The Onera Foundation, a nonprofit devoted to the preservation of historic American architecture, has opened a physical location in New Canaan, Connecticut. The foundation—which for years has supported education through the Onera Prize, awarded to students in Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation—now organises exhibitions and public programmes that explore sites of cultural significance and advocate for their preservation. For its inaugural programme, Onera is focusing on spaces of diplomacy with a show of sculptures and prints by the Spanish American artist Jorge Otero-Pailos, inspired by the preservation of the Eero Saarinen-designed US Embassy in Oslo.
In deciding to launch a physical location, David B. Peterson, the founder and president of Onera, credits a background in business and finance—areas where he says he learned to balance opportunity with risk. “I spent time evaluating where the field of historic preservation was in this country, and I concluded that there was limited focus on the importance of significant and historic architecture,” Peterson tells The Art Newspaper. “I also realised that there were virtually no foundations dedicated to the area with space for exhibitions.”
Peterson first came across the landmarked 1836 Greek Revival building that is now home to the foundation several years ago, while driving through New Canaan. “I looked at my friend in the passenger seat of the car, and I said: ‘That’s going to be the Onera Foundation building,’” he remembers. “A few months later, it came true.”
The Onera Foundation, New Canaan, Connecticut Photo: Simon Cherry
Onera acquired the house in 2018 and recently restored and updated the space to accommodate events and exhibitions. To kick off programming in its new space, the foundation is underscoring the importance of diplomacy with Treaties on De-Fences (until 28 March 2026), an exhibition by Otero-Pailos, who is known for his creative approach to preservation—including installations in which he creates casts of monuments and historic buildings, removing dust and debris from their surfaces and encapsulating the resulting pollution in latex. Treaties on De-Fences focuses on Otero-Pailos’s work on the preservation of the old US Embassy in Oslo—a building designed by Saarinen in 1959 and decommissioned in 2017.
“Wearing my architect’s hat, I could only save the parts of the building that the Norwegian government had legally determined to be historically significant,” Otero-Pailos says. “This legalistic view of what’s important was rather narrow and focused primarily on preserving the elements that Eero Saarinen had designed. I realised lots of important objects and stories were falling through that sieve and being lost.”
Among the elements not deemed of historic significance was the steel fence outside the embassy, which Otero-Pailos preserved by turning it into twisted, abstract sculptures. A selection of the sculptures is included in Treaties on De-Fences, alongside prints by the artist drawing inspiration from treaties signed at the embassy.
“Spaces of diplomacy are spaces of interaction,” Otero-Pailos says of the work. “Saarinen brought visitors into the heart of the US Embassy in Oslo and wanted to keep the outside of the building inviting. My sculptures reclaim the openness of Saarinen’s design. By turning the embassy’s outer fence into new sculptures, I both preserved it and gave it a new life as artworks that can travel and bring the histories of US embassies to people.”
Installation view of Treaties on De-Fences Photo: Simon Cherry
Mid-century diplomacy
Like Otero-Pailos, Peterson has long appreciated mid-century diplomatic buildings. He even wrote a book about them in 2022—US Embassies of the Cold War: The Architecture of Democracy, Diplomacy and Defense. Otero-Pailos and Peterson’s “longstanding collaboration on this topic made it clear, as the foundation’s plans began to take shape, that a multi-year exhibition cycle on mid-century diplomatic architecture should begin with Jorge’s work”, says Laurence Lafforgue, Onera’s recently appointed executive director. “We are also developing future projects with artists who have explored this subject, including Terence Gower,” a Canadian artist based in New York.
The opening of the foundation’s new home coincides with October4design, a local initiative organised by the New Canaan Museum and Historical Society. Taking place over the course of the month in partnership with organisations like the cultural centre Grace Farms, the event celebrates the town’s art and design community. Home to more than 100 mid-century Modern residences by renowned architects like Marcel Breuer, John Johansen, Eliot Noyes and Philip Johnson—including Johnson’s famous Glass House—New Canaan’s rich architectural legacy offers October4Design’s visitors the opportunity to explore some of the remaining historic gems in the community.
Showing Breuer and Johansen’s work outside of New Canaan, Onera’s inaugural programming also includes an exhibition exploring the architects’ designs for US embassies: Breuer’s Brutalist construction in the Hague (completed in 1959) and Johansen’s oft-debated cylindrical design in Dublin (completed in 1964).
Philip Johnson’s Glass House, New Canaan, Connecticut Photo: Edelteil, via Wikimedia Commons
The expansion of Onera’s mission and launch of its physical space come at a time when the Trump administration’s erasure of history and threats to cultural heritage are increasingly putting such work at risk. In a recent executive order titled “Making Federal Architecture Beautiful Again”, President Donald Trump specifically called out Modernist and Brutalist architecture as “unpopular” and “unappealing”.
“Moments of uncertainty or shifting policy underscore why independent organisations like Onera are so important,” Lafforgue says. “They can sustain the conversation, generate awareness and build coalitions that transcend political cycles. The foundation’s work is not about reacting to one administration or another, but about ensuring that important architectural sites are recognised as part of our national heritage.”
Onera hopes that supporting creative forms of preservation will encourage the public to see architecture and heritage—and the international relations they represent—as assets worth saving for future generations. While shifts in policy are inevitable with changing political administrations, the draconian approach of the current federal government makes organisations like Onera all the more urgent. Moreover, its message of diplomacy is one to be commended.
“To be honest, it’s a bit challenging to know day to day where the current administration is headed,” Peterson says. “However, based on actions so far, it seems pretty clear that areas like international cultural diplomacy are not a priority. That said, the US is a relatively young country and public support for preservation is not at the level it is in many countries in Europe, for example. It’s one of the reasons I started the Onera Foundation, because I believe this country can benefit from advocacy and education for America’s significant and historic architecture.”
- The Onera Foundation, New Canaan, opens on 1 October
