AIC's 52nd Annual Meeting

Since its abandonment in 1775, the mission Los Santos Ángeles de Guevavi has undergone severe erosion and loss. Although its incorporation into Tumacácori National Historical Park in 1990 has guaranteed protection, the site’s preservation still challenges the park as to the best methods for its interpretation and display.

Current conservation measures employ the application of a sacrificial mud shelter coat, a technique commonly employed at the park and at other exposed NPS adobe ruin sites. These protective shelter coats, however, have rendered the eighteenth-century adobe church and associated mission structures difficult for the visiting public to understand and appreciate.

This research examines the use of repeat photography and virtual reconstruction of Guevavi Mission to visualize and quantify deterioration of the church while also improving visitor understanding of the site. Repeat photography processed through JuxtaposeJS provides an interactive mode of viewing changes over time, while 3D modeling creates a digital reconstruction of the complex during its occupation. Both methods taken together also provide a a semi-quantitative means of documenting material loss of the Guevavi Mission church over time and monitoring loss and the efficacy of current and future preservation methods.