In response to the recent surprise demolition of Marcel Breuer’s Geller I house on Long Island, modernist conservation group Docomomo US has released its first-ever list of the 11 most threatened modern sites in the United States. 

Working on the advice of its chapter members, the group selected 11 sites across the country in danger of seeing the same fate as Breuer’s first post-war residential project beginning with Miami’s Marine Stadium, which is still currently awaiting word on a publicly-funded restoration effort.

Massachusetts is also well-represented with the “Long House” prototype cottage design for Breuer’s never-realized colony on Cape Cod joining Paul Rudolph’s ever-precarious Boston Government Center.

Milwaukee’s prominent architectural history was represented by the inclusion of the Mitchell Park Domes, which are in the process of being restored via a comprehensive long-term plan still under development by a cohort of local preservationists. 

Another midcentury design from SOM landed on the list in the form of Natalie de Blois’ Terrace Plaza Hotel from 1948. It was joined by Roche-Dinkeloo’s currently under-renovation 60 Wall Street, the Willert Park Courts housing complex in Buffalo, and the soon-to-be-vacant Philadelphia Police Administration Building, aka “The Roundhouse”, originally designed by Geddes, Brecher, Qualls & Cunningham in 1962.

Finally, in the wake of the recently begun retrofit of the architect’s seminal Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco, William Pereria’s Chet Holifield Federal Building, also in California, rounded out the selection after being named as one of the more prominent pieces of “high value” Federal property being sold by the GSA in 2020.

The group's entire inaugural list can be viewed here. Stay tuned to Archinect for more coverage on historic modern architecture and the ongoing fight to preserve its legacy worldwide.