Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 39. (1986)
Archive Buildings and the Conservation of Archival Material. An Expert Meeting, held in Vienna, Austria October 30 - November 1, 1985 - STEWART, William J.: Summary of Discussions
Summary of Discussions 261 Carassiiln the oldest of the two buildings we renovated in Turin we saved the original 18th century wooden shelving. In the other building, the former hospital, we decided to eliminate the wooden shelving and install compact metal shelving. One other concern was roof construction and there we employed two different solutions. In one we replaced the damaged wooden, but not original roof, with a new concrete roof. In the second, the 18th century building, we dismantled the original roof and are rebuilding it by placing a covering between the wooden frame and the roof itself in order to protect the underroof. Duchein: I would add something which is perhaps more or less Dr Auer’s preoccupation. Just now we are undertaking extensive renovation in the Archives Nationales in Paris, in that part of the building constructed in 1866 by Napoleon III. It was meant to be as much a show place as an archive depository. The rooms are huge, with very high ceilings, wrap around mid-floor balconies and wooden shelving, hand-carved wooden shelving to be precise. This entire first floor is a historical monument and as such is protected by law. But the ground floor was not an artistic treasure so we decided to modify it with compact shelving. When we first reconstructed the shelving on the historic first floor we worked from the original plan. Today the first floor looks exactly as it did in Napoleon’s time but actually it has been modernized. Finally, I should stress that this has been much more expensive than it would have been to build a new structure. Stewart: May I take a moment to review the situation as it relates to readapting buildings in the United States. There is, I have observed, a growing interest by preservationists to restore certain abandoned areas in American cities. Regrettably, we have the unfortunate circumstance that many buildings suitable for archives are located in areas where residents are disrespectful of cultural institutions and sometimes hostile to the people who use and work in these buildings. Nonetheless, there has been a great deal of readaptation of buildings, particularly for library purposes, small city and town libraries mostly. There have been some archival buildings readapted from printing plants, train stations, other structures of the sort. The federal government through the Department of Interior may provide grants up to fifty percent of the cost of renovation. So this makes it more feasible economically for institutions and organizations to readapt the buildings. Sorry to say, many of our abandoned buildings are nowhere near as substantial as the Spanish and Italian structures described earlier by Ms Usón and Dr Carassi. A building that stands abandoned for any period presents increasing difficulties in trying to bring it up to archival standard in terms of environmental control. But there are renovation projects going on and there will be more in time, because the cost of borrowing money and the cost of construction in the
