Transcripts For CSPAN2 Ken 20240704

The presidency, h. W. Brands looked at gerald ford in the context of the 19700s when he served as House Minority leader, Vice President and then president. Exploring the american story, watch with American History tv the saturdays on cspan2. And find a full schedule on your Program Guide or watch online anytime a cspan. Org history. Us tonight is mike buehler. He will introduce our speakers momentarily. Mike is president and ceo of Fort Mason Center for arts and and culture and a longtime Historic Preservationist. Prior to joining fort mason, he led stress historic nonprofit ss heritage. The he has worked at the los angeles conservancy and regional attorney for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. We asked mike to moderate tonights program because of his preservation work in both los angeles, the subject of tonights talk, and here in San Francisco. Thank you for being with us, mike. Welcome, and im goingin to hand the mic over to you. Thank you so much, francis. Its such a pleasure to be here tonight with my two longtime friends and colleagues, Ken Bernstein and Stephen Schafer, to talk about their stunning new book, preserving los angeles how historicvi places can transform americas cities. Published by angel city press. Dare i say it, this book is a monumental achievement and a major contribution to the preservation field. Ken has devoted much of his career to preserving and enhancing the unique architecture and Cultural Heritage of los angeles. When i joined l. A. Conservancy in 2006, i had big shoes to fill. Ken had just left his role as director of preservation issues for his current position with the city. And there in the citys planning department, ken w heads the offe of Historic Resources and urban design studio. Among his many responsibilities there there, ken led the completion of the Ground Breaking sprawling survey l. A. Project. Survey l. A. Competently documented Historic Resources across the citys 500 square miles reflecting not only the diversity of the citys architecture, but also its cultural communities. Anyone who knows los angeles can appreciate thehe size and scalef this massive undertaking. Stephen schafer described himself as a photographer with a preservation distraction. Sc in his three decades behind the lens of a camera, he has become a specialist in the photography of both new and historic architecture. He caught the preservation bug, as it were, after a seemingly endless series of renovations to his 1881 victorian farmhouse. Hes been drawn to vintage buildings great and small and finds himself crisscrossing america documenting senate places for the National Register of Historic Places and the Historic American Building survey collection at the library ofgs congress. With that, let me turn it over to ken and stephen to kick off our presentation. There we go. [laughter] okay. Great. Well, good evening, everyone. Its such a pleasure to be with all b of you and the Historical Society to be able to speak with an audience throughout the state of california tonight and share a little bit about preserving los angeles, our new book for angel city press. And i really wanted to begin by just talking a little bit about why we did the book, our motivation, what we were trying to do. I really decided to write this i think most of you who follow the history of california, history of los angeles know there are, of course, manyal books on los angeless and its history and its architecture. But i felt like the story of Historic Preservation in los angeles had not really been told in a comprehensive way. And thats really what i want to try to doy with preserving los angeles. And let me just quickly pull up the presentation, hope that we can get this going. There it goes. Okay. So preserving los angeles is meant to be the story of Historic Preservation in los angeles. I felt that while, again, there are many books on los angeles and its architecture, the power of preservation just trans to transform for communities had not really been toll. Id been frustrated in many cases that, you know, theres often been a claim that los angeles is a city that doesnt care about a its history, doesnt care about its historic architecture. I think all of you who are angelenos with us tonight know that,s certainly, thats you know, those are myths and that there are many angelenos who do care about the heritage. Often starting with this image of universal studios, because often los angeles is told as the story im having problems with me there we go. It has a mind of its own tonight. The story of some of the studios of los angeles and9 thatdi the Entertainment Industry is the entire sum total of the history of los angeles and, obviously, thats not the case. Often i think east coast reporters think they can kind of parachute into the city, and in a matter of days capture thes essence of what the essence of what l. A. Is all about. Ive been fortunate to be in professional roles, as mike mentioned, for the l. A. Conservancy and with the city of los angeles and have gotten a real birds eye view for how Historic Preservation has been making a difference in communities around the city. And i wanted to try to capture the much more interesting and nuanced los angeles, the more complex los angeles that ive come to know. And what i saw and have seen in los angeles is that Historic Preservation while its frequentlyti kind of mischaracterized as being about stopping change or preventing progress, preservation really has been a primary engine for positive change throughout los angeles. And it a has been a tool that has been revitalizing our downtown, our Historic Downtown such as seen here. It has been transforming neighborhoods, it is creating economic regeneration across our city and even helping to address our housing crisis in california and in los angeles and affordable housing. So i wanted to try to bring that l. A. A. Preservation story to a larger audience both for ang let have fully internalized all of the positive changes that are around them or may not have seen them, and then to those beyond l. A. Who may still have misperceptions of what l. A. Is all about. And i hope those of you joining us from the bay area tonight dont have those negative perceptions we sometimes hear from some of our friends in the bay area. I hope that as you start to take a closer look through this book and if you get to explore los angeles through the prism of Historic Preservation, you start to see the much more interesting, much different city than the clicheed version of los angeles. This is what i wanted to do with the book, and this was really kind of a side project for me. I call it my weekend project for the last two years that its [inaudible] and this has really beenwo a lar of love for me. And in that a spirit, i decided i wanted to donate my proceeds from the book to three National Organizations working for greater equity and inclusion in the Historic Preservation field, the africanamerican Cultural Heritage funnel, latinos and heritage and a apia, american Historic Preservation. And, of course, i knew i wanted it to be a visuallyrich book and was fortunate to find the perfect partner in Stephen Schafer who youll be hearing from a little later. Of and i think youll see in the photos ill be showing, there are over 300 fullcolor images that he took for the book. You know, his unique eye for architectural detail and really having a preservationists eye toward capturing images that convey the message i was trying to get across through the book, ii think that comes through as youll see the images ill be sharing tonight. So, again, starting with our Historic Downtown here and the eastern columbian building, our historic commercial and theater district on broadway, we are seeing throughout los angeles that developers and Property Owners alike are finding that preservation and adaptive reuse, converting Historic Buildings to new purposes, really adds economic value to their properties can and and their projects and that angelenos are speaking seeking out places like this, and theyre preferred places to live, work and play. And i try in the book to provide example if after example of how thats occurring throughout los angeles and to show how preservation has transformed los angeles and how other cities with Historic Resources and use preservation can use preservation as a tool to do much the same. I think that for many writers writing ate book the act of writing itself is sort of a journey of discovery, finding your message, finding your characters for a fiction writer. And for me, it wasnt really about that. I kind of knew the story i wanted to tell based on this birds eye view that ive had in los angeles. But for me it was really about kind of channeling the spirit of discovery thats really been part of my work all along and infusing that into the book. Ive been very fortunate to have exposure to remarkable Historic Places around the city that if many angelenos arent even aware of. I wanted to take the reader along with me and say, here, looked at this, this is, you know, this is the real los angeles. And one of those sites is garden of oz to. Oz. Ill never forget the first time i got to see this remarkable secret garden in the Hollywood Hills that was the creation of a former journalist who worked with 75 of her artist friends including beatrice woods who began to evolve this space adjacent to her own home into a peace garden. Here you have munchkin land with a tribute to the wizard of oz, other in the garden are tributes to peacemakers from the dalai lama to rose saw parks rosa parks. Itsm a remarkable site. She distributes keys to artists and to neighbors to be able to come in and experience the garden. Its not manager thats a tourist attraction, but she was very generous in allowing us to capture this and share it with a wide or audience. And, again, i wanted to share many remarkable, hidden gems with the reader. This is a book thats about this in part the practical lessons of what we have to share for other cities, how preservation can transform other cities, but also providing a sense of discovery and to, again, showcase a very different los angeles. So we start the story really with the power of historic designation, the local Landmarks Program that we have what we call historic cultural monuments which are our local landmarks, and we have over 1200 in the city, and the book showcases how many of these places have led the dramatic transformation that threatens Historic Places such as this, one of the few remaining examples of whats called programmatic architecture in which the form of the building really reflects its use. This is a bar in the knot Hollywood Community north Hollywood Community of los angeles, obviously in the form of a whiskey barrel that endures really in great part due to its historic cultural monument designation. It had been a bar for decades and then became a flamenco e dance theater, dinner theater in the 1970s and 80. And it close in the 80s, and the dancer who operated the theater became kind of like the old woman who lived in a shoe except she was the old woman who lived in a whiskey barrel. She grew old in an apartment upstairs from the bar, a former bar, with a small menagerie, animals around her. The building deteriorated and became threatened when she went into a rehabilitation facility and then passed away. And it was through historic designation that really helped protect thehe building and led o when the building came up for auction a preservationminded buyer taking over and rehabilitating the bar, spending about 2 million in preserving original features and reclaiming wood planks for the bar and sign. And and on the patio, actually relocating another example of programmatic architecture from the 1928 bulldog cafe that had sat on washington boulevard in los angeles and this replica of the programmatic building had been in the automotive museum. Bobby green and his partners in 1933 relocated the building. You have two examples of programmatic architecture in a single historical monument. L. A. Has also been a pioneer of preservation of significant cultural resources. We have, in fact, one of the earliest Historic Preservation is in the country which surprises a lot of people. We were actually ahead of other recalifornia cities including sn francisco and san diego in allowing for designation of local landmarks with our ordinance dating back to 1952. And weve always allowed for designation, places of social significance, we call them historiccultural monuments, and an example is the black cat bar in silver lake which i think many of you know about the stonewall rye riots of new york in 1969. People kind of cite that as the birth of the Gay Rights Movement nationally. But actually, the birth of of that movement in many ways began here at the black cat new year ss day, 1967, actually, new years eve into new years day when there was a police raid on the bar, a melee with patrons being beaten by police just for expressing their enthusiasm for the new year, love for one another as samesex couples. That led to protests at the site the following month that then led to a legal action that went all the way to the u. S. Supreme court as the pioneering action asserting equal protection right as part of the Gay Rights Movement. So los angeles is a gay rights pioneer but beginning to recognize places like in that may not have architectural significance but dedicated