In Haiti, rescuing murals from a collapsed cathedral

A few days ago we were in Port Au Prince, Haiti, creating a proposal for the removal of 1950s murals from St. Trinite Cathedral. An 19th century Episcopal Cathedral rebuilt in 1924, the cathedral was decorated in the 1950s with monumental wall murals painted by Haiti's most important artists of the period which depict scenes from the life of Christ. The cathedral collapsed in the January 12, 2010 earthquake and only 3 of 12 original murals survive. The murals were painted directly on the reinforced concrete walls and are in very precarious condition, with many large sections lying in rubble on the ground, and others detaching from the wall. Rosa Lowinger & Associates and Viviana Dominguez Paintings Conservation worked under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution to document the remaining murals and create a protocol for their safe removal and conservation.

For additional information and photos, please see a photo essay at:
http://culture.wnyc.org/blogs/gallerina/2010/jul/26/haiti-art/

Lauren Hall joins Rosa Lowinger & Associates

Rosa Lowinger & Associates is delighted to announce the addition of Assistant Conservator Lauren Reynolds Hall to our firm. Lauren has an undergraduate degree in drawing and painting, and an MS in Historic Preservation with an Advanced Certificate in Architectural Conservation from the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate Program in Historic Preservation.

Lauren served as a project manager and conservator for the University of Pennsylvania’s Architectural Conservation Laboratory at Mesa Verde National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. As a Samuel H. Kress Foundation Fellow in pursuit of her certificate at Penn, she developed, managed, and executed the pilot conservation treatment program for the Carrara marble capitals at the Philadelphia Merchants’ Exchange in Independence National Historical Park (see before and after images below). Immediately prior to joining RLA, Lauren worked for New York's prestigious Building Conservation Associates, Inc., where she performed construction monitoring for the restoration of the New York Hall of Science’s Great Hall reinforced concrete and glass façade, worked as a conservator to stabilize the painted dining room ceiling at Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site in Hyde Park, NY, and developed construction documents for the Newark Museum’s Ballantine Carriage House and Polhemus House in Newark, NJ

Lauren's addition to our firm will allow us to offer the highest level architectural conservation services to our nationwide clients.




Philadelphia Merchant's Exchange Capital, before conservation.




Philadelphia Merchant's Exchange Capital, after conservation.

Stone Conservation Research at Huntington Library

The Temple of Love in the Huntington's Rose Garden. The central limestone sculpture is marred by pocked erosion.

This summer we will be partnering with conservation scientist Eric Doehne to conduct research into aspects of stone deterioration of the garden statuary at the Huntington Library. We will be looking at severe erosion and the effects of a misguided 1950s effort to consolidate 18th century Italian garden statuary using a slurry of concrete over degraded stone surfaces. This research has been requested by Catherine Hess, the Huntington's chief curator of European and British art, as a means of revamping the maintenance and conservation protocol for all the stone statuary, urns, tempiettos (or is it tempietti?) at the Huntington. The results of this study will dovetail with our investigative work at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens in Miami, FL



Sculpture of Neptune, exhibiting severe erosion, spalling, and cracking due to the application of a concrete slurry over the softer stone.



Neptune: detail of concrete slurry on foot.

Update: University of Miami Mural After Treatment

Bolivar and Humboldt by Leopoldo Richter after successful conservation of vandalism and removal of mineral deposits and salts leached from grout.