Aalto Library Wins Modern Preservation Prize

The biennial award will be given to the Finnish Committee for the Restoration of Viipuri Library (with the Central City Alvar Aalto Library, Vyborg, and the Russian Federation) in an event at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City on 1 December 2014. The prizewinner bested about 30 other nominated works from over 15 countries, including Brazil, Cuba, Germany, Ireland, South Africa, and the United States.

Aalto's design for the library was realized in 1935, when Viipuri was part of Finland. In 1945 Viipuri became Vyborg, part of the USSR's expanded territory, a situation that resulted in threats of "abandonment, inappropriate renovations, and unclear stewardship," per the WMF. The organization described that the "fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 presented the opportunity to restore the library," subsequently carried out by the Finnish Committee for the Restoration of Viipuri Library, established in 1992, and the Central City Alvar Aalto Library, Vyborg. Restoration work conducted by this Finnish-Russian collaboration concluded in 2013.

The before-and-after photographs illustrate the main components of Aalto's 20th-century icon – the 58 skylights over the reading room, the glass-enclosed stair, the undulating wood ceiling in the lecture hall – but also the degrees of damage and deterioration to the interior and exterior of the building. The restoration, partly carried out through a $300,000 WMF grant, will help keep the municipal library functional for another 70 years.