Environmental and Collections Management

The thin, uninsulated building envelope with its wide expanses of glass creates conservation challenges to the Eames House’s interior finishes and to the remarkable collection of furnishings and objects assembled by the Eameses.

During Charles and Ray’s lifetimes, they maintained comfort inside their house by opening and closing draperies to keep out the sun, by opening windows and sliding doors to cool the house when it got too warm, and by operating their simple residential heating system when it got cold. Now that the house is operated as a house museum and uses the contents of the house (now considered a collection) to tell the interpretive story of its previous owners, special care is required to create an interior environment that protects the collection. To mitigate risks to the contents of the house, the Eames House Conservation Project undertook a thorough environmental analysis and a condition assessment of the collection and made recommendations for improvements that will create a sustainable and appropriate interior environment.

From 2012 through 2015, the Conservation Institute conducted interior and exterior environmental monitoring at the Eames House to develop an understanding of the environmental and physical conditions affecting the site, the house, and its contents. Environmental monitoring activities included installation of an on-site weather station tower, temperature monitoring, relative humidity monitoring, measurement of light and ultraviolet exposure, and an airborne particulate monitor.

In 2016, an environmental consultant was engaged to analyze the data gathered through the monitoring period. This led to a workshop with the Eames Foundation and Conservation Institute staff and its consultant to discuss findings, understand operational and visitor management activities, set environment management objectives, and understand and collaboratively evaluate potential mechanical and non-mechanical environmental improvement strategies. This thorough process led to a clear, well-defined set of environmental improvement recommendations that were presented to the Eames Foundation.

In tandem with the environmental monitoring, team members from the Conservation Institute’s Managing Collection Environments Initiative focused their attention on the condition of furnishings and objects within the house. These efforts together informed a set of recommendations for environmental improvements, which included the design of a minimally intrusive, conservation-focused climate control strategy to create an appropriate environment for the interior collection. Also recommended was removal or reduction of agents of deterioration—including excessive sunlight and ultraviolet radiation, temperature stratification within the house, dust, and pests.

The residence is filled with an eclectic collection of furnishings and objects including textiles, books, folk objects, and artworks collected or created by Charles and Ray Eames, along with artifacts brought by the Eames family and various replicas and replacements of original items that can no longer be displayed.

From November 2016 through January 2017, Managing Collection Environments Initiative team members conducted a condition assessment of the residence’s contents. This work built on previous efforts, such as a collection assessment survey conducted by the Eames Foundation’s consultant in 2011 that looked at the state of conservation and agents of deterioration contributing to it, as well as the project’s interior and exterior environmental monitoring, which provided an understanding of how the environmental and physical conditions were affecting the site, the house, and its contents.

The condition assessment was linked to a simple risk assessment of the residence’s contents. Rather than an individualized analysis, the objects were assessed in groups per location. By assessing the susceptibility of the objects to agents of deterioration, recording any visible damage, and deducting the causes of damage perceived, a clearer understanding of the mechanisms of change was achieved. This approach helped identify the risks at play in this specific site—a risk is defined as a particular scenario for an agent or agents of deterioration to affect the collection.

After identifying the magnitude of the risk, mitigation strategies were designed; these also informed the conservation management plan. This approach allowed for balancing the needs of the collection, building, site, staff, and visitors with available resources now and for the foreseeable future.