The Merry Ovnick Fellowship is established by the Society of Architectural Historians/Southern California Chapter (SAH/SCC) in honor of past-President and longtime board member Merry Ovnick. It provides for $1,000 annually to support the travel of an advanced graduate student to the SAH Annual International Conference. It provides $1,000 annually to support graduate student travel to the SAH Annual International Conference. Any graduate student studying at a college or university in Southern California is qualified to apply. The Fellowship will be awarded annually, with its first recipient in early 2025.

In celebration of the Fellowship, The Merry Ovnick Fellowship Fundraiser and Lecture will be held on Saturday, January 25^th, 2025 at the historic Neutra Office in Silver Lake and broadcast via Zoom. Daniel Paul, architectural historian, will be the featured speaker. Paul, known for his groundbreaking work on glass skinned office buildings, was mentored by Ovnick. One hundred percent of the proceeds of the lecture will go to the support of the Fellowship.

As an author and educator, Merry wrote extensively on the Southern California built environment and was the author of Los Angeles: The End of the Rainbow (Princeton Architectural Press, 1999). For 18 years, she also was the editor of the Southern California Quarterly. As a teacher in the history department at California State University, Northridge, she educated and mentored young historians for decades.  She served as President of SAH/SCC and was a long-time board member. Merry’s final wishes were that those of us left behind pay forward her passion and enjoyment of architecture and history.

The application document can be found here.

Individuals wishing to make a donation in support of the Fellowship can do so at www.sahscc.org. Tickets for the lecture will be available January 1st, 2025.

Fellowship Timeline

Call for Applications                                                                                         November 15th

Submissions Due to Selection Committee                                                          January 15th

Merry Ovnick Fellowship Lecture/Fundraiser                                                     January 25th

Selection/announcement of recipient                                                               February 15th

Advise SAH International of recipient                                                                March 1st

Spring Conference in Atlanta                                                                            April 30th-May 4th

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