Abbott Lowell Cummings Award

The Abbott Lowell Cummings Award, named after the founding president of the Vernacular Architecture Forum, is conferred annually upon the book that has made the most significant contribution to the study of vernacular architecture and cultural landscapes. In judging the nominated works, the jurors look for a publication that:

• is based on primary research;
• emphasizes fieldwork that takes seriously the materiality of architecture and landscapes, and draws on particular elements of  environments as evidence;
• breaks new ground in interpretation or methodology; 
• contributes generally to the intellectual vitality of vernacular studies in North America; and
• nominated works must be in English.

2026 Call for Nominations

The Vernacular Architecture Forum seeks nominations for the 2026 Cummings Award. This award will be presented at the annual conference in 2026. 

The deadline for the 2026 Cummings Award is November 15, 2025.

The awardee will receive a full complimentary registration including tours and the banquet for the VAF conference and a certificate of excellence. 

The Abbott Lowell Cummings Award, named after the founding president of the Vernacular Architecture Forum, is awarded annually to the book that has made the most significant contribution to the study of vernacular architecture and cultural landscapes. In judging the nominated works, the jurors look for a publication that:

• is based on primary research;
• emphasizes fieldwork that takes seriously the materiality of architecture and landscapes,
• and draws on particular elements of environments as evidence;
• breaks new ground in interpretation or methodology;
• contributes generally to the intellectual vitality of vernacular studies in North America.

Entries may come from any discipline concerned with vernacular architecture studies. Books published from January 2024 through December 2025 are eligible for consideration. Edited collections of previously published materials are not eligible.

In the past ten years, the following books have received the Cummings Award:

• 2025: City of Wood: San Francisco and the Architecture of the Redwood Lumber Industry, by James Michael Buckley (published by the Univ of Texas Press in 2024)
• 2024: The Row House in Washington, DC: A History, by Alison K. Hoagland (UVA Press, 2023) 
• 2023: Company Suburbs: Architecture, Power, and the Transformation of Michigan’s Mining Frontier, by Sarah Scarlett (The University of Tennessee Press, 2021)

• 2022: For the Temporary Accommodation of Settlers: Architecture and Immigrant Reception in Canada, 1870-1930, by David P. Monteyne (McGill-Queen’s Press)
• 2021: How the Working-Class Home became Modern, 1900-1940, by Thomas C Hubka (University of Minnesota Press)
• 2020: Border Land, Border Water: A History of Construction on the U.S.-Mexico Divide, by C.J. Alvarez (University of Texas Press)
• 2019: Spaces in Translation: Japanese Gardens in the West, by Christian Tagsold (Penn Press)
• 2018: California Mission Landscapes: Race, Memory, and the Politics of Heritage, by Elizabeth Kryder-Reid (University of Minnesota Press)
• 2017: Architecture and Empire in Jamaica, by Louis Nelson (Yale University Press)
• 2016: Building Zion: The Material World of the Mormon Settlement, by Thomas Carter (University of Minnesota Press)
• 2015: The Social Project: Housing Postwar France, by Kenny Cupers (University of Minnesota Press)
• 2014: Meeting Houses of Early New England, by Peter Benes (University of Massachusetts Press)
• 2013: High Life: Condo Living in the Suburban Century, by Matthew Gordon Lasner (Yale University Press)

There is no application form, but a cover letter should include the author’s complete mailing address, phone number and email address to facilitate communication should the nominated work receive the award. Please email this material to: cummingsaward@vafweb.org.  Nominators will receive instructions for sending three copies of the nominated book to the award committee.

Past Cummings Award Winners