ROBERT SILMAN AWARD

Now accepting applications for 2025 funding. Applications for the Silman Award are accepted every other year. Deadline: December 16, 2024 at 6PM EST. 

The Silman Award will be presented biennially to an engineer, architect, or other design professional in a related field for a proposal exploring the preservation, restoration, or adaptive reuse of the built environment, in the spirit of Robert Silman. The proposal may focus on a real project or it may be a polemical exercise; in either case, originality is highly valued. The proposal need not be directly related to structural design, although reference to structural elements within a given project and/or the interaction of structure with related fields will be valued. The proposal must advance the art and practice of preservation in the United States. The product can be graphic, text-based or a combination of both and must be able to be shared with the preservation community. The award is for a sum not to exceed $15,000.

Criteria for Evaluation

Applications are reviewed by the Fitch Trustees. Projects will be evaluated on the following criteria and conditions of eligibility:

• A demonstrated need for the proposed study and evidence of its value to advance the practice of historic preservation in the United States.
• The applicant has a realistic plan for the dissemination of research and/or the final work product within twenty-four (24) months of receipt of the Award. Modes of dissemination include papers; lectures; conferences; presentations; or exhibitions.
• The project has a clear and realistic goals, timeframe, work plan, and budget.
• The project demonstrates innovative thinking, original research and creative problem solving and/or design.
• Projects that lean towards research and proposals that lead to positive impacts among underrepresented communities will be valued.

Eligibility

• Grants are awarded only to individuals, not organizations or university-sponsored research projects. Grants are not awarded for professional fees.
• The applicant must be in a preservation-related field, such as engineering, architecture, historic preservation, landscape architecture, urban design, archaeology, architectural history, advocacy, resiliency design, economics, and preservation law.
• Applicants must be legal residents or citizens of the United States.

Please email us with any questions concerning criteria for evaluation or project eligibility.

How to Apply

Applicants are required to submit the following materials:

1. Cover page, including Project Title; Name of Applicant(s), including primary contact person; Applicant Address; Phone; Email. Also, please specify for which grant you are applying; specify the amount of grant money requested.
2. Brief description of project, including how the final work product will be disseminated. Applicants are encouraged to be succinct and the description is not to exceed three (3) pages.
3. Detailed work schedule and project budget, showing the grant amount requested from the Fitch Foundation and how this money will be spent.
4. Curriculum Vita, including professional and academic background, and past and present grants received.
5. Two (2) letters of support for the project to be included with the application. These may be emailed directly to Foundation staff ([email protected]) or submitted as part of a complete package.

Selection Process & Completion of Grant
Grants are awarded at the discretion of the Foundation. Recipients will be notified by mail in the Spring of 2025. Projects must be completed within twenty-four (24) months of the grant award. All grantees will be assigned a Trustee advisor who will provide feedback and guidance throughout the project.

Typically, grant awards are divided into equal payments, the first being presented upon the award of the grant. Substantial written progress reports are required for all subsequent payments. The final payment is awarded only upon completion of the project.

The Foundation shall be acknowledged in all publications. The Trustees reserve the right to publish the results if the recipient does not. The grant recipient must sign a release to the Foundation permitting such publication. Proper credit will be given to the grant recipient.