Straus Center for Conservation

This slideshow is part of: Samuel Anderson

The Straus Center for Conservation was SAA’s very first conservation laboratory, completed in 1996. As we started the process of designing a facility about which we knew very little, we visited many other labs and discovered the pitfalls of failing to address the technical challenges of dynamic solvent exhausts, x-radiation shielding, and numerous other esoteric essentials. We studied how to address these issues, but we also aspired to fulfill the wish of James Cuno, director of the Harvard Art Museums, to reassert the department's premier leadership in conservation, research, and training by designing a beautiful light-filled space that inspires creativity and collaboration. Upon completion, Straus Center director Henry Lie reported, "The staff is ecstatic."

Photographer: Paul Warchol

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.