12TH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON THE DETERIORATION AND CONSERVATION OF STONE

Monday 22 October through Friday 26 October
Roone Arledge Auditorium in Alfred Lerner Hall
Columbia University
New York, New York

Stone has been used by humankind from the earliest times to fashion tools, functional implements, and ultimately some of the world’s finest sculptures, monuments, and buildings. The earth has provided stones of great variety in both their aesthetic and physical properties. This variety also leads to a range of susceptibilities to deterioration by common actions such as freezing water, wetting-drying, salt crystallization, biological growth, acid rain, and dry deposition. Our responsibility as custodians of this cultural heritage in stone is to understand the nature of its deterioration on all scales and to provide ethical and functional materials and methods for its conservation. Building on past efforts to meet this responsibility, Professor V. Romanovsky established the first International Congress on the Deterioration and Conservation of Stone in 1972. This and subsequent congresses created a community to address stone conservation that today includes up to 400 participants.

Columbia University was pleased to host the 12th International Congress on the Deterioration and Conservation of Stone, 22-26 October 2012. From around the globe, leading scholars from the fields of geology, physics, materials science, engineering, chemistry, biology, architecture, and conservation provided oral and poster presentations on a wide range of subjects focusing on documentation, forms and mechanics of deterioration, and materials and methods of conservation. The Congress was co-sponsored by the Historic Preservation Education Foundation and the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Historic Resources Committee. See link to the program below.

Scientific Committee

Vasco Fassina, President, Véronique Vergès-Belmin, Secretary, Christine Bläuer Böhm, Philippe Bromblet, Hilde De Clercq, Eric Doehne, Miloš Drdácký, Fernando Henriques, Daniel Kwiatkowski, Jadwiga Lukaszewicz, Antonia Moropoulou, Stefan Simon, Akos Torok, Johannes Weber, George Wheeler, David Young

Schedule

Presentations took place Monday-Thursday, 22-25 October, at Alfred Lerner Hall in Roone Arledge Auditorium, Columbia University. Friday 26 October was reserved for the Tours and Field Trips (see link below).

Participants were eligible for up to 24 Learning Units meeting the requirements of the AIA Continuing Education System.

Program

Tour Information

Student Scholarships

The Conference would like to thank the following sponsors and donors:

The Netherland-America Foundation
Cathedral Stone Products
Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc.
ProSoCo
Nicholson and Galloway, Inc.
Jablonski Building Conservation
Walter Melvin Architects
A. Ottavino Corporation
David Wessel
George Wheeler
Conservation Solutions, Inc.
Old Structures Engineering, PC
Christina Wallace
Integrated Conservation Resources
Building Conservation Associates, Inc.
LimeWorks.us