Docomomo US Highlights Marble Garden Restoration with National Award

Jury Gives "Citation for Art Preservation" to Herbert Bayer Sculpture

Contact: Lissa Ballinger
Aspen Institute
[email protected]

Aspen, CO, September 17, 2024 - The Aspen Institute and Design Workshop, Inc., are proud to announce that the iconic sculpture, Marble Garden, designed by Herbert Bayer on the campus of the Aspen Institute has received an award for its restoration from the Modernism in America Awards Jury and Docomomo US. In bestowing the award, the jury noted that the unique nature of this land-art project warranted a special category. As such, it will be given a "Citation for Art Preservation" at an awards ceremony in Los Angeles, to be held in November at the Design Within Reach Showroom in West Hollywood.

The modernist landscape art of Herbert Bayer is the nucleus of the Aspen Institute's 40-acre campus, inspiring visitors, participants, and the community with its artistic, intellectual, and enlightened ideals. Bayer's design for the campus and its amenities is considered a true manifestation of the Bauhaus philosophy, uniting all artistic disciplines to create a total work of art. Conceived in 1949, during a post-war era in which participants of the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies contemplated a future that engaged broad categories of art, industry, and emerging social ideas, and where mind, body, and spirit met the intellectual, physical, and cultural challenges of the day.

Bayer's masterpiece, produced from discarded marble pieces, is a boldly geometric and planar organization of layers of grass, marble, and water. The sculpture is widely noted for its landmark qualities, but like many extraordinary works of landscape architecture, immediate restoration was necessary to preserve the work, remediate safety concerns, and ensure its longevity. The narrow and heavy stone blocks, some which weigh more than 5000 pounds, were tilting precariously on a foundation that was sinking into the ground.

The Marble Garden's meadow setting was unique for its time. Additionally, the sculpture's origins and the designer's intent are clear from archival research, review of Bayer's drawings, writings and interviews. However, because there were no documented construction methods, it was not clear how the sculpture was constructed. In order to properly undertake reconstruction of the Marble Garden, a new design had to be created from eyewitness accounts, testing, sampling, and observation. Construction details required a forensic design approach to determine how best to achieve restoration. With the help of art curators and historic archives, a thorough research effort incorporated detailed measurements and surveys of each marble piece, including changes that occurred over time.

Please consider interviewing Lissa Ballingerwith the Aspen Institute and Richard Shaw, principal at Design Workshop in Aspen who led the restoration of the Marble Garden. They can discuss the process for this beloved project restoration, which has been an iconic centerpiece of the Aspen Meadows campus since 1955.

The team was tasked with preserving and restoring this sculpture based on historic research, a survey, archival materials, and information gleaned during the careful deconstruction process. The stones were cleaned and returned to their original luster and foundations were stabilized. The crumbling concrete slab was meticulously replaced with matching aggregate, and corrosion and water management issues were addressed.

This effort was an exercise in synthesizing artistic intent, material selection, and construction methods in the context of the Modernist Movement and its connection to Aspen. Jury member and landscape historian Steven Keylon commented, "The research, preparation and detail that went into this is exceptional. I wish we saw quality restorations of significant cultural landscapes such as this more often."

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