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April 17, 2012

A Short History Of Akaba Idéna

The oral traditions of Kétou say that Prince Shopashan left Ile-Ife (the capital of the Yoruba Kingdom) with his family and other members of his clan to install a new kingdom at Aro. A few generations later, his descendant, King Ede, left Aro with 120 families to settle in Kétou.

April 10, 2012

Marking the Routes of the Silk Roads

Old necropolises are some of the only man-made landmarks that can be seen along the main routes that cross the vast steppes and deserts of the Mangystau peninsula and the Usturt Plateau, between the Caspian and the Aral Seas. These ancient roads, which are still in use, in the Middle Ages connected Khorezmian and Sogdian lands with the territories to the north and west of the Caspian Sea.

April 09, 2012

510 Fifth Avenue Revisited

Today I walked past 510 Fifth Avenue on my way back from lunch and had my first look at the revamped building, which was listed on the 2012 World Monuments Watch and which was the subject of a lawsuit brought by the Coalition to Save MHT. What struck me the most is how important it is that the original artwork designed for Manufacturers Hanover Trust has been reinstalled, a direct outcome of the litigation.

April 04, 2012

What Would Russel Do?

It is a question that the Manitoga board, staff, and volunteers frequently ask when faced with the many challenges of restoring, preserving and interpreting the home, studio, and 75-acre woodland garden created here by Russel Wright.

April 03, 2012

Healing the Place of Great Spirit

Greetings from sun-drenched Dragon Rock, Russel Wright’s home and studio at Manitoga, where an early spring has awakened ferns, wildflowers, moss, leaves, and grass in our 75-acre forest garden. Wright, an influential mid-twentieth-century American industrial designer, transformed this once devastated land into a place of rare beauty that he called Manitoga, taken from Algonquin words meaning “place of great spirit.”

March 28, 2012

Raising Awareness of Cultural Heritage in Palestine: Conference in Paris Focuses on St. Hilarion

The Monastery of Saint Hilarion in Gaza was the focus of a two-day workshop at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris in March. French and Palestinian authorities and heritage professionals gathered together to discuss and present to a group of experts and interested people the archaeological and conservation activities developed both in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

March 22, 2012

An Overview of Ha Long Bay’s Fishing Villages

Ha Long Bay, on Vietnam’s northeastern seacoast, is often considered one of the world’s most beautiful bays. In 1994 and 2000, UNESCO recognized Ha Long Bay as a World Heritage site for its remarkable landscape and geomorphology. It was also listed as one of the New7Wonders of Nature in 2011.

March 21, 2012

Tradition and Modernity Meet in H? Long Bay

I'm in the back of a stuffy tourist van bound for H? Long Bay, barreling down the middle of a barely passable, pothole-filled road just east of Hanoi. After ten days working on World Monuments Fund projects in Cambodia, I figured a few days of vacation on a cruise among the bay's countless limestone karsts would be nice and relaxing.

March 19, 2012

Hadrian’s Villa, Near Tivoli, at Risk

Hadrian's Villa, the UNESCO World Heritage site near Tivoli, Italy, is at risk. It joins nearby Ponte Lucano—on the 2010 World Monuments Watch—as a site that requires the attention of everyone who cares about preserving the world's cultural heritage.

March 16, 2012

Reflecting on the March 2011 Earthquake and Tsunami and Looking to the Future

This is all about going back to basics of cultural properties preservation.” That is the phrase echoed by my counterparts in Japan. It’s become the core principle of the SOC (Save Our Culture) project to save cultural heritage that has the most meaning nationally and locally.

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