Shortlists revealed for the Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion and the Colvin Prize

The shortlists for two of the most important prizes in architectural history – the Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion and the Colvin Prize – have been revealed today.  

The Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion is awarded to a monograph that makes an outstanding contribution to the study of architectural history – previous winners include Howard Colvin, Dorothy Stroud, John Summerson, Nikolaus Pevsner, Hermione Hobhouse and Jill Lever. The Colvin Prize, established in 2017, is awarded to an outstanding work of reference of value to the discipline irrespective of format. 

The shortlists for both awards are below, and encompass a wide range of subjects and approaches to architectural history, ranging from the culture of church building in Stuart England and the historiographies of the Bauhaus, to architecture in global socialism and oral history in architectural research, and much more. The winners will be selected in the autumn and announced at the Society’s Annual Lecture and Awards Ceremony – the date for this event will be confirmed shortly.

The awards are overseen by the SAHGB to reward work that is innovative, ambitious and rigorous in tackling histories of the built environment as broadly conceived. The SAHGB’s awards programme, which also includes the Hawksmoor Essay Medal and the James Morris Prize, is open and inclusive wherever possible, celebrating diversity of approach. 

Please contact the SAHGB at info@sahgb.org for further information. 

Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion shortlist 

Louise Campbell, Studio Lives: Architect, Art and Artist in 20th-Century Britain (Lund Humphries) 

David Hemsoll, Emulating Antiquity: Renaissance Buildings from Brunelleschi to Michelangelo (Yale University Press) 

Anne-Françoise Morel, Glorious Temples or Babylonic Whores: The Culture of Church Building in Stuart England through the Lens of Consecration Sermons (Brill) 

Lukasz Stanek, Architecture in Global Socialism: Eastern Europe, West Africa, and the Middle East in the Cold War (Princeton University Press) 

Otto Saumarez-Smith, Boom Cities: Architect Planners and the Politics of Radical Urban Renewal in 1960s Britain (Oxford University Press) 

Colvin Prize shortlist 

Nat Alcock, Paul Barnwell and Martin Cherry (eds), Cruck Building: A Survey (Shaun Tyas) 

Murray Fraser and Catherine Gregg (eds), Sir Banister Fletcher’s Global History of Architecture (Bloomsbury) 

Janina Gosseye, Naomi Stead and Deborah van der Plaat (eds), Speaking of Buildings: Oral History in Architectural Research (Princeton Architectural Press) 

Andrew Tierney, Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Yale University Press) 

Ines Weizman (ed.), Dust & Data: Traces of the Bauhaus Across 100 Years (Spector Books) 

FURTHER INFORMATION 

The Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion 

The Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion – awarded since 1959 – is given annually to the author of a literary work that provides an outstanding contribution to the study of architectural history. The work must be by a British author (or authors), or deal with an aspect of the architectural history of the British Isles or the Commonwealth. The award is named after the mother of the American architectural historian Henry Russell-Hitchcock, and the medallion consists of a Wedgwood portrait of James ‘Athenian’ Stuart. It was presented to the SAHGB general meeting in 1959. 

Judging panel: Dr Christine Casey (University College Dublin); Dr Elizabeth Darling (Oxford Brookes University) (Chair); Dr Michael Hall (Burlington Magazine); Dr Tania Sengupta (The Bartlett, University College London); Dr Max Sternberg (University of Cambridge). 

For further information, including criteria, eligibility and nomination form, please see the Awards page. For a list of previous winners, please contact the SAHGB at info@sahgb.org.uk. 

The Colvin Prize 

The Colvin Prize is awarded annually to the author or authors of an outstanding work of reference that relates to the field of architectural history, broadly conceived. All modes of publication are eligible, including catalogues, gazetteers, digital databases and online resources. It is named in honour of Sir Howard Colvin, a former president of the Society, and one of the most eminent scholars in architectural history of the twentieth century. The prize was inaugurated in 2017, winners receive a commemorative medal designed by contemporary medallist Abigail Burt. 

Judging panel: Edward Bottoms (Architectural Association); Matthew Bristow (Historic England/Victoria County History Online); Prof Elizabeth McKellar (The Open University) (Chair); Ashleigh Murray (Donald Insall Associates); Dr Colin Thom (Survey of London) 

For further information, including criteria, eligibility and nomination form, please see our Awards page. For a list of previous winners, please contact the SAHGB at info@sahgb.org.uk.