Keeping It Modern 2019

John Hill

30. July 2019

North Christian Church in Columbus, Indiana, USA, by Eero Saarinen, 1964 (Photo: Carol A. Highsmith)

The Getty Foundation is awarding more than $1.6 million in architectural conservation grants to ten significant 20th century buildings as part of its Keeping It Modern initiative.

Half of the ten Keeping It Modern grantees are in Europe, while two are located in Africa, two in North America, and one is found in South America. Of the ten, two are located in the small Midwestern American town of Columbus, Indiana, both designed by Eero Saarinen: the Miller House and Garden (with landscaping by Dan Kiley) was designed for J. Irwin Miller, whose Cummins Foundation Architecture Program single-handedly brought modern architecture to Columbus; the later North Christian Church is a centerpiece of the town and its architecture program.

Seeing 20th century modern buildings like these "at considerable risk," The Getty Foundation's Keeping It Modern initiative, established in 2014 and set to expire in 2020 (making this year's grants the penultimate grants), aims to provide funds for historians, researchers, and scientists "to develop the necessary protocols for conservation treatment." The ten buildings given grants this year bring the number of buildings the Foundation has helped since 2014 to 64. The reports created by the ten grants will eventually be part of the freely accessible Keeping It Modern Report Library, which allows the lessons from the grants to be applied by conservationists to other modern buildings under threat.

Below is the list of the ten buildings receiving funds in this year's Keeping It Modern grants, though visit The Getty Foundation's website for information on each project and for information on how to apply for the last round of grants in 2020.

The ten buildings receiving funding and the amount of their grants, presented in chronological order:

Villa E-1027 in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France, by Eileen Gray, 1929 ($200,000)
Laboratory for Faculty of Chemical Technology at Kaunas University of Technology in Lithuania by Vytautas Landsbergis-Žemkalnis, 1935 (€130,000)
Miller House and Garden in Columbus, Indiana, USA, by Eero Saarinen, 1953 ($170,000)
Torino Esposizioni in Turin, Italy, by Pier Luigi Nervi, 1954 (€165,000)
Uganda National Museum in Kampala by Ernst May, 1954 ($135,000)
North Christian Church in Columbus, Indiana, USA, by Eero Saarinen, 1964 ($150,000)
Beira Railway Station in Mozambique by Paulo de Melo Sampaio, João A. Garizo do Carmo, and Francisco José de Castro, 1965 (€160,000)
Escuela Superior de Comercio Manuel Belgrano in Córdoba, Argentina, by Osvaldo Bidinost, Jorge Chute, José Gassó, Mabel Lapacó, and Martín Meyer, 1968 ($150,000)
Paraninfo at the Universidad Laboral de Cheste in Spain by Fernando Moreno Barberá, 1969 (€170,000)
Buzludzha Monument in Hadzhi Dimitar Peak, Bulgaria, by Georgi Stoilov, 1981 ($185,000)