Archinect - News

The Getty Foundation announces new $1.55 million investment in Conserving Black Modernism

2024-11-14T10:15:00-05:00

Good news for preservation advocates! The Getty Foundation is investing an additional $1.55 million in the conserving Black Modernism program managed by the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The new contribution follows a $3.1 million gift that was announced in 2022. Money will be put toward preservation and storytelling efforts for eight 2025 grantees who are "continuing to diversify our nation’s architectural history." To date, the Fund has invested $27 million in 304 sites across the country.

These are the eight historic sites receiving Conserving Black Modernism grants today

2024-07-18T12:07:00-04:00

A group of eight important Black modernist sites across the country has been selected for a round of grants worth a total of $1.2 million by the Getty Foundation in partnership with the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

They were part of the Conserving Black Modernism program that is being directed by the Trust's African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. Grants ranging up to $150,000 were awarded in four categories. Each joins almost two dozen other heritage sites connected to Black history as part of the larger $3 million initiative, which now means 304 grantees have been awarded $140 million nationwide through the fund since 2017.

Brent Leggs, the Fund's Executive Director, said, "The National Grant Program represents the Action Fund's enduring commitment to telling the full American story — one that makes room for Black resilience, creativity, and achievement. History is crucial to our nation's understanding of where we've come from, who we are today, and how we en...

African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund announces $3.8 million in 2023 grants to preserve 40 historic sites

2023-06-13T17:43:00-04:00

The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund has announced $3.8 million in 2023 grant funding to protect and preserve 40 sites representing African American history. Established in 2017, the Action Fund, which has raised more than $95 million, is the largest U.S. fund dedicated to preserving historic African American sites.

Since its inception, the Action Fund has received a total of 5,638 funding proposals requesting $655 million. The program has been able to support 242 grantee projects through its investment of $20 million.

2023 grant site: Morgan State University’s Jenkins Hall in Baltimore, Maryland. Photo: Troy Pumphrey Jr., image courtesy National Trust for Historic Preservation.

“The Action Fund’s investment in and celebration of 40 historic African American places illustrates our belief that historic preservation plays an important role in American society,” said Brent Leggs, African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund exe...

New $3.1 million Conserving Black Modernism grant program announced by the Getty Foundation and National Trust for Historic Preservation

2022-09-19T14:37:00-04:00

The Getty Foundation together with the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund has announced the commitment of $3.1 million in the form of institutional grants to individuals and organizations that are working to preserve the legacy of historic modern architecture designed by Black architects nationwide.

Under the title Conserving Black Modernism, the two-year grant program, part of a larger $80 million effort overseen by the Action Fund, will support the documentation of 16 overlooked sites across the country while providing useful preservation training and storytelling resources to their future stewards.

The Getty says they are remiss at not including any works by one of America’s many underappreciated Black designers in its otherwise successful Keeping It Modern initiative and will look to address this absence with a new program that helps enshrine their contributions to what became the most defining architectural movement of the ...

Cooper Hewitt and MAK Center among 19 Getty Foundation grantees

2021-07-14T20:20:00-04:00

Two design museums are part of a $1.55 slate of grants from the Getty Foundation that was announced by the institution yesterday.

New York’s Cooper Hewitt and West Hollywood’s MAK Center for Art and Architecture were among the nineteen grant recipients on a list that included projects at museums across the world.

The grants were part of a Getty initiative called The Paper Project that focuses on elevating cultural institutions whose holdings in prints and drawings are integral parts of their permanent collection and public program. Other winners included an examination of German expressionist printmaking put on by the Rifkind Center at LACMA, a digital census of Italian woodcuts before 1550 at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, and an exhibition at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum that will explore the global inspirations of Black Arts movement leader Betye Saar.

Modern structures in Kuwait, Nigeria, Senegal, Chile, and more selected for conservation grants by Getty Foundation

2020-07-15T15:33:00-04:00

The Getty Foundation has selected 13 pivotal Modernist structures located around the world to receive funding for conservation and restoration initiatives as part of its Keeping It Modern Architecture Conservation Grants program.

