In Art Forum, Reyner Banham prophetically said “Los Angeles is the harbinger of America’s future.” Fifty years after Banham expressed his love for L.A., its modern architecture, infrastructure, and landscapes are aging, requiring a new generation of conservators to maintain the city’s gems.

To help preserve its modern architecture heritage, The Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles is launching the International Course on the Conservation of Modern Heritage. The eleven-week course started in May, inviting mid-career professionals from six continents “to connect with other professionals from around the world and gain practical conservation knowledge that they can apply to their own local modern heritage projects,” a press release stated. Nine of the course’s eleven weeks were remote while the final two, August 6 to 19, will gather students and faculty in Los Angeles to study and visit heritage sites across the city.  

Using the “city as a classroom,” participants will tour the Eames House by Ray and Charles Eames; the Hollyhock House by Frank Lloyd Wright; and Richard Neutra’s Reunion House; among others. The class of twenty-five students will be led by Getty Conservation institute staff and heritage conservation professionals. These visits will be followed by a field trip to the Salk Institute for Biological Studies by Louis Kahn in La Jolla, San Diego; as well as a visit to the University of California at San Diego campus where a number of conservation projects are underway. 

The Getty’s International Course on the Conservation of Modern Heritage is a component of the institution’s Conserving Modern Architecture Initiative, an effort whose goal is to “advance” the preservation of modern architecture sites around the world. 

In describing the course curriculum, Getty senior project specialist Chandler McCoy said, “Not only are participants given classroom instruction, but they will also gain firsthand experience at modern landmarks across Los Angeles that face many of the challenges we address in the online course. We’re using Neutra’s Reunion House as a case study project, and they’ll get up close and personal with this important site while at the same time considering possible strategies for its future preservation.”

The International Course on the Conservation of Modern Heritage takes place from May 1 to August 19.