Docomomo US, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting modern architecture and design, announced the winners of the 2017 Modernism in America Awards program this week. This year’s awards honor nine projects for their efforts in preserving various Modernist landmarks while responding to their respective regional contexts. The recipients include restorations of art centers, residential buildings, and academic structures by Louis Kahn, Eero Saarinen, and others, as well as an eight-year research initiative and campaign to save a Brutalist nuclear research center. The awards are sponsored by Design Within Reach, which will host the presentation ceremony at their New York City studio October 6th.
Docomomo Announces 2017 Modernism in America Awards
The Residential Design Award: Bubeshko Apartments
Los Angeles
The Residential Design Award of Excellence is being presented to two apartments originally built for Anastasia Bubeshko and her daughter Luby by Rudolph Schindler in 1941. When filmmaker Joe DeMarie bought the project from Luby in 2004, he and his wife enlisted DSH Architecture to delicately update the residence with the help of plans, receipts, and old photos in order to maintain Schindler’s original vision to the utmost degree.
Photo © Grant Mudford
Commercial Design Award: Bell Works
Holmdel, NJ
The Commercial Design Award of Excellence goes to an adaptive reuse project that restored a 50s-era AT&T research laboratory designed by Eero Saarinen & Associates. The former office-laboratory is now a mixed-use “metroburb,” designed by Alexander Gorlin Architects with Paola Zamudio, that contains shopping and dining options, a spa, a conference center, and a hotel, all housed under a solar roof.
Photo © Somerset Development
Civic/Institutional Design Award: Yale Center for British Art
New Haven, CT
The Yale Center for British Art, restored by Knight Architecture, is being honored with the Civic/Institutional Design Award of Excellence for its meticulous preservation plan. Originally designed by Louis Kahn and completed after his death, the naturally-lit museum was the first in the U.S. to include retail shops in its plans. The newly-renovated building reopened to the public this spring.
Photo © Richard Caspole, Yale Center for British Art
Advocacy Award: Heroic Project
The Heroic Project is receiving an Advocacy Award of Excellence for eight years of research on Boston’s concrete architecture spanning from 1960 to 1976 by masters including Josep Lluís Sert, Paul Rudolph, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, and others. A restoration team led by Chris Grimley, Michael Kubo, and Mark Pasnik worked to organize exhibitions, research seminars, lectures, tours, preservation campaigns, and, finally, a 2015 book, Heroic: Concrete Architecture and the New Boston. [http://www.monacellipress.com/book/?isbn=9781580934244]
Photo © over,under
Advocacy Award: Nuclear Reactor Building/Save the Reactor Campaign
The Advocacy Award of Excellence goes to the Save the Reactor Campaign [http://www.savethereactor.org/], an organization that worked tirelessly to halt the demolition of the University of Washington’s Nuclear Reactor Building. Although the Brutalist structure was ultimately demolished in 2016, an ongoing Supreme Court Case will determine whether the University must comply to the City’s Landmarks Preservation Ordinance.
Photo © John Shea
Citation of Merit: Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer
Grand Island, NE
A Citation of Merit is being awarded to the conservation of the Stuhr Building, a white concrete structure surrounded by a duck-filled moat that starkly punctuates the wide open prairies of Nebraska. Nicknamed the “Gem of the Prairie,” the New Formalist building was designed by Edward Durell Stone in the ‘60s and restored in 2014 and 2015 by local firm BVH Architecture to further match the interiors to Stone’s original plans.
Photo © Tom Kessler Photography, 2016
Citation of Merit: American Enterprise Group National HQ
Des Moines, IA
The AEG Headquarters is receiving a Citation of Merit for the restoration of the Gordon Bunshaft-designed building that houses its offices and art collection. The 2016 update by BNIM applied a contemporary gloss to Bunshaft’s original plan, with a focus on increasing efficiency and reducing energy consumption.
Photo © Nick Marrick/ Hedrich Blessing
Citation of Merit: Boston University School of Law Tower
Boston
Boston University is being awarded a Citation of Merit for the renovation of Josep Lluis Sert’s Law Tower and the addition of the Sumner M. Redstone building. Conceptualized with sustainable building practices in mind, a LEED-certified renovation by Bruner/Cott & Associates updated Sert’s 1964 designs to enhance energy efficiency while protecting the historic significance of the building.
Photo © Richard Mandelkorn
Citation of Merit: Smith Residence
Gladwyne, PA
A Citation of Merit is being awarded to the Smith Residence, a midcentury modern house originally designed by renowned Philadelphian architect Vincent G. Kling. Completed in 1960, Kling’s rare residential design was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Bentley Saul and restored with particular attention to the architect’s choice of stone and wood by k YODER design.
Photo © Jeffrey Totaro
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