, grassroots initiatives, and projects using other forms of media to document modern resources. Contact [email protected] if you are not sure if your project is eligible.

Advocacy Submissions

  • The building(s), structure(s) or landscape(s) that are the focus of the advocacy initiative must have been threatened with demolition or significant alteration.
  • Advocacy efforts of multiple partners, persons or organizations that have gone above and beyond to work collectively and collaboratively are encouraged.

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 while acknowledging the substantial contribution preservation in general and the postwar heritage in particular makes to the economic and cultural life of our communities.