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The Environmental Studies section of the GCI's Science department currently has several environmental monitoring stations located at various sites around the world, operating in connection with ongoing work of the Institute. Descriptions of those monitoring stations can be found below.
Getty Center Climate Monitoring Station
About the Site
The Getty Center climate monitoring station is a 33-foot solar-powered tower located on a northern hilltop of the Getty Center property (Latitude: 34-04'45"N, Longitude: 118-28'28"W). It is similar to environmental monitoring stations that the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) has installed as part of art conservation projects around the world. Data collected from this station is included in the Southern California Co-Operative Weather Station Network, which is managed by the National Weather Service (NWS) and operated in collaboration with the Geography Department of California State University of Northridge (CSUN). In operation since January 1999 and certified by the NWS, this station collects vital climatic data for the western region of the Los Angeles area.
Measures of temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, solar radiation, and rainfall are taken every 60 seconds; the data is sent via spread spectra radio waves to the Environmental Studies Laboratory of the GCI at the Getty Center. This data is then automatically forwarded via the internet to the NWS for archiving and publishing at the National Climate Data Center, and to the Geography Department of CSUN for posting on its Web site.
Hollybourne Environmental Monitoring Station
About the Site
As part of a project on Collections in Hot and Humid Environments, the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) and the Jekyll Island Authority have established an environmental monitoring station at Hollybourne Cottage in Jekyll Island, Georgia. In operation since November 1998, this station measures parameters for both the exterior (general weather data) and interior environment of Hollybourne Cottage.
The weather station measures air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, solar radiation, and rainfall every 10 seconds, while the cottage station collects air temperature and relative humdity data for each of the 4 floors of Hollybourne Cottage at 60 second intervals. Data is then sent via telephone modem to the Environmental Studies Laboratory of the GCI at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California.
Emilio Goeldi Museum Environmental Monitoring Station
About the Site
The storage facility for the Amazonian Ethnographic collection of Emilio Goeldi Museum is located in a research campus outside of the city of Belem, State of Para, Brazil. The facility is at the south end of a contemporary single-story brick building designed for multiple uses of offices and storages. It is an open rectangular space-approximately 271 square meters with a 3.5-meter high ceiling-set on a concrete slab floor. The space was used for offices prior to this project. The Amazonian Ethnographic collection consists of woods, feathers, animal skins and bones, vegetal seeds and fibers, textiles, and some metals. The climate control system consists of two large supply fans, four exhaust fans, six oscillating (re-circulation) fans, and three dehumidifiers that are controlled by two humidistats-one inside and the other outside. The supplies, placed outside of the building, bring filtered outside air though ducts and distribute it along the center of the room near its ceiling. The exhaust air is collected near the floor along both east and west walls and ducted to the exhaust fans, also placed outside. Three portable dehumidifiers, connected to room's drains, are distributed along the walls.
 |  | Supply ventilators with filter attachements allowing for the traansfer of particulate-free outside air in to the storage space for the Goeldi Museum. Photo: S. Maekawa. | Exhaust ventilation ducts and a recirculation fan mounted on a side wall of the storage room at the Goeldi Museum. Photo: S. Maekawa. |
Valle de Guerra Environmental Monitoring Station
About the Site
The collection storage facility for the Autonomous Entity of Museums and Centers of the Island Government of Tenerife (Valle de Guerra, Tenerife Island, Spain) occupies the second floor of a contemporary four-story concrete building located on the northeast hillside of the island. The space encompasses 437 square meters with a 3-meter high ceiling and is divided into five rooms with windows located only on the northwest and northeast walls. The northeast side of the room faces the Atlantic Ocean, while a narrow paved road brackets the northwest side of the structure. The stored collection consists of ceramic potteries, basketries, wooden and metal tools, textiles, and modern machineries and is managed by Maria Garcia Morales, the organization's conservator.
Prior to this project, the environment of the facility storage area was not controlled. The current climate control system installed at Valle de Guerra consists of three sets of supply and exhaust fans, five convective heaters, and three humidistats. A local HVAC company on the island carried out the detailed mechanical design and the selection of equipment. Since there was no possibility of installing windows on either the southwest or southeast wall to achieve cross ventilation, supply air was taken from the northwest wall and transferred via ventilation duct to the southeast end of the room where it was released into the space. The exhaust ventilators are mounted on the existing windows of the northeast wall.
First Photograph Display Case
About the Project
A hermetically sealed oxygen-free storage and display case was designed and built by The Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) to house the world's first photograph, taken by Joseph Nicephore Niepce of France in 1826. On permanent display at the Harry Ransom Center located at the University of Texas at Austin, the photograph sits in a protective inert gas atmosphere (argon), sheltered from the direct and indirect effects of oxygen-induced deterioration. This oxygen-free storage and display system was originally designed at the GCI in 1989 for housing environmentally-sensitive objects and has since been used to preserve the Royal Mummy Collection at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the original manuscripts of the Constitution of India at the Parliament Library in New Delhi.
The interior of the first photograph case encompasses a volume of approximately 22 liters—external dimensions are 440 mm (width) by 411 mm (height) by 129 mm (depth). Laboratory measurements prior to installation established an oxygen leak rate of only 3 to 5 parts per million (ppm) per day. After placement of relative humidity buffer, activated charcoal, oxygen absorber, and the first photograph (in its original wooden frame) inside the case, its internal space was filled with humidified (40% RH) argon gas. The first photograph, housed in its oxygen-free display case, was returned to exhibition on September 3, 2004. The performance of the display case is measured by the use of oxygen, pressure, relative humidity, and temperature sensors connected to a central datalogger. These parameters are recorded hourly and transmitted via network modem to the Environmental Studies Laboratory at the GCI for processing and Web posting.
Casa de Rui Barbosa Museum Environmental Monitoring Station
About the Site
Casa de Rui Barbosa Museum, which houses Barbosa's 37,000 books, furniture, decorative objects, and personal items, is located along the busy Rua São Clemente in Rio de Janeiro. One of Brazil's most famous politicians and statesmen, Rui Barbosa lived in this house, which was originally built for the Baron of Lagoa in 1849, from 1895 until his death in 1923. The property was then purchased in 1924 by the Federal Government of Brazil, and opened its doors to the public in 1930 as the first house-museum in Brazil. It was included in the list of important historic buildings by the Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional (IPHAN) in 1938. The limestone building is a fine example of 19th century Brazilian urban architecture.
The Casa de Rui Barbosa Foundation, the Vitae Foundation (São Paulo) and the Getty Conservation Institute have jointly initiated a research project on the climate improvement of the building. The project's objective is to make climatic improvements for the House's collections while providing a reasonable comfort level for visitors using locally sustainable equipment, such as ventilators and dehumidifiers.
To date, climate monitoring in the building has been performed using the Climus Monitoring System (designed and installed by Prof. Saulo Güths, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina), in operation since 2001.
Last updated: June 2006
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