At the dawn of the 20th century, a new world was under construction.
Steel, glass, and concrete could be produced on a massive scale thanks to the industrial revolution, and urban development flourished. Suddenly, everything could be made bigger and faster, resulting in new forms of architecture, new cities, and new means of transportation that transformed people’s daily lives.
A feeling of optimism permeated the air: children would have greater access to schools, novel building materials would make things last forever and reduce costs for the average person, and maybe, someday, everyone would have a proper, high-quality home.
“All these transformations were profound, and they are reflected in the built environment of the 20th century,” says Margherita Pedroni, an Italian-qualified architect specializing in heritage conservation at Getty. “The 20th century brought a lot of innovation with materials, building techniques, forms, and so on—and some of these have become the standard now. But they were groundbreaking at their time.”
Pedroni is a project specialist in the Getty Conservation Institute’s (GCI’s) Conserving Modern Architecture Initiative (CMAI), which since 2012 has been filling knowledge gaps in the conservation of 20th-century cultural heritage. Last August, 26 modern heritage professionals visited Getty as part of CMAI’s International Course on the Conservation of Modern Heritage. The course was designed by Pedroni and Chandler McCoy, an architect and project manager of CMAI, to address the issue of modern heritage conservation. Although the 20th century might feel awfully recent, many important modern buildings are currently endangered, and maintaining and conserving them requires a complex array of skills.
The 11-week hybrid course provided participants the opportunity to connect with each other and learn from leading experts in the field. This year’s cohort included architects, urban planners, historians, engineers, archaeologists, and conservators from 23 countries: Australia, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Chile, Cyprus, England, Eritrea, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Kosovo, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lithuania, Malaysia, Nigeria, the Philippines, Singapore, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States.
After nine weeks of online instruction, the participants gathered in LA for the final two weeks of the course. Through lectures, discussions, and demonstrations at the Getty Center and the Getty Villa, they learned about new research and practices that have influenced modern heritage conservation. They also toured Southern California sites designed by seminal figures in modern architecture. In Silver Lake, for instance, they were tasked with developing a conservation approach for the Reunion House, designed by Richard Neutra. By using a real-life case study, participants combined their interdisciplinary expertise with all the knowledge they had acquired throughout the course—and in the end, had a framework they could use for their own local projects.
Modern heritage professionals visited the Getty Center as part of the International Course on the Conservation of Modern Heritage.
Spurring Collaboration across Borders
“Much of what we see in our cities was built in the 20th century,” Pedroni says, “and while there is usually an immediate appreciation for older sites, because they belong to a distant past and are perceived as rare and therefore precious, modern heritage still belongs to our close memory—there’s a lot of it, so it is often harder for people to see its values.”
That modern architecture is frequently taken for granted makes it vulnerable to development pressures or insensitive alterations. And unlike in the past, when structures often remained untouched for long periods of time, they can now be replaced quickly. Some modern sites also suffer from obsolescence. Modern architecture is known for the maxim “form follows function,” but what happens when that function is outdated, like in the case of a vintage theater—how do you adapt it while maintaining its significant components?
Even when a site is appreciated and protected, technical considerations can limit its lifespan and usability. How do you conserve reinforced concrete? What should you do with materials now known to be harmful, like asbestos? How can you make modern buildings more energy efficient?
These are some of the topics covered in the remote portion of the course, through recorded video lectures and live sessions, with professionals presenting their own experiences. Thirty-two experts on modern heritage conservation led the online modules. The instructors brought wide-ranging, international expertise that complemented the diverse group of participants.
“Knowing that our participants would be coming from all over the world, we wanted to make sure the instructors were an international group representing different perspectives and offering a variety of experiences to teach from,” says McCoy. “The cohort also offered invaluable networking opportunities, and we hope it will spur research collaboration across borders.”
LA as a Classroom
After the online component was completed, the participants were ready to finally meet in person in LA—an essentially 20th-century city—and tour the “masterpieces” of modern architecture that influenced architects around the globe. They also visited homes, heritage buildings, plazas, and landscapes in locations including downtown LA, the UCLA campus, and the Balboa Highlands in the San Fernando Valley.
Participant Mejrema Zatrić, an architecture historian at the International University of Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina, says she felt immersed in the “force field” of Kahn’s design. “To me it conveyed, perhaps more than any other modernist work I experienced, the epic alliance between modernism and science, and also the importance of conservation in keeping these ideals accessible and as tangible historical facts.”
Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California
Another field trip took the students to the Eames House, designed by Charles and Ray Eames, a classic example of modern heritage that is also distinctly Californian. Getty has supported conservation and management of the Eames House since 2011, in partnership with the Eames Foundation. At the site, the participants learned about the GCI’s latest work: research on cemesto, the modern material used as panels on some of the exteriors of the house. They also studied the award-winning conservation management plan that the GCI created for the structure.
For a conservation management plan to be successful, conservators must address the intangible, as well as tangible, attributes of a place, says Pedroni. “We wanted the participants to really think critically: What is important here? What is the story behind this house?”
Planning for the Future
On the final day of the course, the groups presented “snapshots” of potential five-year conservation plans for Neutra’s Reunion House to help sustain its significance into the future, and the results were impressive. “The CMAI team couldn’t have been happier with the experience and professionalism the participants brought to the course,” says McCoy. “And both instructors and participants learned from each other.”
Richard Neutra’s Reunion House in LA’s Silver Lake neighborhood
Sheridan Burke, a Sydney-based 20th-century modern heritage consultant who helped develop instructional content for the course, says the lively final presentations demonstrated the benefits of the interdisciplinary experience the students gained in LA. Burke led a module early in the course on values-based conservation planning, which the participants applied in the Reunion House exercise. She says that the snapshots gave the Neutra Foundation great ideas and a diverse range of directions for its interpretation and conservation work ahead.
But the true effect of the course will likely be seen down the road, in locales far from LA.
Zatrić is the chair of the Bosnia and Herzegovina branch of Docomomo, a nonprofit that promotes the study and protection of modern places, and she hopes to introduce the concept of conservation management planning to the architecture and conservation communities in the Western Balkans. In this part of the world, expertise on 20th-century heritage conservation is limited.
Much of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s heritage was built during the 20th-century postwar period. Zatrić says that most of it is ignored or covertly and unfairly treated as dissonant heritage, sites that reveal structural evidence of totalitarianism, war, persecution, or colonization. One topic discussed at length during the course was advocacy for modern heritage, including how to advocate for heritage that comes from a difficult past.
Equipped with the toolkit provided by the course, participants returned home ready to take on that work. Zatrić says she can already foresee how the course will help her argue for greater value to be placed on modern architecture, especially in the Yugoslav region. She is excited about applying the GCI’s approach to the conservation of large modernist works such as the Brutalist sports-cultural complex Skenderija in Sarajevo, which felt overwhelming before completing the course.
“By conserving modernist works,” she says, “we can not only preserve architectural beauty and memory, but also leisure complexes, educational facilities, parks, and other places that are still vital to people.”
