Treaties on De-Fences
October 1, 2025–March 28, 2026
New Canaan CT 06840
USA
The Onera Foundation, dedicated to the preservation of historic American architecture, will open to the public on October 1, 2025, with the inaugural exhibition Treaties on De-Fences by artist and preservation architect Jorge Otero-Pailos. Located at 63 Park Street in New Canaan, the Foundation will present annual art exhibitions, lectures, and panel discussions that explore creative approaches to preservation.
Founded in 2018 by David B. Peterson, author of US Embassies of the Cold War: The Architecture of Democracy, Diplomacy and Defense, and now supported by Executive Director Laurence Lafforgue, the Onera Foundation believes that historic American architecture is a vital part of the nation’s culture, worth protecting in the same way we do for other national treasures.
The Foundation’s new home—steps from the New Canaan train station and listed on the National Register of Historic Places—will open during October4Design, New Canaan’s annual festival of art, architecture, and design. To inaugurate the building, Onera will present Treaties on De-Fences, a major art exhibition by Otero-Pailos exploring Saarinen’s US Embassy in Oslo, along with an architecture exhibition exploring the Cold War embassies designed by New Canaan architects.
Peterson’s book documents the State Department’s Cold War embassy program, which commissioned architects such as Eero Saarinen, Marcel Breuer, and Walter Gropius. Many of these embassies have since been decommissioned and sold. Building on this research, the Onera Foundation’s first phase of programming focuses on raising awareness of midcentury America’s diplomatic architecture and its overlooked significance through the presentation of exhibitions by artists who have critically engaged with the cultural significance of these modernist buildings.
Inaugural exhibitions
On view from October 1, 2025 through March 28, 2026, Treaties on De-Fences presents Otero-Pailos’s artistic intervention on the steel fence that once surrounded Saarinen’s US Embassy in Oslo. When the embassy was decommissioned in 2017, Otero-Pailos salvaged the fence by turning it into sculptures. The exhibition also includes an artist book of prints inspired by treaties signed at the Oslo Embassy.
As Otero-Pailos states: “My work seeks to dissolve the boundaries between art and preservation, showing how we can care for architecture by transforming it. I hope this exhibition invites audiences to see preservation not as an end, but as a creative beginning.”
A second exhibition will highlight New Canaan architects Marcel Breuer and John Johansen, both members of the Harvard Five. Their embassy projects in The Hague and Dublin are examined in relation to the domestic designs they first developed in New Canaan, tracing how residential experimentation shaped a new architectural language for diplomacy.
Public programs
As part of its launch, the Foundation will host two free events: Eero Saarinen’s Legacy Abroad (October 15, with Eeva Liisa Pelkonen, Jorge Otero-Pailos, and David Peterson) and The Harvard Five Legacy: From Modern Homes to Diplomatic Landmarks (October 21, organized with The Glass House, moderated by Kirsten Reoch, with Barry Bergdoll, Devon Chivvis, Jorge Otero-Pailos, and David Peterson). These events are free with advance registration on a first-come, first-served basis.
63 Park Street
The Foundation’s building, originally constructed in 1836, was once home to editor Maxwell Perkins and later restored by landscape architect Richard Bergmann. Now ADA-compliant and purposefully renovated, it offers 1,400 square feet of exhibition space across two floors.
Visiting
Onera Foundation opens to the public starting October 1, 2025. Admission is free but requires advance registration. Located an hour from New York City, it is easily accessible by Metro-North Railroad.
About the Onera Foundation
The Onera Foundation supports architecture preservation through exhibitions, innovative programming, and education, including the Onera Prize at Columbia University.
About the artist
Jorge Otero-Pailos (b. 1971, Madrid) is a Spanish-American artist and preservation architect. He is Professor and Director of Historic Preservation at Columbia GSAPP, where he founded the first PhD program in Historic Preservation in the US. His works have been exhibited at the Venice Biennale, Chicago Architecture Biennale, SFMoMA, the V&A Museum, and Artangel’s commission at the UK Parliament, amongst others.
