Every year, the Society of Architectural Historians presents awards that recognize the most distinguished publications in architectural history, urban history, landscape history, preservation, and architectural exhibition catalogues. SAH also presents the Founders' Award for an outstanding JSAH article written by an emerging scholar in the previous two years.

Nominate a Publication for a 2025 Award

Nominations are open for five publication award categories and SAH's Film & Video Award. Click below to download specific submission criteria and instructions for each award. All nominations are due August, 31, 2024.

Downing Book AwardExhibition Catalog AwardFilm & VideoHitchcock Book Award
Kostof Book AwardMacDougall Book Award

 

Award Winners will be announced at SAH’s 78th Annual International Conference, taking place April 30-May 4, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Alice Davis Hitchcock Book Award

The Alice Davis Hitchcock Book Award was established in 1949 to recognize annually the most distinguished work of scholarship in the history of architecture published by a North American scholar. List of Past Recipients

2024 Recipient:
Subhashini Kaligotla
Shiva's Waterfront Temples: Architects and Their Audiences in Medieval India
Yale University Press, 2022

Shiva's Waterfront Temples Cover

Antoinette Forrester Downing Book Award

For some time, preservationists have been involved in investigating and evaluating the physical fabric of this country and other nations. In order to encourage further research and publication of research in this field, the Society of Architectural Historians has established an annual award for excellence in a published work devoted to historical topics in preservation. Named for Antoinette Forrester Downing, the award honors her scholarship and recognition of the value of local inventories and surveys. List of Past Recipients

No award given.



SAH Exhibition Catalogue Award

Architectural history exhibitions address historical and critical questions in special ways, through the presentation of both documentation and artifacts to a diversified audience. Exhibition catalogues have become distinctive vehicles for the expression of scholarship in architectural history. They remain as the substantial and enduring contribution after the life of the exhibition is spent. This award recognizes and encourages excellence in this form of scholarship and publication. List of Past Recipients
  

2024 Recipient:
Angelo Maggi, Forward by Michelangelo Sabatino
G.E. Kidder Smith Builds: The Travel of Architectural Photography
ORO Editions, 2022

2024 Honorable Mention:
Yuka Yokoyama and William Whitaker, Editors
Uncrating the Japanese House: Junzō Yoshimura, Antonin and Noémi Raymond, and George Nakashima
August Editions, 2022

 


Uncrating the Japanese House Cover


Spiro Kostof Book Award

This award was established in 1993 at the Society's annual meeting in Albuquerque, in recognition of Spiro Kostof's extraordinarily productive and inspiring career that was ended by his premature death in December 1991. In the spirit of Kostof's writings, the award will be given to interdisciplinary studies of urban history that make the greatest contribution to our understanding of the growth and development of cities.
List of Past Recipients

2024 Recipient:
Tara A. Dudley
Building Antebellum New Orleans: Free People of Color and Their Influence
University of Texas Press, 2021

 
Building Antebellum New Orleans Cover


Elisabeth Blair MacDougall Book Award

The Elisabeth Blair MacDougall Book Award was established by the SAH Board in 2005 to recognize annually the most distinguished work of scholarship in the history of landscape architecture or garden design. Named for SAH past president and landscape historian Elisabeth MacDougall, the award honors the late historian's role in developing this field of study. List of Past Recipients

2024 Recipient:
Penny Sparke
Nature Inside: Plants and Flowers in the Modern Interior
Yale University Press, 2020

 
Nature Inside Cover


Founders' JSAH Article Award

The Founders' Award is given annually for an article published by an emerging scholar in the preceding two years in the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians that exhibits excellence of scholarship and presentation. For the purposes of this award, an "emerging scholar" is defined as someone under the age of 40 or within five years of the completion of a terminal degree at the time of submission of the article. Authors will be asked by the JSAH editor whether they are eligible, and if eligible, authors will be asked to submit a curriculum vitae.

Criteria for Award

  1. Publication in the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians during previous two years (Articles from the December issue may be forwarded in galley form.) 
  2. Excellence of scholarship and presentation

Upon publication of each issue of the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Founders' Award application materials are sent to all eligible JSAH authors. Those interested in being considered for this award are asked to submit a CV to the JSAH editor immediately upon receipt. List of Past Recipients

2024 Recipient:
E. Sasu Kwame Sewordor
"The Urban Culture of the 'Model' Christian Settlement at Abokobi, Ghana, 1854–1929”
Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 81 No. 2, June 2022

JSAH June 2022 Cover