As in years passed, the selected structures are located globally, with this year's collection of funded projects highlighting several structures that celebrate "post-independence African modernism." Launched in 2014, the Keeping It Modern Initiative has supported a total of 77 projects in 40 countries so far, according to the Getty Foundation

“Modern architecture, with its experimental materials and structural innovations, is a powerful cultural expression that took many forms worldwide,” said Joan Weinstein, director of the Getty Foundation. “These buildings embody human ingenuity, but many are showing their age and face irreversible damage or even demolition if we fail to act. Our Keeping It Modern grantees across the globe are working to safeguard this ...

Syracuse University's Lawrence Chua named among 34 Getty Scholar grantees

2020-06-08T18:16:00-04:00

Lawrence Chua, an assistant professor at the Syracuse University School of Architecture, has been awarded a 2020-21 Getty Scholar Grant from the Getty Research Institute (GRI) to study "transregional histories of utopia and the architecture and urban culture of southeast Asia."

According to the Syracuse University News, this year's research cohort is focused on pursuing investigations that seek to deepen scholarly efforts around the topic of "the fragment" and are set to focus on objects of study that remain in less-than-whole forms. The research also considers intact art and cultural objects as "fragments" of the larger cultures that generated these items. The Syracuse website states, "Incoming Getty Scholars are invited to address both the creation and reception of fragments, their mutability and mobility, and their valuation and consequence throughout history."

Previously on Archinect: "Lebbeus Woods drawing collections are acquired by the Getty Research Institute."Selection from...

SoapBox: Manifestos

2017-11-13T16:14:00-05:00

Soapbox is a new weekly series delivering a curated set of lectures, talks and symposia concerning contemporary themes but explored through the archives of lectures past and present. With the plethora of lectures, talks, symposia and panels occurring world wide on a daily basis, how can we begin to keep up and if not, find them once they are gone? Soapbox looks to assemble a selection of recent, archived and outlier lectures surrounding a given theme. Soapbox looks to curate this never-ending library of ideas into an engaging and diverse list of thoughts and provocations. Soapbox is just that, a collection aimed at discovering the occasional needle in a haystack.

This week, in its first offering, we present. Manifestos. A selection of videos whose topics or purpose was to present if not reinforce, Manifestos.

1. GSAPP: What happened to the Architectural Manifesto Series

a. Enrique Walker, Felicity Scott and Anthony Vidler on the architectural manifesto. (2011)

b. Beatriz Colomina,...

Getty Foundation's "Keeping it Modern" grants conservation efforts for twelve major works of 20th century architecture

2017-07-31T17:57:00-04:00

With focus on works of the twentieth century, the Getty Foundation's Keeping it Modern program awards buildings of architectural and cultural significance funding for conservation and preservation. Grants focus on the creation of conservation management plans that guide long-term maintenance and conservation policies, the thorough investigation of building conditions, and the testing and analysis of modern materials. Through their Conservation Institute, the foundation recently completed a major renovation project of Louis Kahn's Salk Institute. Twelve more buildings have been selected this year to receive a similar treatment and have been granted $1.66 million to do so including a revered Dessau structure designed by Walter Gropius that recently became listed as a World Heritage site, a Le Corbusier designed museum in India, and Boston City Hall.

Cathedral Church of St. Michael for Coventry Cathedral.
Sir Basil Spence. 1962. Coventry, England

Coventry Cathedral interior. Photo: Da...

Robots could soon maintain the Sydney Opera House's one million roof tiles

2016-12-27T19:43:00-05:00

One million brilliant white tiles clad the 65m-tall precast concrete roof [...] glazed ceramic tiles need to be hand-checked, or tapped, every five years by specialist engineers, who abseil down the roof “sails” looking for changes in their sound or appearance. Now, thanks to the combined efforts of the opera house, the Getty Foundation, the University of Sydney and the engineering and design group Arup, this expensive, vertigo- inducing process is a step closer to becoming a thing of the past.

