Shortlists revealed for the 2026 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 for 2026.
The Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion is awarded to a monograph that makes an outstanding contribution to the study of British 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 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.
Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion Shortlist:
Christine Casey, Architecture and Artifice: The Crafted Surface in Eighteenth-century Building Practice (Paul Mellon Centre)
Alistair Fair, Building Modern Scotland: A Social and Architectural History of the New Towns, 1947-1997 (Bloomsbury)
Holly Smith, Up in the Air: A History of High Rise Britain (Verso Books)
Robert Proctor, Percy Thomas: Modern Architecture as a National Service (University Wales Press)
Joanna Smith, England's Suburbs 1820-2020 (Liverpool University Press in partnership with Historic England)
Colvin Prize Shortlist:
Simon Gunn, The Modern British City 1945-2000 (Lund Humphries)
G.A. Bremner, Victorian Architecture (Oxford University Press)
Karen Burns, The Bloomsbury Global Encyclopedia of Women in Architecture, 1960-2020 (Bloomsbury)
Duanfang Lu, The Routledge Companion to Contemporary Architectural History (Routledge)
The winners will be selected in the autumn and announced at the Society’s Awards Ceremony in December 2026.
Awards
Nominations for the Heritage Research Award, the Hawksmoor Medal and Dissertations remain open for 2026.
The SAHGB runs an internationally prestigious awards programme celebrating the best in research and publishing in architectural history. Our awards programme is open and inclusive wherever possible, celebrating diversity of approach in histories of the built environment broadly conceived. You do not need to be a member to nominate or be nominated.
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.
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.
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