Docomomo US has opened the Call for Abstracts for the 2027 National Symposium, taking place next June in Dallas and Fort Worth, TX. Titled “Lone Star Modernism: From Wide Open Spaces to Urban Places,” the Symposium will explore the architecture, landscapes, and urbanism that shaped one of the country’s most dramatic modern regions while connecting the region’s history to broader developments in modern design. Using Dallas and Fort Worth as a starting point, the program will examine how modernism developed across rural landscapes, small towns, suburbs, and cities, as well as promote a broader understanding of the interplay between preservation, adaptive reuse, sustainability, equity, planning, and cultural identity, alongside the history and legacy of modernism.

The Call for Abstracts is open to anyone involved or interested in preserving the buildings, sites, landscapes, and neighborhoods of the Modern Movement, including architects, landscape architects, planners, preservationists, historians, scholars, students, advocates, homeowners, and modernism enthusiasts. Session topics to consider include regional modernism in the South and Southwest, modernist landscapes, small-town modernism, postmodernism and the recent past, Dallas’s 1980s building boom, Black modernism, underrepresented designers and communities, government stewardship, residential modernism, preservation and housing demands, political threats to preservation, and successful preservation projects.

Docomomo US welcomes proposals that consider modern resources holistically, including their social context, technical qualities, aesthetics, and settings. Abstracts should include how the subject contributes to the broader discussion of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice either generally or in relation to a specific field of study. While Docomomo US generally defines the American Modern Movement as spanning 1940 to 1980, proposals addressing earlier or later resources connected to the broader principles of modernism will also be considered.

Abstracts are due Sunday, October 18 at 11:59 pm Participants will be notified during the first week of December, with an initial presentation draft expected in late January.

Visit the Docomomo US website for the full Call for Abstracts and submission guidelines.