This summer I had the opportunity to learn from and work with the wonderful team at Architectural Resources Group. As the conservation intern, I assisted Senior Associate and Conservator Sarah Devan with a variety of conservation projects throughout LA County. My internship was packed with incredible, once-in-alifetime site work, such as documenting the disassembly of Wright’s Wayfarers Chapel in Ranchos Palos Verdes (Image 1), performing a condition assessment at Rudolf Schindler’s How House in Silverlake (Image 2), and performing cleaning and patching mockups on Heath ceramic tiles at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena. At Wayfarers Chapel, I witnessed a brilliant team work together to save the nationally registered building from destruction by catastrophic land movement. The chapel glass was cracking under the stress, so to avoid losing any more of the historic fabric, preservationists decided to disassemble, store, and rebuild the chapel elsewhere. I wrote field notes during each site visit and provided documentation for a variety of items – drawing from both John Hinchman’s expertise for hand measuring architectural details and Joe Elliot’s expertise in photo documentation of the site’s conditions, the deconstructed elements and of the team at work. At the How House, Sarah and I spent a day surveying the conditions of the concrete walls both from the interior and exterior. We surveyed all four elevations, taking photographs and notes I then compiled in a condition report for the client. The report included suspected issues and treatment recommendations. I then marked up the architect’s elevation drawings with the observed conditions – creating a color-coded, easily digestible document of each elevation. At the Norton Simon Museum, I established treatment plans for mineral deposit buildup and for spalls in the exterior tile that clad the museum. I performed cleaning, patching, and painting tests and mockups both in office and in the field, focusing on easily repeatable, conservation-grade methods for future contractors to execute on the entirety of the building. I corresponded with product manufacturers and consulted a variety of products to identify a compatible treatment system.
In addition to these projects, I worked at a variety of other sites, preparing condition assessments and documentation, writing field reports, and researching and analyzing material. Sarah was a wonderful mentor, entrusting me with tasks that directly put to test all that I learned during my first year at Penn. On just my second day, Sarah and I went to DTLA’s Union Station to observe a poorly draining roof canopy on its iconic façade. After walking the site, she asked me to write a memo to the Station’s project manager, detailing the conditions observed and suspicions as to root issues. The memo also recommended next steps, specifically how the observed conditions should be examined, tested, and treated. In writing the memo, I drew on what I learned from Michael Henry’s spring semester Building Pathology final: drafting a narrative that, while using technical terms to describe the issues, was accessible enough that any reader would understand the severity and scope of work required. With Building Pathology’s final assignment, we had nearly two months to perfect the memo – with this, I had until the end of the day! I could not believe how perfectly applicable the work had been and how prepared I was. It felt cosmic and I was so grateful for Michael Henry. And this was true for virtually every other task I performed. This internship was such an unforgettable experience. It was not only perfectly aligned with what I have learned during my time at Penn, it reinforced my decision to concentrate on architectural conservation.
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