2012 World Monuments Fund/Knoll Modernism Prize Awarded to Architectural Consortium for Restoration of Hizuchi Elementary School, One of Japan’s Most Representative Modern Buildings

Bonnie Burnham, president of World Monuments Fund (WMF), today announced that WMF has awarded the 2012 World Monuments Fund/Knoll Modernism Prize to the Architectural Consortium for Hizuchi Elementary School, for its impeccable restoration of Hizuchi Elementary School in Hizuchi, Yawatahama City, Ehime Prefecture, on Shikoku Island, Japan. Following serious damage from a 2004 typhoon, the school had been the center of a two-year debate over whether to demolish or preserve the structure.