World’s leading experts on 20th Century architecture conservation meet in Dublin

ICOMOS Ireland and DOCOMOMO Ireland have collaborated in recent months to devise this seminar, which brings together some of the world’s leading experts on the conservation of 20th-century architectural heritage. The members of ICOMOS’s International Scientific Committee on Twentieth Century Heritage will be in Dublin to attend the International Council on Monuments and Sites’ annual Advisory and Executive Committee Meeting and Scientific Symposium 2010 and many of them – from Europe, Australia and the United States – will present their practical experiences of conserving world-famous buildings at the seminar. This seminar is being generously hosted by Dublin City Council.

Discussing the Sydney Opera House, Mies van der Rohe’s Crown Hall and Lake Shore Drive apartments, Alvar Aalto’s Paimio Sanatorium and Archer’s Garage, among other great buildings, in an unrepeatable event at Dublin City Council’s Wood Quay Venue between 6pm and 9pm on Tuesday, 26th October 2010. A team of international speakers will deliver short 15-minute presentations on a wide variety of topics. There will be scope for discussion and debate. Please note that places are strictly limited to 150 All are welcome. No attendance fee

Tolerance for Change-Conservation Planning at the Sydney Opera House

Using the Sydney Opera House as a case study the presentation will explore a new framework for conservation and development decisions about heritage impacts “tolerance for change”. The presentation will examine the development of practical management policies that will retain and sustain heritage values for a heritage place whose Outstanding Universal Value is as an architectural monument, but which must also operate as an active performing arts centre.

Sheridan Burke, is a Director of Godden Mackay Logan Pty Ltd, Heritage Consultants, Sydney, Australia, and is the president of the ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on Twentieth Century Heritage. She was a member of the ICOMOS international Executive Committee 1996-2005. She is an adjunct professor at the University of Canberra and lectures and broadcasts widely on heritage issues. She is a foundation member of Docomomo Australia Working Party.

Crown Hall

Restoring Mies: When Less Was Not Always Enough

Mies van der Rohe was unarguably one of the most influential architects of the 20th Century. The adages, “less is more” and “God is in the details” are often attributed to Mies for his reduction of architectural detailing down to the lowest limits afforded when employing the perceived durable materials steel and glass. While often stunningly beautiful and elegant in their aesthetic, Mies’ buildings have proven to be vulnerable to the relentless attack of time and Mother Nature. This presentation will discuss a number of projects completed on Mies’ buildings such as S.R. Crown Hall and 860-880 Lake Shore Drive, and show why “less” was not always enough.

T. Gunny Harboe, FAIA is President of Harboe Architects, a small firm specializing in preservation architecture based in Chicago, IL, USA. He has been responsible for numerous award winning restorations of some of Chicago’s most significant late 19th and 20th Century heritage buildings including the Rookery, Reliance Building, Carson Pirie Scott & Co., Unity Temple, and S.R. Crown Hall. He is a founding member and current Vice President of the ISC20C and also a founding member and current board member of DOCOMOMO_US.

Lincoln Center

Lincoln Center Performing Arts Complex – Travertine Stabilization and Repair

Stone Cladding was used to express the International and Post-war Styles of the 20th century. The Lincoln Center building complex was constructed during the 1960s in New York City and is emblematic of this period of post war construction. Travertine stone cladding has undergone a program of stabilization and repair over the past two decades to maintain it unique aesthetic appearance. Although many of these building types are considered young in comparison to other structures of 19th and early 20th centuries, preservationists and historians argue that they are 20th Century iconic buildings that must maintained and preserved. This presentation will explore types of stone cladding systems, related failures, and appropriate methods of stabilization and repair that have been used to maintain exterior stone cladding for building envelopes in this complex.

Kyle Normandin is an Associate Principal with Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. in New York City, New York, and is currently the Secretary General for the ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on 20th Century Heritage. He is also a member of numerous professional organizations including DOCOMOMO International and Association for Preservation Technology which are dedicated to the protection of cultural heritage. He has authored many technical papers on various topics related to architectural conservation internationally.

The Razing and Raising Again of Archer’s Garage

As dawn broke over the June bank holiday weekend of 1999, the wreckers came for Archer’s Garage, a relic of the romantic era of motoring, dating from 1949 and a List 1 building scheduled for preservation. The moderne concrete structure was blatantly flattened in the face of popular and political protest, threatening the entire system of heritage protection in Ireland. The Dublin city authorities quickly declared that those responsible would be prosecuted, facing a maximum penalty of two years’ imprisonment and a fine in excess of one million Euro. In the end, it never came to that. And therein lies a tale.

Shane O’Toole was a founder member of DOCOMOMO International at Eindhoven in 1990 and DOCOMOMO Ireland in 1991. He was the inaugural Director of the Irish Architecture Foundation and Ireland’s Commissioner for the Venice Biennale in 2004 and 2006. His awards include the Grand Prix of the Cracow Architecture Biennale (1989), finalist in the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award (1996) and the UIA’s Sir Patrick Abercrombie Prize for town planning and territorial development (2002) for leading, with Group 91, the redevelopment of Dublin’s Temple Bar. A member of CICA, the International Committee of Architecture Critics, he was named IBP Architectural Critic of the Year in 2008 and 2009.

Expansion on the 20th Century Heritage: a convenient language

Most of the city centres have been developed through the XIX and XX centuries. It is therefore in these urban landscapes where we can find most of our 20th century architectural heritage, generally unknown, not classified and with scarce protection. The most recent interventions which involve rehabilitating buildings and generally changing their uses, usually mean an extension, that provides in many cases, due to the importance of the language use, an important impact in the architectural landscape of the city and naturally in the building itself, if not a trauma.

The detailed analysis of the elected interventions in Madrid and other places, takes us to decide between those which are correct and those which are not, with some aleatory opinions based more in the aesthetic than in reason. In my opinion, this is a risk for the heritage preservation, and that highlights the necessity to establish some criterion that fixes what is correct and what is not, granting the permits to intervene and preserve our 20th century heritage, thus agreeing upon the new uses and contemporary languages with the monument, which is otherwise subjected to a permanent and unnecessary risk product of the arbitrariness.

Fernando Espinosa de los Monteros Rosillo is Founder and Chairman of EM&A, which has attracted critical acclaim and won a considerable number of awards. The practice has been awarded the 1st prize in the competition for the rehabilitation of the Viana Palace in Madrid into headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Madrid, Spain; finalist in the international competition of the rehabilitation and extension of the Orto Botanicus Patavinus in Padua, Italy; won a special mention in the Europa Nostra Award 2006 for the rehabilitation of the Palace of Tabladillo, Avila, Spain; and specialist in conversion of Historical Buildings (XX Century) into residential building in the historical town centre of Madrid, Spain.

Integrity and Authenticity in Modern Movement architecture – Paimio Hospital, Finland

Riitta will report on Paimio Hospital as a nomination of the 20th Century architecture in the World Heritage list and a recent seminar which explored the concepts of integrity and authenticity as key tools for WH evaluation as well as restoration concepts. What is the conservation treatment for the later additions and changes designed by the architect Alvar Aalto himself? Does Paimio need a World Heritage nomination and where?”

Riitta Salastie is an architect, who works in the Helsinki City Planning Department as a specialist on historic preservation. She has developed methodologies for preserving and evaluating post war mass housing areas in Helsinki. She is also the editor of the Paimio seminar publication (2010). Riitta Salastie’s doctoral thesis (1999) was focused on the preservation of Kyoto’s urban heritage. She is also docent in historic preservation in Oulu University.