May 29 - June 1, 2024
Miami and Coral Gables, Florida

Join us in Miami and Coral Gables, Florida, from May 29 to June 1, 2024, and experience one of the country’s richest collections of mid-century and postmodern architecture. Entitled Streams of Modernity: Postwar to Postmodern, the 2024 National Symposium is a collaboration of Docomomo US and the Docomomo US/Florida chapter.

Miami is a city whose location, diversity and vibrant growth have made it an ideal destination for international travel, business, culture, and leisure. Incorporated in 1896 - though Native Americans inhabited the region for millennia - the city and its greater region are a remarkable landscape described by native Amerindians as a slowly flowing “river of grass,” with a thin strip of buildable land stretching along its coastline. The region became an escape for post-World War II middle America, shaped largely by the desire for leisure and entertainment. Over the past decades, Miami has become a laboratory to explore new urban patterns, building types, evolving aesthetics, and emerging environmental consciousness.

The symposium seeks to promote a broader understanding of the accomplishments of postwar to Postmodern architecture and culture in regionally specific contexts such as South Florida, the Caribbean, and Latin America. Themes to be explored include: Tropical Brutalism, Postwar campus planning in the (sub)tropics, LGBTQ+Modernism, Postwar tourism, urban renewal and Interstate infrastructure, Modern architecture and popular culture in south Florida, polychrome Modern & the integration of the arts, and more.

The 2024 National Symposium is a joint partnership of Docomomo US and its Florida and Puerto Rico chapters, along with the University of Miami School of Architecture, Florida International University, Miami Dade College, Florida Atlantic University, Friends of the Miami Marine Stadium, the Historical Preservation Association of Coral Gables, and the Miami Beach Preservation League.

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.