Keeping It Modern 2018

One of the most famous buildings of the eleven projects is also a double-grantee: Louis I. Kahn's Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California received an inaugural Keeping It Modern grant from the Getty in 2014. That money went toward a conservation masterplan of Kahn's masterpiece; last year saw the completion of a nearly $10 million restoration of the Salk's teak panels. The $200,000 it is receiving this year (the same amount as the 2014 grant) will go toward concrete repair on the north study tower.

Given the great difference between the grant amounts and constrction costs ($200,000 and $9.8 million, respectively at the Salk, for instance), the Keeping It Modern program is focused on research and planning for the preservation of modern architectural heritage, rather than the costlier labor of carrying out the plans. With untested materials and construction methods used at the time, many modern buildings require innovative conservation techniques that veer from the norm. To date, the Caliornia-based Getty has funded 54 projects in the US and abroad. 

The eleven projects selected to receive funding and the amounts they are receiving:

• Chess Palace and Alpine Club, Tbilisi, Georgia, by Vladimir Aleksi-Meskhishvili and Germane Gudushaur, 1973 ($134,000)
• Collegi Universitari at the Università degli Studi di Urbino Carlo Bo, Urbino, Italy, by Giancarlo De Carlo, 1962-1983 ($100,000)
• Engineering Building at the University of Leicester, England, by James Stirling and James Gowan, 1962 (£85,000)
• Gateway Arch, St. Louis, Missouri, by Eero Saarinen, 1959-1965 ($180,000)
• History Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, by Boris Magaš, Edo Šmidihen and Radovan Horvat, 1963 ($130,000)
• The National Schools of Art of Havana, Cuba, by Ricardo Porro, Vittorio Garatti and Roberto Gottardi, 1961-1964 ($195,000)
• Rashid Karami International Fairground, Tripoli, Lebanon, by Oscar Niemeyer, 1967-1975 ($225,000)
• St. Brendan’s Community School, Birr, Ireland, by Peter and Mary Doyle, 1979 ($124,000)
• Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California, by Louis I. Kahn, 1965 ($200,000)
• School of Mathematics at the Università degli Studi di Roma, Rome, Italy, by Gio Ponti, 1935 ($180,000)
• Technische Universiteit Delft Auditorium, Netherlands, by Johannes van den Broek and Jaap Bakema, 1966 ($146,000)