Seismic retrofitting for historic buildings in Peru

Getty Conservation Institute signs three-year agreement with Peru's
Ministry of Culture to implement seismic retrofitting for historic
buildings

The Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) announced today a three-year
collaborative agreement with Peru's Ministry of Culture (Ministerio
de Cultura del Peru) to develop, disseminate, and implement seismic
retrofitting techniques for historic earthen buildings in Peru as
part of the GCI's Seismic Retrofitting Project (SRP).  The agreement
extends an existing partnership that has yielded significant
findings and recommendations to protect some of Peru's most
important historic structures from further damage from earthquakes.
The agreement will be signed in a ceremony on September 22, 2015 at
the Cathedral of Ica, the first site that benefits from the SRP and
for which the GCI has developed construction drawings for its
seismic retrofitting in collaboration with the Archdiocese of Ica.

Since 2011, the GCI and the Ministry of Culture, in collaboration
with the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru and the University
of Minho in Portugal, have been designing, testing and modeling
retrofitting systems for four prototype building sites, including
the Cathedral of Ica; the Hotel El Comercio, a 19th-century building
in the historic center of Lima constructed with adobe walls in the
first floor and quincha walls in the upper ones; the Church of Kuno
Tambo, a 17th-century colonial church in the Andes Mountains; and
Casa Arones, a 17th-century house located in the historic center of
Cusco, both of them constructed with adobe walls and wooden truss
roofs.  The buildings are also representative of earthen buildings
throughout the region.

The SRP team decided to develop construction documents and oversee
the seismic reinforcement of two of the four prototype sites.  The
.construction documents for the seismic retrofitting of Ica
Cathedral will be delivered to Peruvian authorities during the
ceremony of the signature of the agreement between the GCI and the
Ministry of Culture.  The construction documents for the Church of
Kuno Tambo also include a condition assessment and stabilization of
the Church wall paintings, which will be protected during structural
repairs and conserved in situ rather than removing them from the
site.

"Our collaboration with the Getty Conservation Institute for the
safeguarding of Peru's heritage is very valuable," says Diana
Alvarez Calderon-Gallo, Peru's Minister of Culture.  "The GCI brings
international expertise to the challenge of retrofitting our
historic buildings in a way that conserves what is important about
them but improves life safety and helps to build support for
implementing these techniques in Peru and other countries in Latin
America."

The GCI's Seismic Retrofitting Project (part of the GCI's Earthen
Architecture Initiative) combines traditional construction
techniques and materials with high-tech methodologies to design
easy-to-implement seismic retrofitting techniques.  Keeping cultural
heritage in mind, the project seeks to improve the structural
performance and safety of earthen buildings while minimizing the
loss of historic fabric.

"These types of earthen buildings have managed to survive in a
region that is plagued by earthquakes, but intervention is needed to
ensure that additional damage is mitigated," says Susan Macdonald,
head of field projects at the Getty Conservation Institute.  "The
GCI is dedicated to bringing low-cost, manageable conservation
solutions to the region, and we are looking forward to our continued
collaboration with the Ministry."

The GCI and Ministry staff, technical personnel, and consultants, in
collaboration with the other SRP partners, will continue to work
together on the last three components of the project: logistical
support for the implementation of the retrofitting and maintenance
programs using model conservation projects; the development of
capacity building and training strategy so that maintenance will
continue after the project is completed; and the development and
distribution of implementation guidelines and manuals for the
professional conservation community and site managers in the region.

The GCI Council and the Friends of Heritage Preservation are
financial supporters of the Seismic Retrofitting Project.

The first phase of this renewed collaboration begins September 2015,
and continues through June 2018.

Media Contact:
    Julie Jaskol

    Assistant Director, Media Relations
    Office: 310-440-7607
    Mobile: 310-975-9493


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 29:19
                Distributed: Sunday, September 27, 2015
                       Message Id: cdl-29-19-001
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