SUMMER 2008 E-NEWS
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Scott's Hut, Antarctica
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WMF in the News

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Phnom Penh Post:

$1 Million for Phnom Bakheng Restoration

2008 Hadrian Award
WMF's 2008 Hadrian Award will be presented to Houghton, Doreen, and Graeme Freeman and the Freeman Foundation for their unparalleled commitment to historic preservation in China and Japan.
 
The gala award presentation will take place at the Plaza in New York on Thursday, October 16, 2008. 
 
For additional information or to purchase tickets, please contact WMF at (646) 424-9594 or visit our website.
WMF Watch Sites on Google Earth!
We have teamed up with Google to put all of our 2008 Watch sites on Google Earth. To check it out, click here.
Significant New Grant for Angkor
Phnom Bakheng Tourists 
In June, WMF announced a major new phase of work in the ancient city of Angkor, Cambodia. The U.S. Department of State has awarded WMF nearly $1 million to continue our conservation work at Phnom Bakheng (pictured above), one of the oldest temples at Angkor and one of the most heavily visited. Its spectacular sunset views have drawn increasing numbers of tourists who are unwittingly damaging the site.
Bauhaus Design Wins First WMF/Knoll Modernism Prize
Prize Winners with WMF & Knoll 
(L-R: WMF Executive VP Henry Ng, school representative Stephen Schwarz, Knoll CEO Andrew Cogan, WMF President Bonnie Burnham, winning architects Winfried Brenne and Franz Jaschke, jury chairman and MoMA curator Barry Bergdoll.)
 
WMF awarded the first World Monuments Fund/Knoll Modernism Prize at a dinner in New York City on July 10, 2008. Partners Winfried Brenne and Franz Jaschke of Berlin-based firm Brenne Gesellschaft von Architekten mbH won the prize for their superb restoration of a masterful 1930 Bauhaus-designed former trade union school in Bernau, Germany. The Modernism Prize, which will be given every two years, is part of WMF's Modernism at Risk initiative, which represents extraordinary, yet threatened, 20th-century sites and brings education and advocacy to the forefront.
 
Modernism at Risk: Adaptive Reuse vs. Demolition
Riverview High Windows Detail
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 

We at WMF, along with thousands of others across the U.S. and around the world, were saddened and disappointed to learn that the school board of Sarasota, Florida, voted in June to demolish Paul Rudolph's iconic Riverview High School (above), part of the 2008 "Main Street Modern" Watch listing, and replace it with a parking lot for a new school being built. A viable strategy to restore the building and convert it into a music quadrangle was rejected by the board 3-2, even though this project was estimated to cost $25 million, much less than the $135 million required to build a new school.

On a more positive note, however, we learned our $50,000 grant to Marcel Breuer's Grosse Point Library in Michigan, also part of the "Main Street Modern" Watch listing, funded a study that determined the building was fit for reuse, spurring a $1 million donation from a local philanthropic couple to aid in the library's preservation. The contrasting examples of Riverview and Grosse Point highlight how important the local community can be in the conservation of significant architecture.

Watch Site Update: Church in Atotonilco, Mexico

Ceiling of Jesus NazarenoThe church of Jesús Nazareno in Atotonilco, Mexico (ceiling pictured at left), one of the finest examples of Baroque architecture in the New World, was listed on the 1996 World Monuments Watch because it was deteriorating from neglect and water infiltration. Built in the mid-18th century, the church has been an important pilgrimage destination for more than 200 years and houses famous oil paintings and murals. WMF has been carrying out conservation work there for more than a decade and our efforts helped it to be inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List this past July. This is one of four Watch sites that have achieved World Heritage status this year.