Awards and Honors
Since our founding, World Monuments Fund (WMF) has received numerous recognitions for our work preserving heritage sites around the globe. These awards underscore not only the technical excellence of WMF’s work but its measurable positive impact on local communities.
California Preservation Design Awards (2026)
The California Preservation Foundation presented WMF with the 2026 Trustees’ Award for Excellence for our work documenting the impact of 2025 wildfires on historic buildings in the greater Los Angeles area. The award honors “extraordinary, precedent-setting preservation achievements that transcend standard categories.”
Our Los Angeles Fires Crisis Response project, a collaboration with LA Conservancy, mapped the impact of the Palisades and Eaton fires on Southern California’s heritage. This initial documentation work paved the way for sustainable rebuilding.
Hiss Award (2026)
Architecture Sarasota honored WMF with the Philip Hanson Hiss Award for our leadership in the conservation of twentieth-century architecture via our Modernism Program.
Since its launch in 2006, WMF’s Modernism Program has supported the conservation of 55 modernist buildings across the world.
UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation (2005, 2007, 2011, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2024)
To date, the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards, which honor exceptional preservation work in the region, have recognized 12 WMF projects in categories ranging from special citations for sustainability to the Award of Excellence, the program’s top honor.
WMF’s winning projects include Tseto Goenpa, Bhutan; Shaxi Market Area, China; Basgo Gompa, Gateways of Gohad Fort, Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue, Mahidpur Fort, and Sumda Chun Temple, India; Inari-yu Bathhouse, Kesennuma Historic Cityscape, Sanrō-den of Sukunahikona Shrine, and Shijō-chō Ōfune-hoko Float Machiya, Japan; and Chivas and Chaityas of the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal.
Excellence in Historic Preservation Award (2023)
The Preservation League of New York State selected WMF’s Bridge to Crafts Careers (B2CC) program for the Excellence in Historic Preservation Award. The prize designates exemplary conservation projects that have a positive social impact.
Since 2015, B2CC has helped train the next generation of heritage trades professionals by offering young people hands-on training at historic cemeteries. In addition to its New York locations at Green-Wood and Woodlawn Cemeteries, the program recently expanded to St. Louis Cemetery No. 2 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards (2019)
WMF took home the prestigious Grand Prix at the 2019 European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards, the ceremony’s top award for outstanding conservation achievements at European sites. WMF received the award for our work preserving the thirteenth-century Islamic citadel of the Alhambra in Spain.
In partnership with the Patronato de la Alhambra and the Junta de Andalucía, WMF worked to restore the Oratorio del Partal, the oldest surviving part of the Alhambra. The multi-stage project addressed the intricate wooden ceiling, supporting structure, roof, and decorative plasterwork of this former royal chapel.