Salk Institute to be refurbished by The Getty Conservation Institute

2016-09-27T14:38:00-04:00

Fungal biofilm and water sealant failure have added a black patina to the Salk Institute's iconic teak paneling, making the material vulnerable to decay. In order to save what is considered to be one of the world's finest architectural projects (and coolest structural alignment of the sunset save for perhaps Manhattanhenge), the Getty Conservation Institute undertook three years of careful study and is now ready to start implementing those improvements.

According to Getty Conservation Institute project specialist Sara Lardinois, “The GCI sought to address issues on a long-term basis while preserving cultural significance and addressing the needs of those managing the site. Our aim was to help the Salk Institute incorporate a conservation approach into its overall site management at a critical point in the building’s history—the 50-year mark often coincides with the need for a first major repair in modern buildings.”

For more on all things Louis Kahn:

Kimbell’s $135 Million Expansion ...

Getty awards over $1.75 million to fix crappy concrete in "Important Modern Buildings"

2015-06-24T13:58:00-04:00

"Modern architecture is a defining artistic form of the 20th century at considerable risk, often due to the cutting-edge building materials that characterized the movement." -Deborah Marrow

In news that will surely make Prince Charles sigh with displeasure, the Getty Foundation announced it is awarding $1.75 million of grants to help preserve 14 structures in the modern style, including Frank Lloyd Wright’s Unity Temple, Walter Gropius’ residence ‘The Gropius House,’ and the Rietveld Schröder House. This is the second year the foundation has awarded the grants, and has chosen the buildings because (ironically) concrete as a building material has proven to be less than solid. “The use of concrete, while visually striking and radical for its time, has created a unique set of challenges for conserving some of the world’s most important modernist structures,” noted Antoine Wilmering, a senior program officer at the Getty Foundation. “Our new grants offer an excellent opportunity to advance research and conservation practices for this material. The accumulated knowledge that will result from the projects will be of tremendous benefit to the field.”

While the first year's gra...

Geniuses, money and monuments: Weekly News Round-Up for September 15, 2014

2014-09-22T20:47:00-04:00

Saturday, September 20

NYC's historic 190 Bowery part of massive buy-up by developer RFR Holdings: RFR plans to spend upwards of $900M on property and land purchases by the end of 2014. One of its recent buys included the former "72-room bohemian dream house" at 190 Bowery.

Friday, September 19

MacArthur Fellow Rick Lowe Reclaims Urban Neighborhoods Through Art: Lowe is currently a resident at Philadelphia's Pearl Street Project, which aims at making dimly-lit alleyways more safe. He is also the founder of Houston's Project Row Houses.
Zaha Hadid launches luxury homeware range with Harrods: Pieces include a £9,999 serving platter, £43 cups and saucers, and £4,860 Field of Towers chess set.
Archinect is at the Salk Institute, covering the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture Conference: The three-day conference focused on topics in neuroscientific research that serve the architecture profession, including advances in mobile brain-computing interfaces and the neurological data behind...

The Getty Foundation selects the first 10 modern projects to receive grants in worldwide preservation effort

2014-09-18T15:07:00-04:00

For the sake of preserving the holy modern architectural canon (and some), The Getty Foundation officially announced today the first 10 projects to receive grants of their Keeping it Modern initiative. In a race against time among other challenging factors, the philanthropic effort aims to conserve the world's architectural landmarks of the 20th century.

The Foundation states Keeping it Modern will address the pressing issues involved with the conservation of modern architectural heritage through the support for key model projects. Each grant project was selected for its architectural significance and its potential to advance conservation practices relevant to modern architecture.

The first ten projects selected to receive funding are:

(Above) Louis Kahn’s Salk Institute for Biological Studies

Jørn Utzon’s Sydney Opera House

Hilario Candela’s Miami Marine Stadium

Alvar Aalto’s Paimio Sanatorium

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House

Ray and Charles Eames’ residence ‘The Eames House’

I.M. Pei’s Luc...