Preservation of a 118-year-old stained glass inverted dome in Downtown Oakland
You’re invited to join CSI East Bay-Oakland Chapter for an online presentation: “Resurrecting the Past: preservation of a 118-year-old stained glass inverted dome in Downtown Oakland” with Ariana Makau of Nzilani Glass Conservation.
In early 2019, Nzilani Glass Conservation was contacted by Resurrection Church at 17th and Franklin in Oakland. Their 118-year-old, inverted stained-glass dome was in critical condition. Time and previous improper repairs had made the ten-foot diameter structure unsafe, requiring immediate conservation to save it. We invite you to join us for a presentation by Ariana Makau, founder of Nzilani, to learn how she and her team saved this precious Oakland resource and won a 2020 California Preservation Design Award. We will also learn about Nzilani as a business and some principles of stained glass conservation.
Photo Credit: Jason Nocito
Photo Credit: Nzilani
Ariana Makau holds a Masters in stained glass conservation from the Royal College of Art in London, and is the president and principal conservator of Bay Area-based Nzilani Glass Conservation.
Makau is also the Health and Safety Chair on the Board of the Stained Glass Association of America (SGAA), a Fellow of the American Institute for Conservation (AIC) and has been a conservator for over 25 years, having worked for numerous museums in the States and abroad including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, numerous Bay Area museums including: SFMoMA, the De Young, the Legion of Honor, BAMFA and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.
Nzilani is a highly specialized architectural glass preservation, design and fabrication company dedicated to making the profession more equitable by being accessible to under-served communities. What started as a small, one-woman studio has expanded to include a full-time core crew of glaziers, artists, project managers and interns.
Nzilani core values, “Be Safe. Have Fun. Do Excellent Work.” guide every project, including windows and domes for: private homes, churches, museums and monumental historic buildings. Nzilani focuses on self-empowerment through information: sharing processes, health and safety procedures (particularly lead awareness) and the importance of preserving cultural landscapes and the environment.
Capable of completing a project “in-house” from start to finish, they also enjoy collaborating with other folks in the trade (GCs, architects, masons, carpenters and metalworkers, etc.).
Connect with Ariana on LinkedIn and follow Nzilani Glass Conservation on Facebook.
Please click the button below to register – the event video link will be sent to your email address. Attendance is open and encouraged to anyone interested, online space permitting.
