Matero, Frank G
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Publication The Conservation of Immovable Cultural Property: Ethical and Practical Dilemmas(1993-03-01) Matero, Frank GThe conservation of immovable cultural property-outdoor monuments, buildings, archaeological sites, and landscapes-is a relatively recent profession, yet one that has grown out of earlier 19th-century restoration theories. Although part of the broader conservation context, architectural conservation presents unique problems due to the issues of context, immobility, size, scale, and complexity of use and materials. These issues are examined with respect to established standards for the examination, documentation, and treatment of traditional historic and artistic works.Publication Exploring conservation strategies for ancestral puebloan sites(2003-01-01) Matero, Frank GIn the American Southwest, indigenous pueblo cultures are a vital part of the region's contemporary mosaic of ethnic diversity. This is especially evident through their long-standing relationship to the land and landscape as reflected in the continuity of place for all pueblo communities and the countless number of ancestral sites that figure prominently in contemporary beliefs and practices. Recently many such sites have gained federal recognition and legal protection as archaeological and traditional cultural sites, yet stabilization, protection, use and interpretation of these sites according to existing theories and models of conservation have proven to be difficult. Based on the recognition that such places remain critical to the continuing identity of Native peoples and that many of these sites are simultaneously visited and enjoyed by the public, their preservation and respectful management have become a relevant, timely and sometimes controversial issue. Beginning in 1997 the University of Pennsylvania, the National Park Service and San Ildefonso Pueblo inaugurated an integrated research and training programme focused on the conservation and management of Tsankawi (New Mexico), an ancestral puebloan mesa site of great cultural and archaeological significance. The project afforded a critical examination of the theoretical and ethical issues surrounding the preservation and management of ancestral archaeological sites and the technical methods required for their stabilization and interpretation as cultural landscapes. Professionals, students and pueblo affiliates engaged in documentation, condition survey and preservation treatments of the ancient tuff rock trails and pueblo structures. From this effort, a strategic conservation plan was developed and its initial implementation explored through an annual training programme involving pueblo and university interns as well as professional archaeologists and cultural resource managers.Publication Managing Change: The Role of Documentation and Condition Survey at Mesa Verde National Park(2003-03-01) Matero, Frank GThe approximately 600 cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado represent the apex of architectural sophistication of the Northern San Juan Ancestral Puebloan culture. The cliff dwellings, the final product of 600 years of cultural development on the Mesa Verde, were built between A.D. 1200 and 1300, and were abandoned shortly thereafter. The spectacular setting and the well-preserved state of these masonry structures and their surface finishes resulted in Mesa Verde's being the first nomination by the U.S. government to the World Cultural Heritage Sites List. Moreover, descendants of these ancient peoples, the Pueblo Indians of Arizona and New Mexico, continue to venerate these sites, representing a cultural continuity unique for North America. Excavation and preservation have been continuous since Mesa Verde became one of the first national parks in 1906. The structures interpreted to the public have been preserved over the years with a minimum of repair and replacement, resulting in a cultural resource of great integrity and authenticity. A phased conservation program to develop coordinated methods for the survey, analysis, stabilization, and interpretation of the masonry and prehistoric surface finishes in the alcovate (cliff-dwelling) sites of Mesa Verde National Park has been in progress since 1994 by the Architectural Conservation Laboratory of the University of Pennsylvania. The program has included a comprehensive method of study, including archival research, technical analysis, and characterization of the architectural materials; detailed field and digital recording of existing conditions, including environmental monitoring; and the design, testing, and execution of a treatment and protection program specifically focused on the in situ stabilization of plain and painted architectural surface finishes. Though case-study oriented, this article addresses in detail the theoretical and technical aspects of condition survey and recording as an important vehicle for material and site diagnostics, which must precede remedial and preventive interventions. Detailed information is provided on the use of current digital technology for condition survey.Publication Survey Methodology for the Preservation of Historic Burial Grounds and Cemeteries(2003-01-01) Matero, Frank G; Peters, JudyAn integrated program of digital surveying and mapping can provide a powerful database for the analysis, conservation, and management of historic burial grounds and cemeteries.Publication The Fallacies of Intent: "Finishing" Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum(2007-01-01) Matero, Frank G; Fitzgerald, RobertIn