Shortlists revealed for the 2024 Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion and the Colvin Prize
26 July 2024
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, Mark Girouard, 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 two shortlists for the awards this year, which can be found below, demonstrate a broad range of subjects and approaches to architectural history.
Those for the Alice Davis Hitchcock Award include new surveys of the history of architecture in Britain and in the Indian subcontinent alongside in-depth studies of the Glasgow School of Art and eighteenth-century transatlanticism. Those for the Colvin Prize range from discussions of Europe’s parliamentary buildings to Brutalist buildings of the recent past, the architecture of the Isle of Man and the work of Zoe Zenghelis of OMA.
The winners will be selected in the autumn and announced at the Society’s Annual Lecture and Awards Ceremony in December 2024.
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, Heritage Research Award and Dissertation Prize, is open and inclusive wherever possible, celebrating diversity of approach and recognising work at all career levels.
Please contact the SAHGB at info@sahgb.org.uk for further information.
Shortlist for the Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion
Steven Brindle, Architecture in Britain and Ireland, 1530-1830 (Paul Mellon Centre)
Robyne Calvert, The Mack: Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Glasgow School of Art (Yale University Press)
Finola O’Kane, Landscape Design and Revolution in Ireland and the United States, 1688-1815 (Paul Mellon Centre)
Christopher Tadgell, Architecture in the Indian Subcontinent: From the Mauryas to the Mughals (Routledge)
Shortlist for the Colvin Prize
Elain Harwood, Brutalist Britain. Buildings of the 1960s and 1970s (Batsford)
Jonathan Kewley, Isle of Man (Pevsner Buildings of England series) (Yale University Press)
Hamed Khosravi, Do you remember how perfect everything was? The Work of Zoe Zenghelis (AA Publications)
Editors: Sophia Psarra, Uta Staiger and Claudia Sternberg, Parliament Buildings. The Architecture of Politics in Europe (UCL Press)
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 2024:
Professor Elizabeth McKellar (President of SAHGB + panel chair)
Professor Dana Arnold (Manchester School of Architecture); Dr Louise Durning (Oxford University); Professor Iain Jackson (Liverpool University); Dr Zoe Opacic (Birkbeck, University of London): Professor Florian Urban (Glasgow School of Art).
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 2024:
Dr Elizabeth Darling (Chair of SAHGB + panel chair);
Sarah Akigbogun (Studio Aki, founder); Associate Professor Laura Fernández-González (University of Lincoln); Peter Guillery (Bartlett School of Architecture, University College, London); Dr. Samantha Martin (University College, Dublin); Professor Adam Sharr (Newcastle University)
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
About SAHGB
The Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain brings together all those with an interest in the history of the built environment – academics, architects, heritage experts and the wider public. As the leading body in the field, we believe that appreciation of architectural history plays a vital role in understanding our culture, past and present. With the help of our members, we publish new research, organise a broad range of events, provide educational opportunities and advance the understanding of the built histories of all periods and places, in Britain and beyond.