The Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla are teaming up to develop careful approaches to help conserve one of Louis Kahn’s most iconic buildings -- the Salk Biological Institute campus plaza. Commissioned by Dr. Jonas Salk, inventor of the Polio vaccine, in 1959, the Salk Institute was completed in 1965 and remains one of the most celebrated pieces of modern architecture.

Constructed mainly of concrete and wood, the structure’s close proximity to the Pacific Ocean poses unique conservation challenges -- particularly for its unique teak “window walls,” one of the building’s defining architectural elements.