Docomomo US/MN
  • WHO WE ARE
    • Board Members
    • Contact Us
  • NEWS & EVENTS
    • News
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events >
      • Mid Mod Marvel: Masterfully Maintained Modernism
      • Going, Going Gone! Close Encounters
      • Spring 2025 Ackerman Events >
        • ONLINE Lecture: Mid-Century Modern Design Duo: Evelyn and Jerome Ackerman
        • Film Screening and Presentation: A Life and Legacy of Design: Evelyn and Jerome Ackerman
        • Book Launch and Presentation: Timeless Tapestries of Evelyn and Jerome Ackerman
        • Reception with Laura Ackerman-Shaw
        • Weaving Studio Open House
      • Mid Mod Marvel: Graffunder Rewind
      • Mid Mod Marvel: One Owner Wonder!
      • Road Trip to Clear Lake: Ashera by Tom Olson; Going, Going Gone!
      • 2024 Events >
        • A Very Merry Mod Mixer 2024
        • 2024 Tour Day
        • 2024 Fall Home Tour
        • Friedman House Tour: Going, Going Gone!
        • Mod Mixer 2024
        • George Mastny Residence Open House
      • 2023 Events >
        • 2023 Tour Day
        • Open House: Frank Lloyd Wright's Willey House
        • 2023 Fall Home Tour
        • Pop Up Tour: St. John the Evangelist
        • Member Road Trip to the Bunker House
      • 2022 Events >
        • 2022 Tour Day
        • Joseph Michels in Saint Anthony Park: Going Going Gone!
        • Gustafson Residence, 1956; Going Going Gone!
        • Going Going Gone! John Howe in Rochester
        • 2022 Film Screening: GOFF
        • Tapping History: Midcentury Modernism in the South Lake Minnetonka Area
      • 2021 Events >
        • Cabin Culture Tour 2021
        • Going, Going, Gone! Broadbent Residence
        • Going, Going, Gone! Boynton Cutright House
        • Going, Going, Gone! Arthur Dickey in Minnesota
        • Mount Telemark Virtual Visit
        • Mini Film Fest: MN Modern Masters
      • 2020 Events >
        • 2020 Tour Day
        • Grabow House Going, Going, Gone!
        • 2020 Film Screening
        • Lisl Close and the Legacy of Modern Design
      • 2019 Events >
        • 2019 Tour Day
      • 2018 Events
      • 2017 Events
      • 2016 Events
      • 2015 Events >
        • 2015 National Symposium
  • EXPLORE
    • Resources
    • Buildings, Sites and Designers
    • National Advocacy Themes >
      • '25 Nat'l Theme: Places of Worship
      • '24 Nat'l Theme: Corporate Campuses
      • '23 Nat'l Theme: Revisiting Urban Renewal
      • '22 Nat'l Theme: Shopping Malls
      • '21 Nat'l Theme: Travel & Leisure
      • '20 Nat'l Theme: 70s Turn 50
    • 2015 Symposium Archive
  • MN MODERN REGISTRY
  • JOIN
  • DONATE
  • STORE


HOW DOES DOCOMOMO DEFINE MODERNISM?
DOCOMOMO US states that a building or structure must have been designed and constructed during the Modern period, the duration of which we define as roughly the 1920s to the 1970s. In order to apply the label of “modern” to a built work, it must conform to the following definition of Modern:

  • The Modern Movement was an artistic and architectural movement that embodied the unique early twentieth century notion that artistic works must look forward to the future without overt references to historical precedent.
  • Modern design emphasized expression of functional, technical or spatial properties rather than reliance on decoration.
  • Modern design was conscious of being modern: it purposefully expressed the principles of modern design.
Learn more.

Common Terms to Describe Modern Architecture:
Art Deco, Streamline, Moderne, Bauhaus, Prefabricated, International, Mid-Century, Atomic, Modern, Googie, Art Nuevo, Constructionist, Cubist, Futurism, Machine Age, Brutalist,  Brutalism, Corporate Modern/Slick Skin, Curtain Wall, Geodesic Dome, International, Miesian, Neo Expressionism, New Formalism, Pavilion, Populuxe, Quonset Hut, Wrightian, Usionian.

GETTING STARTED​

Want to research your own home? 

Want to browse all the modern buildings and sites Minnesota has to offer? 

Want to know more about an Architect, builder, or building? 
Northwest Architectural Archives
Minnesota History Center Gale Family Library
Minnesota Architects: A Biographical Dictionary by Alan K. Lathrop
AIA Guide to the Twin Cities by: Larry Millett ​


​Docomomo US
Duluth Preservation Alliance
Historic St. Paul
MNHS
Minnesota Modernism Tour
NTHP Modernism + Recent Past
Preservation Alliance of Minnesota
Preserve Minneapolis
Want to research your own home? The University of Minnesota Architectural Archives provides a wonderful resource on drafting a house history. This resource can be viewed at: www.lib.umn.edu/scrbm/naa/drafting

Want to browse all the modern buildings and sites Minnesota has to offer? Check out our Modern Registry. 


RESEARCH 
Northwest Architectural Archives: www.lib.umn.edu/scrbm/naa
Minnesota History Center Gale Family Library: sites.mnhs.org/library/

EXPLORE


Resources

2015 National Symposium Archive

70s Turn 50

RESOURCES
BUILDINGS & SITE
2015 NATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ARCHIVE

Useful Links

2015 Symposium Archive
Upcoming Events
Resources
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Docomomo US/MN
850 Decatur Ave N
Golden Valley MN 55427
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Unless otherwise noted, site photographs courtesy of  Peter J. Sieger Architectural Photography 


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