When doing some follow up investigation after a visit to Volklingen I came across a report of an ICOMOS conference in Moscow in 2006 which might be useful to those forum members interested in 20C Architecture.

The report's title is a rather strange "The Soviet heritage and European Modernism" but its subject ranges rather wider, covering 20th Century architecture on the List (or potentially so in the case of many Russian structures) with particular reference to Russia and Germany - as such it contains articles on Volklingen, Zollverein, Berlin Modernism, Bauhaus,

The articles are in a mixture of German, English and (particularly in the case of the Russian buildings) in Russian

http://www.international.icomos.org/risk/2007/pdf/Soviet_Heritage_FULL_100dpi.pdf

I am very happy about this interesting report. Modern architecture in general and Communist monuments in particular are still a major gap in the list. May this report yield some new interesting proposals. In particular I find it hard to grasp how come that the two major contributors to modern architecture, USA and Russia, haven't got any modern architecture even on their T-list (Lloyd nomination excluded). Russia should at least propose some socialist monuments from Moscow and the metro, but as portrayed in this report further interesting examples (Aalto library in Vyborg, public housing from Moscow etc) could also be of great interest. The USA should at least propose some of Chicago school, Miami Art Deco, Golden Bridge and Watts Tower.

Beside the FLW nomination. The Gamble House in Pasadena is labeled as one of the "properties of future consideration" in regards to the US Tentative list.

Several modern historic structures in Chicago were part of the Former US Tentative list. I do not know what happened with these nominations. Lack of interest/support?

While the Miami Art Deco District is unique, I doubt any nomination will ever surface.

Why?
1) US law requires unanimous support of a world heritage nomination. Making districts or cities virtually impossible to inscribe as a whole. Example: Savannah In 1995, the Bureau, following the recommendation of ICOMOS, referred the nomination of the city plan of Savannah, Georgia back to the US indicating that the nomination could only be listed if the entire urban fabric of the historic town were included, not just the streets and open spaces that constituted the city plan (Bureau, 19th Session).

2) Lack of authentic interiors, most of the art deco buildings have well-preserved exteriors, but many interiors are restaurants or bars on the lower level, and living spaces on the 2nd level.

Previously Failed US Nominations
1981 - Wright Brothers National Memorial (Withdrawn) Negative evaluation by ICOMOS

1987 - Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park (Deferred)

1991 - Frank Lloyd Wright properties, Taliesin and Taliesin West (Deferred)

1995 - City Plan of Savannah, Georgia (Referred)

2010 - Mount Vernon (Withdrawn) Negative evaluation by ICOMOS

I'm looking forward to reading through this.

Surprised that an initial scan hasn't revealed anything about Minsk though.