Celebrate the 2026 Modernism in America Awards winners at Docomomo US’s November 5 ceremony in New York City. Join preservation professionals, design advocates, and honorees at Design Within Reach as we recognize 15 exceptional projects and people advancing the preservation, restoration, adaptive reuse, and stewardship of modern architecture across the United States.

San Francisco’s Portsmouth Square pedestrian bridge—an acclaimed Chinese American Modernist work and landmark skating site—was demolished in August.

San Francisco architect and Docomomo US/Northern California member, Colin Alley, has written a new essay in which he examines the development of the European adventure-playground movement—this movement being based on children having free access to tools, scrap materials, earth, and controlled risk—within the San Francisco Bay Area from the 1960s up to 1979. The essay, which was published on August 26, 2026, links C. Th. Sørensen's 1943 Emdrup "junk playground" and Lady Allen of Hurtwood's work in the UK to the countercultural design environment of the Bay Area and to UC Berkeley's College of Environmental Design.

Unprecedented coalition representing more than 5 million Americans in all 50 states launches national campaign to defend—and strengthen—Section 106

Proposed revisions to federal Section 106 regulations could weaken public participation, diminish the role of Tribes, State Historic Preservation Offices, and consulting parties, and give federal agencies greater control over decisions affecting historic places. Docomomo US opposes the changes and urges preservation advocates to submit comments during the forthcoming public-review period.

Docomomo US invites preservation professionals, architects, scholars, students, advocates, and Modern Movement enthusiasts to submit proposals for the 2027 National Symposium in Dallas and Fort Worth. “Lonestar Modernism: From Wide Open Spaces to Urban Places” will examine Texas modernism, landscapes, urbanism, and their wider cultural contexts. Abstracts are due October 18, 2026.

Hagen History Center in Erie, Pennsylvania, has opened the Frank Lloyd Wright Field Office Museum, built around Wright’s former San Francisco field office at 319 Grant Avenue. Used by Wright and associate Aaron Green from 1951 until 1959, the compact office served as a Bay Area base for Northern California work, culminating in the Marin County Civic Center. Now reassembled as the centerpiece of a 2,700‑square‑foot “museum within a museum,” the installation lets visitors walk through the office and drafting room, experiencing Wright’s redwood plywood construction, 120‑degree geometries, partial‑height walls, and signature red tile while surrounded by artifacts and audio‑visual material about his life and work.

For many in the Bay, Lake Merritt is beautiful, civic, gleaming, and strange, as only the unwieldy possibilities of public space can conjure. Its mid-century years, 1945-1976, are the focus of Docomomo Northern California’s Tour Day in the spirit of the 2026 national theme of “Recreation and Play”.

Contribute your superlative personal ephemera. Create and share your digitized* slides, negatives, prints, scrapbook items, Polaroids, ticket stubs, flyers, propaganda, stickers, sketches, and digital photos of festival t-shirts, family reunion mugs, DIY art, etc.

Docomomo US Summer 2026 Reads spotlights new and classic books on modern architecture and design, including Northern California’s experimental and environmental modernism. The curated titles connect Bay Area projects like The Sea Ranch and back‑to‑the‑land architecture to a broader global story of place, justice, and identity.

Ernest and Esther Born helped shape San Francisco modernism through architecture, photography, graphic design, and planning. UC Berkeley’s exhibition Modernism: Born in California, on view through September 30, 2026, traces their Bay Area legacy from the 1920s to the 1960s at Bauer Wurster Hall’s Environmental Design Library.

Docomomo US/Northern California honors the life and legacy of Donlyn Lyndon, FAIA, who was an architect, teacher, writer, and a key figure in Northern California modernism. He passed away on April 5, 2026, at The Sea Ranch at the age of 90. As a founding partner of Moore, Lyndon, Turnbull and Whitaker, Lyndon played a major role in shaping The Sea Ranch in the early 1960s. He described it as a coastal community built on a “limited partnership” between buildings and the land, reflecting values of stewardship, collaboration, and care. 

The 19th International Docomomo Conference in Los Angeles explored how modernism is anything but a placeless “white box,” foregrounding climate-responsive design, regional identity, and the conservation of experimental modern architecture. Through panels on “Modernism in the Sun,” case studies like Marcel Breuer’s precast facades and Sim Van der Ryn’s Gregory Bateson Building, and tours of works by Paul R. Williams, Charles Moore, and other California innovators, the conference highlighted “Multiple Moderns” shaped by local histories, materials, and communities—and the complex challenges of preserving them for the future.

Discover how Docomomo US/NOCA made 2025 a landmark year for modern architecture advocacy in Northern California, from defending Vaillancourt Fountain and shaping preservation policy to hosting tours, talks, and grants that engaged new audiences in the legacy of modernism.

Tour Day is the only national program of its kind, devoted to the appreciation of modern architecture in the United States. Tours and events focused on Modern Movement buildings and landscapes are hosted throughout October by Docomomo US chapters, partners, and local preservation advocates across the country.

Embarcadero Reimagined is a bold concept design for Embarcadero Plaza and Sue Bierman Park from JRDV Urban International. This concept design demonstrates what is possible when unique San Francisco history, adaptive design, fiscal and environmental responsibility, economic revitalization, and creativity come together.

Docomomo US/Northern California has appealed the San Francisco Arts Commission’s approval of an emergency CEQA exemption for disassembling and removing the Vaillancourt Fountain from Embarcadero Plaza, arguing the Recreation and Park Department is misusing an “emergency” to evade required environmental review and public input.

The Northern California (NOCA) Chapter of Docomomo US is pleased to announce Luke Leuschner as the recipient of the 2025 Docomomo US/NOCA Symposium Travel Grant.

On November 8th, we were graced with beautiful East Bay sun during a perfect Bay Area autumn. The tour was led by Camila Baum board member of the Northern California chapter. There were five stops on this walking tour, we learned about Roger's early life, family life, career; and intersections of racial segregation and municipal zoning within the city of Berkeley.  Thank you to all who attended, we loved sharing the life and legacy of Roger Lee, FAIA.

San Francisco public art was not on Monday’s agenda. Instead, the Arts Commission heard a narrative shaped by Recreation & Park staff, and commissioners did not question the department’s good faith. During public comment, Docomomo US/NOCA and others presented evidence suggesting SFRPD intends to remove the fountain while sidestepping CEQA review that protects historic resources.