the realm of architectural conservation controversies in America in the late-twentieth century, perhaps none created greater or longer discussion than the expansion and restoration of Frank Lloyd Wright's Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City.Publication The Conservation of an Excavated Past(2000-01-01) Matero, Frank GReflexivity as a methodological approach in the production of knowledge takes its primary position from the contextualization of the problem rather than the superimposition of positivist, empirical models. Yet any methodology depends all the interrelationship between theory and practice as expressed through the intersection of principles, practices and procedures. In the case of postprocessual archaeology, ways of approaching past human behaviour are based on contextual, integrated analyses of issues and data derived from the interaction of numerous disciplines and multiple views (multivocality) and the new relationships that arise from such interaction (Hodder 1991).Publication Lessons from the Great House: Condition and treatment history as prologue to site conservation and management at Casa Grande Ruins National Monument(1999) Matero, Frank GAs the first federally designated and protected archaeological preserve in the United States (1889-92), the site of Casa Grande Ruins National Monument in Arizona, USA, provides an excellent opportunity to examine the effects of past site conservation and management policies. Renewed investigation and analysis of the caliche building material and wall conditions of the Casa Grande using new techniques of field, laboratory and digital recording have allowed a reassessment of the structure in an effort to explain recent phenomena of alteration and deterioration, and make recommendations for structural and surface monitoring and treatment. The focus on the development of a detailed condition survey of the earthen structure has also promoted the creation of a standard graphic lexicon of earthen building conditions for use at other sites.Publication A Comparative Study of Alkoxysilanes and Acrylics in Sequence and in Mixture(1997-07-01) Matero, Frank G; Oliver, Anne BA limestone column at Mission San Jose, San Antonio, Texas (USA) exhibited the friability, microcracking and flaking that is typical of saltcontaminated stone. Mixtures of acrylic resins and alkyl alkoxysilanes are frequently used to treat these problems. The deterioration was localized, however, and it was not advisable to introduce the potentially adverse effects of the acrylic in the mixture to relatively sound stone. The adhesion of subsequent infills would also be adversely affected by the water-repellency of the silane. Sequential applications of acrylic and silane would be more practical, flexible, and potentially more effective. The interaction of these materials, and their effectiveness when used in sequential order, has been little studied. An experimental programme was designed to quantify differences in the physico-mechanical properties of models that were caused by the application of acrylic and silane in sequence, rather than in mixture. Test results indicated that the method of application did not cause great differences in most properties of the treated models, but that mixtures were somewhat more effective. Based upon these results, and the treatment requirements of the column, the limestone was treated with a sequential application of an acrylic resin and an alkyl alkoxysilane.Publication Loss, Compensation, and Authenticity: The Contribution of Cesare Brandi to Architectural Conservation in America(2007-07-01) Matero, Frank GInternational consideration of the contribution of Cesare Brandi to modern conservation theory has been needed for a very long time. In the realm of conservation discourse in America and probably for much of the English-speaking world, Brandi's words and concepts have been largely absent and, if acknowledged at all, often lost to translation. This can be attributed to the lack of an English version of his 1963 Teoria del Restauro [Theory of Restoration] until the first excerpts were published in 1996, with an accompanying editorial, in the Getty Conservation Institute's anthology of readings on conservation. That is not to say that Brandi's ideas were unknown, at least to some architectural conservation professionals and academics in the United States who encountered his theories through the lectures and translated excerpts of his writings at ICCROM, by its then Director-General, Paul Philippot.Publication An Approach to the Evaluation of Cleaning Methods for Unglazed Architectural Terracotta in the USA(1994-09-01) Matero, Frank G; Bede, ElizaBeth A; Tagle, AlbertoThe safe and effective removal of disfiguring atmospheric soiling from brick and unglazed architectural terra cotta is a problem well known to building specialists. While limited research has been conducted on the study and repair of glazed architectural ceramics, very little recent work has addressed the characterisation and analysis of unglazed architectural terracotta, the physicochemical nature of soiling mechanisms, or the short- and long-term effects of commercial cleaning methods currently employed. In addition, an over-emphasis on cleaning efficacy, along with the meteoric rise in the availability of untested chemical and mechanical cleaning systems, has led to the disfigurement and surface damage of many terracotta buildings, permanently altering the visual and protective qualities of the material and potentially jeorardising the overall weatherability and performance of each building's skin.