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The World Monuments Fund (WMF) received $1m from American Express to conserve eight of the 25 threatened cultural heritage sites on their watchlist. The awards range from $25,000 to $225,000 and many will be used to respond to damage inflicted by climate change. [...]
The WMF has also received funding from a private donor and the Friends of Heritage Preservation for the Alabama Civil Rights Sites. The 14 other threatened monuments on the group’s list are still seeking support.
— The Art Newspaper
The problems: how to conserve extraordinary monumental heritage in Iraq and Syria [...]. The issue is exacerbated by the depletion of skilled craftspeople; once the dust of conflict settles, there will be few able to carry out restoration. At the same time, thousands sit in refugee camps, lives on hold, seeking a future.
The solution: train refugees to become the craftspeople and conservators of the future. Give them a skill to help restore their nation’s heritage.
— The Art Newspaper
Photo: World Monuments Fund.Learn more about the World Monuments Fund’s new stone masonry training center for Syrian refugees in Mafraq, Jordan (backed by the UK government’s Cultural Protection Fund) here. View full entry
In the East End, a plan for a home on Mobley Drive off Warm Springs Avenue spurred a group of neighbors to start organizing what the city calls a conservation district. The house would have been two stories and narrow, while most nearby homes are single-level ranch-style structures built in the 1950s. — Idaho Statesman
A 16-year-old ordinance in Boise that allows for the establishment of conservation districts is coming back in favor as neighborhood groups have figured out they can use it to quash projects they don't like. Conservation districts are similar to historic ones in that they define development... View full entry
The Hill House in Helensburgh was built as "a home for the future" by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in 1902. But the experimental building material used has allowed water to soak into the building. Now, the National Trust for Scotland will surround the house with a protective "shield" in the form of a "giant cage" while it comes up with ways to restore it. The trust plans to build the huge see-through structure [...] over the top of the landmark to protect the building from the elements. — bbc.com
This temporary structure buys preservationists time in finding a permanent solution to the building's structural problem. While the design problem persists, architects Carmody and Groarke have allowed a unique opportunity for visitors to experience the landmark building from new perspectives with... View full entry
Broken gargoyles and fallen balustrades replaced by plastic pipes and wooden planks. Flying buttresses darkened by pollution and eroded by rainwater. Pinnacles propped up by beams and held together with straps. — New York Times
The historic French monument, Notre-Dame de Paris, has suffered due to time, rain, pollution and wind. Built from 1160 to 1345, with restorations and additions in the mid 19th century by architects Jean-Baptiste Lassus and Viollet-le-Duc, the cathedral attracts 14 million visitors per year. Image... View full entry
In order to avoid being listed by Historic England, a developer recently demolished an ornate Jacobean pendant ceiling at one of their sites. Previously a hotel and bar, the owners, Midas Properties/G&E Baio Ltd, had a planning application to subdivide and convert the building into student... View full entry
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... View full entry
It’s heralded as one of the major masterpieces of American modernism, but its ocean-adjacent location has made conservation difficult. Today, the Getty Conservation Institute announced that a major renovation project of Louis Kahn ’s Salk Institute in La Jolla has been completed. The project... View full entry
Designing a structure to protect a historic artifact or monument from the elements can often be a dry affair. At their most basic, such structures are often simple tent canopies, or more permanent, but still bare-bone, envelopes. Not the Qianfoya Cliff Inscriptions in Guangyuan, Sichuan Province... View full entry
Australian practice McGregor Coxall had the winning scheme to transform a degenerate landfill site into a new migratory-bird wetland sanctuary park in Tianjin, China. The Asian Development Bank and the Port of Tianjin co-launched the park design competition in response to the increasing loss of... View full entry
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. — theartnewspaper.com
Related stories in the Archinect news:Jørn Utzon's saga with the Sydney Opera house coming to the big screenJørn Utzon's final touch to the Sydney Opera House: a Le Corbusier tapestryThe Sydney Opera House by Jørn Utzon Celebrates Its 40th Anniversary"So much more than an engineer": Ove Arup... View full entry
Just steps away from the iconic Erasmus Bridge, a new office for KAAN Architecten has joins the crowd of notable buildings in the heart of the Dutch city of Rotterdam. The project transformed 1,400 square meters of a site with a storied history. Designed by Henri Timo Zwiers in the mid-fifties... View full entry
Tsuruta Architects' House of Trace was revealed as the 2016 Stephen Lawrence Prize winner during a slew of big announcements at the RIBA Stirling Prize party in London yesterday...[In designing the House of Trace,] Tsuruta Architects wanted to preserve a “sense of everyday memory, while simultaneously allowing the new intervention to have its own identity.” — Bustler
It surely must be a proud moment for London-based Tsuruta Architects, whose delightful old-meets-new House of Trace won the RIBA's 2016 Stephen Lawrence Prize.More details on Bustler.Previously:RIBA announces 2016 Stephen Lawrence Prize shortlist View full entry
Greenpeace, Sierra Club BC, and Stand.earth formed the Rainforest Solutions Project as part of the Tides Canada Initiative. The coalition has spent nearly two decades developing a sophisticated legal and policy framework called Ecosystem-Based Management to tackle the persisting struggle over Canada's treasured Great Bear Rainforest, while also negotiating the conflicting interests of multiple groups. — Bustler
Winning over six equally worthy finalist teams, the Rainforest Solutions Project addresses both natural and cultural preservation, and it enforces stronger ecological responsibility in industrial economic pursuits. The Project resulted in a landmark 250-year agreement between all stakeholders... View full entry
Using drones for aerial photography has been a source of controversy for several years now. But amid increasing concerns over privacy and safety, some conservation scientists are hoping drone owners will help them to document sea level rise.
With an expected increase in storm activity in the Pacific Ocean this winter, scientists believe they are getting a glimpse of the impacts of climate change on coastlines.
— scpr.org
To see an interactive example of a DroneDeploy-stitched high-resolution map, click here.Related stories in the Archinect news:The Ehang passenger drone might be another way people will get around town somedayLicense and registration, please: new FAA regulations mandate drone... View full entry