A Documentation Student Award is given to Docomomo US/Wisconsin Fellow, Seth Ter Haar, LGBTQ+ scholar, artist, and curator, for advancing documentation and interpretation of Milwaukee’s modernist heritage through two innovative projects. The Mothers of Milwaukee Modernism: Building the Layton School of Art, reconstructed the lost 1950 campus of the Layton School, designed by Jack Waldheim for founders and life partners Charlotte Partridge and Miriam Frink. Through archival research, oral histories, and public exhibitions, the project reframed Layton as a pioneering site of Bauhaus-inspired, educational modernism. The exhibition and lecture series have appeared at Milwaukee Public Library, Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, Milwaukee Pride, and soon PBS Wisconsin. For DocoDrive: The Divine Line, Ter Haar and the Docomomo US/Wisconsin chapter collaborated with Historic Milwaukee’s Doors Open Initiative on a corridor-based study of midcentury sacred architecture along Milwaukee’s Capitol Drive. The project highlighted twelve churches and more than thirty related sites through a printed guidebook, tours, and public programming, framing them as vital civic and cultural landmarks shaped by immigrant, Black, and working-class congregations. These rigorous research projects combined with community engagement to produce work that broadens and deepens the story of modernism. 

The Mothers of Modernism in Milwaukee: Seth Ter Haar, Docomomo US/Wisconsin Fellow (Lead Researcher, Writer, and Lecturer); Eric Vogel, President, Docomomo US/Wisconsin (Research & Editorial Support); Scott Templeton, Designer (Layout & Production); Doco Drive: The Divine Line: Seth Ter Haar (Project Coordination, Researcher, & Author); Eric Vogel (Project Lead, Architectural Photographer, & Author); Scott Templeton (Layout & Production); Authors & Researchers: Andy Hope, Emily Hankins, Annemarie Sawkins; Doco Drive Tour Committee: Heidi Swan, Traci Schwartz, Justin Racinowski