Docomomo US has issued a statement clarifying its stance on issues that have been raised in advance of its 2024 National Symposium in Coral Gables, Florida. 

The group’s decision to host its annual event in the Miami area had come under scrutiny over the state’s pursuit of “anti-diversity” measures in the past year. The symposium will now continue with a renewed focus on sharing stories that can relate to the experiences of those communities targeted by lawmakers, organizers say. Their statement joins a prior call from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) outlining the detrimental impacts such "anti-woke" policies could have in the architectural education realm in places such as Arkansas, Iowa, South Dakota, and Virginia.

Other new laws and policies in Florida that have been labeled as equally antagonistic to the work of architectural historians and heritage preservation efforts were also decried by Docomomo. Beyond the local slate of major battles that includes saving Hilario Candela's Marine Stadium and much of Miami Beach's historic Art Deco architecture from developers' overreach, they say both sets of policies coincide to further advance a "disproportionately negative impact on underserved communities." Florida is also known for aggressively deterring efforts at removing Confederate monuments by activists and is using flood prevention as a further guise for undoing many local policies to favor new development.

This year’s event takes place from May 29 to the first of June in Coral Gables and Miami. Docomomo asks that all comments regarding the direction of the 2024 National Symposium be sent to symposium@docomomo-us.org. More information about the event, which is titled Streams of Modernity: Postwar to Postmodern, can be found here.