The tradition at VAF is to announce the awards and prizes at the annual meeting.  Though we did not meet in person this year, we are thrilled to recognize the 2020 awardees and honorees for their contributions to VAF and the field of vernacular architecture studies.  Please click on the links below to read the full inspiring stories and view the evocative images for each award. 

Advocacy Award: In 2020 VAF honored Patty Gay for her lifetime of commitment to the historic places and neighborhoods that make up the unique and diverse city of New Orleans. 

Please visit the  2020 Advocacy Award Recipient page for more details about about Patty Gay.

Catherine W. Bishir Prize: The co-winners of the 2020 Catherine W. Bishir Prize are Michael J. Chiarappa and Andrea R. Roberts.  Their compelling articles on African American experiential landscapes in the mid-Atlantic and Texas open new avenues of critical inquiry with new, diverse, and model methodologies that fruitfully further vernacular architecture studies.

Please visit the 2020 Bishir Prize Recipient page for more details about why these individuals were selected.

Paul E. Buchanan Award: The Vernacular Architecture Forum’s 2020 Buchanan Award honors two exemplary projects that illustrate the highest standards for meticulous documentation and rigorous study of historic vernacular architecture and cultural landscapes.

“Traditional Patterned Brickwork Buildings of New Jersey” by Architectural Historian Robert W. Craig, of the New Jersey State Historic Preservation Office.

“The Asian Americans in Los Angeles Historic Context Statements” and the associated National Register of Historic Places’ Multiple Property Documentation Form by the Los Angeles City Planning Office of Historic Resources

Please visit the 2020 Buchanan Award Recipient page for more details about why these individuals were selected. 

Abbott Lowell Cummings: The winner of the 2020 Abbott Lowell Cummings Award is C.J. Alvarez for Border Land, Border Water: A History of Construction on the U.S.-Mexican Divide, published by University of Texas Press, 2019, which tackles an original, ambitious, and timely project: interpreting the cultural landscape of the artificial line that both links and separates the United States and Mexico.

Please visit the 2020 Cummings Award page for more details Border Land, Border Water .