Last month, we featured Docomomo – International. This month we feature the US part of this movement.

Docomomo is an acronym for documentation and conservation of buildings, sites and neighborhoods of the modern movement.
Docomomo promotes the study, interpretation and protection of the architecture, landscape and urban design of the Modern Movement. It promotes the exchange of knowledge about this important legacy which extends from the planned city and the iconic monument to the house next door. Docomomo is an international organization. Founded in 1988 in The Netherlands, today it has national chapters or working parties in 59 countries and over 2000 individual members. It is an important presence in conservation and in architectural culture, worldwide, working in partnership with other international organizations, national governments, and regional and national associations.

Docomomo US is the working party of Docomomo in the United States. It is a 501(c)3 registered non-profit organization, a union of regional chapters that share its members’ knowledge of and enthusiasm for the Modern Movement, promote public interest in it through lectures and walking tours, and organize advocacy efforts to protect endangered sites and buildings. Committed to the principle that modern design merits the attention and preservation received by earlier periods, we maintain a continuous and constructive dialogue with national, state, and local preservation authorities and organizations as well as with building owners, developers, and designers in many disciplines. Our discussions with designing architects are based on the conviction that creative design and preservation go hand in hand. Designers are often consolidating, rehabilitating, and adding to the old; preservation architects are often devising creative ways to conserve it.

Chicago Hall

The purpose of the grant was to examine several dozen historically and architecturally significant buildings on campus and develop a comprehensive preservation design manual for them. Those that were examined and evaluated were to be positioned in relation to Modernism: before, during, and after the movement that shaped many aspects of the 20th century built domain.

The project resulted in the production of the “Vassar College Historic Preservation Design Manual” (2007), which offers a general survey of the physical conditions of Vassar’s inventory of architecture, with a focus on the meaning of its principal exemplars, to help understand why and how they should be preserved. There is special emphasis of the works of Modern architecture on campus, and particularly three exceptional works: Dexter M. Ferry Cooperative House, Emma Hartman Noyes House, and Chicago Hall.

This is a good example of a heritage property which has significant historical value, and deserves preservation in its existing conditions. There are some other sites which chronicles historical properties - for example, PropertyForSale.com.my as well as Trulia.

The report developed a matrix of significance and existing conditions for each building, including notations about specific issues, dates of service life and anticipated longevity for certain components of the building, goals for said components, treatment options, priorities for intervention, and recommendations overall.

Vassar College page with links to their report to the Getty Foundation.