The Alvar Aalto Foundation, Consulate General of Finland in New York, Finnish Cultural Institute in New York and managing firm Office of Tangible Space have shared a press release announcing the removal of the Kaufmann Conference Center, one of Finnish architect Alvar Aalto’s five realized works in the US and the only remaining in New York City. The organizations’ plans are to showcase the interior in a nationwide exhibition consisting of reconstructed pieces of the rooms. The announcement about the fate of the site, one of New York City’s great Modern interior spaces, is disappointing.

Commissioned by Edgar Kaufmann Jr. in 1962, the conference center was completed in 1964 within the Institute of International Education (IIE)’s headquarters building, designed by Max Abramovitz of Harrison & Abramovitz. Its design featured Aalto’s signature wood interior framing, custom designed bronze light fixtures, and the famed elevator lobby clad in curved dark blue Finnish tiles.

The recent removal of the Kaufmann Conference Center from the original site, for which it was designed by Aalto, one of the world’s foremost Modern architects, with his wife Aino Aalto, is an enormous and tragic loss. DOCOMOMO US/New York Tri-State has long recognized the significance of this unique suite of rooms and advocated for its protection. The building was presented for potential interior designation at LPC hearings in 2001 and again in 2015, but was denied.

After announcement of the removal, John Arbuckle, President, DOCOMOMO US/New York Tri-State stated:“The chapter has repeatedly testified at the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, urging the LPC to designate it as an Interior Landmark, most recently in November of 2015. In retrospect, it now seems all the more unfortunate that the LPC decided not to designate based upon the questionable argument that the spaces were not “customarily open or accessible to the public”, which is a prerequisite for interior landmarks. One notable instance in which the spaces were accessible to the public was a well-attended benefit that our chapter organized there, our first Modern Affair, in May of 2014. Had the LPC been bolder and willing to face potential litigation, the rooms might have been preserved in situ.”

The Consulate General of Finland in New York led negotiations with the State of Qatar, the current owners, to determine how to preserve the building’s significant interiors, and the decision, with the Alvar Aalto Foundation, was to donate the interior to Finland, dismantle the 4,500 square foot interior and move the parts as part of a traveling exhibition. Currently, there has been no information shared as to what institutions, museums, or galleries will be hosting Aalto’s Kaufmann interiors. Arbuckle continues, “We are grateful that the Alvar Aalto Foundation and the Consulate General of Finland have painstakingly removed and preserved the furnishings, fixtures and woodwork of the Kaufmann Conference Center. It is a vastly better outcome than the interior fabric winding up in a dumpster or being auctioned off to the highest bidder. However, while some have framed this as a victory for preservation, we are not celebrating.”

Read the full press release via this PDF.

Alvar Aalto’s Kaufmann Conference Center will be preserved in pieces and recreated for future exhibition,” The Architect’s Newspaper, July 19, 2024.