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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.

Winners of the 2025 Awards were announced at the SAH 78th Annual International Conference in Atlanta on April 30, 2025. Nominations for the 2026 awards will open in mid-June 2025.

2025 Publication Award Winners

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

2025 Recipient:
Swati Chattopadhyay
Small Spaces: Recasting the Architecture of Empire
Bloomsbury Academic, 2023

 


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

2025 Recipients:

Susan Brown and Alexa Griffith Winton
A Dark, A Light, A Bright: The Designs of Dorothy Liebes
Yale University Press, 2023



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

2025 Recipient:
Christina E. Crawford
Spatial Revolution: Architecture and Planning in the Early Soviet Union
Cornell University Press, 2022



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

2025 Recipient:
Yvonne Elet
Urban Landscape in the Third Rome: Raphael's Villa and Mussolini's Forum
Edifir-Edizioni Firenze, 2023

 


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

2025 Recipient:
Isabel Rousset
"Down-to-Earth Types: Brick Buildings and the Bounds of Propriety in Berlin and Hamburg, 1904-14"
Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 83 No. 1, March 2024

 


Historic Interiors Article Award

This award was conceived by the SAH Historic Interiors Affiliate Group in 2022 and is focused on fostering new approaches to the history of the interiors as both an independent line of scholarly inquiry and as an important aspect of the expanded study of the built environment. This award recognizes excellence in research of a scholarly article from an English-language publication that has made a significant contribution to the study of historic interiors.

2025 Winner:
Kristina Borrman
“Choose Coziness, Clutter, and Color: June Jordan’s Instructions for Children in Public Housing”, Winterthur Portfolio, 2023

2025 Honorable Mention:
Benoit Beaulieu
“Sensitive Design: Robert de Montesquiou’s Sensorial Installations and Their Condemnation” in Potvin, Marchand and Beaulieu, eds., The Senses in Interior Design, Manchester University Press, 2023

Kristina Borrman (left) and Benoit Beaulieu (right)