A Documentation Award of Excellence is given for the Historic Structure Report (HSR) and story map of Carson City Hall. These complimentary documentation efforts provide historical context about the building’s history, design, and original design team, and furnish a framework to guide its future rehabilitation, restoration, and maintenance. Designed by a deliberately diverse team including African American architect Robert Kennard, Japanese American architect Frank Sata, Robert E. Alexander, Japanese American landscape architect Yoshito Kuromiya, and Latino interior and graphic designer Michael Sanchez, to reflect the city’s multi-ethnic population. Carson City Hall was completed in 1976 in the popular Late Modern style, while also aiming to reflect the Spanish heritage of the Dominguez Hills area. The building represents Carson’s radical embrace of the future, consistent with its then-motto, “Future Unlimited,” as well as an affirmation of its past and enduring diversity. The highly interactive and accessible story map graphically illustrates the themes of the HSR and the development of modernism across the city, with special emphasis given to Robert Kennard, the building’s executive architect and a leading Black Modern architect in postwar Southern California. Funding for the project was provided by the Conserving Black Modernism Grant program, a partnership between the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund and the Getty Foundation.

City of Carson, CA

John Raymond, City of Carson Assistant City Manager; Architectural Resources Group: Katie Horak, Principal-in-Charge, Evanne St. Charles, Project Manager, Elysha Paluszek, Architectural Historian, Sarah Devan, Architect and Conservator; Structural Focus (Structural Consultant); MEP California Engineering Corp (MEP Consultant); Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates (Building Envelope Consultant); MIG (Landscape Consultant); KPJ Consulting Cost Planning (Cost Estimator)