It’s been light posting this weekend, as I’ve been out and about attending Open House New York events. As I anticipated, the gem of the bunch was a tour of MoMA’s conservation labs led by the chief conservator, Jim Coddington, and the architect who designed the studio, Sam Anderson.
A full report is below the cut.
The most surprising thing about the lab hit you as soon as you walked in the door -- how bright the space was. Considering how you always hear about how light can damage works of art, I really expected that they would want to protect the works they were restoring from sunlight. On the contrary, the lab was designed to let in as much Northern light as possible so that the conservators could assess pigments and materials using natural light.
I thought it was interesting to hear how the architect and the conservators collaborated to develop a space that reinforced the department’s values in addition to facilitating their work. Since many of the works in its collection blur the line between painting and sculpture, the painting and sculpture conservators collaborate at MoMA to a degree that is not as common at other museums. In order to preserve some autonomy but encourage communication, the workspaces for the two groups are in one large room, partitioned by a glass divider. Besides the main divider and a few items built into the wall, everything in the lab could be easily moved and reconfigured. This allowed the curators to set up their spaces in whatever system was most appropriate for their current project and also allowed them to accommodate works of any size or shape.
There were a large number of engineering challenges that had to be addressed by the design and construction. All of the materials had to be carefully chosen so that works of art would not be exposed to unnecessary elements. The wood used in construction had to be free of formaldehyde, special baked-on paints that do not emit gases were used on the storage cabinets, and all lights were coated with UV protection. The lab has its own air processing system that is separate from the rest of the building because of the extra load posed by the fume hoods used to clear solvents. If all of the fume hoods were turned on at once, the space could actually achieve a negative pressure, so the system for the lab is designed to ensure a pressure equilibrium and bring in an adequate amount of replacement air. The replacement air must also be quickly brought to a constant temperature and humidity level which, due to the rapid exchange, is far more challenging than maintaining a constant environment in a closed space like a gallery.
In addition to the main work area, there were some smaller spaces set aside for specific tasks. The “multipurpose room” was both lined with lead and covered with air filters so that it could be used for taking X-rays or for spraying finishes to seal works of art. It was also used for photographing works because large doors at the front and side of the room allowed lights and cameras to be set up at a number of distances. The sculpture department had an enclosed room with special filters where they could do things like grinding and sanding that might be loud or throw off dust without bothering the other conservators or damaging other works. There was also a shower room for cleaning sculptures and performing messy treatments that even included a very cool chain hoist so that sculptures could be lifted up and cleaned from underneath.
It was also interesting to hear how they had to make compromises with the design to accommodate financial and artistic considerations. While Mr. Anderson and the conservators seemed most interested in creating a space that was functional, the design also had to be integrated into Yoshio Taniguchi’s master plan for MoMA’s expansion. Mr. Anderson said that his design was accepted without many changes but that there was one corner he had rounded off so that the conservators could more easily move canvasses through the passageways that was vetoed because Taniguchi wanted square corners throughout the entire building. The location of the lab within the building was another issue that required negotiation -- there had been discussion of putting it on the top floor of the building with skylights to maximize the amount of natural light but that would have been very expensive because the extra-large freight elevator that the lab needs would have had to go the entire height of the building. The compromise was to put the lab at the highest floor already planned for the freight elevator, which would let them get more light by clearing the tops of a number of buildings but not increase the expense of the project.
Overall, the tour was excellent and it was fascinating to learn all of the variables that were factored into the design to produce an optimal work area. Now that I’ve learned about the architecture of the lab, I would love to attend a lecture by Mr. Coddington or someone else from the lab to learn more about their conservation work.
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