as a historical monounit about 13 years ago. In addition to our designation of individual landmarks, we also share if in preserving los angeles the story of how we preserve entire neighborhoods, the Historic District through designation of Historic Preservation of overlays which are the name for our local districts in l. A. We have 35 of these in los angeles today, about 21,000 properties included in these neighborhoods. And these designations have led to dramatic transformations in their communities. Id like to share a handful of them in the book, but i first wanted to speak a little bit to what makes l. A. s Historic District a bit knew week. Unique. They are neighborhoods of very noted socioeconomic and demographic diversity, for one. There was a study erred by place economics aired by place economics on behalf of the l. A. Conservancy that our in los angeles have a higher share of nonwhite population within those neighborhoods than the average share of the nonwhite population in the city as a whole in los angeles. So these are neighborhoods that are continuing to attract a very vibrant and diverse mix of residents reallyy from all incoe levels as well. An example of that is the Jefferson Park neighborhood shown here in south l. A. That is tremendously diverse, about 50 latino, 35 africanamerican, and the historic designation really has led to this neighborhood becoming even more kind of close knit and a true sense of community in this area, tremendous reinvestment in many of the homes as well. This photo shows how droughttolerant landscaping can also be inserted in the front lawn of a historic home and still be very patting with the historic character. Our districts also span architectural style, all time periods of the citys history including the balboa highlands Historic Preservation overlay zone. This is at the very end north end of our city in the San Fernando Valley in Granada Hills. Many l. A. Residents will know Joseph Eisler who developed, i think, about 10,000 homes in the bay area, but this is our only tract in the city of los angeles. He brought modernism to the masses. It was from 196264, its our youngest hpod. You can see droughttolerant landscaping and the cohesiveness of this modern neighborhood as as a Historic District. Our Historic Preservations generally also have shown that preservation and destiny are not mutually exclusive. This is a big top tick as many of you may know topic as many of you know statewide in california were grappling with our housing prices and builds that are looking at introducing additional nearng transit and many in lower density neighborhoods. But ii think one thing that that preservation positive study that i cited found is that our hpov ares are actually 50 denser in terms of residents per square mile than residential neighborhoods on average in the hes will have to in the rest of the city combined which really surprises a lot of people. Theyre denser than the citywide density in boston and chicago and washington d. C. This is not a highrise neighborhood in terms of density, but you can see here a Single Family home on the left, in the middle a triplexes in the revival style and on the far end or the right a prairie style Apartment Building. Is so different densities. You see this, this is in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood, one of our, i think, lower income neighborhoods. It has a lot of multifamily housing, so these are not Historic Districts only with singlefamily homes. And even our historic crickets show how districts show how density can be accommodated in this way. Od i also in the book wanted to make sure that with all these beautiful photos that make the book, you know, i think quite visually stunning that we tonight have the reader kind of get lost in that and lose sight of the fact that preservation isnt only about beauty, only about architecture, but also about people, the people who make Historic Preservation possible by, you know, new their passionn and commitment. You know, activists or administrators of Historic Preservation and people who ultimately give life to the places were talking about, the spaces that we talk about. It was important to me that we include those voices in the book new preservation profiles. On the left, michael diaz, i just showed the Lincoln Heights, he was really the driving force as a Lincoln Heights resident shown here with a couple of to his neighbors that to make that all possible in his community. Kristin on the right who was a ph. D. Student at ucriverside with who got act tiff with the little tokyo Historical Society and took on a hon unit nomination monument nomination in the boylele heighs community east ofun downtown l. , really telling the story of five japaneseamerican immigrants who a Health Care Facility for their own community in the 19 tos 1920s at time when asianamericans were being deny health care due to discrimination. De and so the book, you know, gives voice to some of these stories, allowsws some of these individus to tell their own story in their own words through the book. I do want to point out though that while i have a fairly optimistic, upbeat view of what weve been able to accomplish through Historic Preservation in loss angeles, i dont want to paint an entirely rosy picture. We have a lot of work to do and areas where weve fallen short in many ways. One of those really is in the area of equity, diversity and incollusion. I mentioned my inclusion. I mentioned my own donation through the book, we have fallen short in that area in los angeles and still a disproportionate share of our dedicated historical and cultural monuments in l. A. Reflects the legacies of communities of color. Its 3 for africanamerican heritage in the city and 6 for persons of color more generally, and we need to take a hard look at what why thats the case. We do have some newer designations in the last couple of years seeking to rectify some of r that imbalance. Of is the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church on South Broadway near the watts community, and it was designated for its significance of the location of the recording of Aretha Franklins Amazing Grace album which became the best selling gospel album of all a time in 1972. And there was a film, a remarkable film that sidney pollack directed that was only rereleased a couple of years ago, and is we have recently launched a los angeles africanamerican Historic Places program with the Getty Conservation Institute as our partner to continue to rectify some of these disparities, to advance additional nominations of africanamerican heritage the sites and really to look at all ofr our Historic Preservation programs and processes through an antiracist lens. We also wanted to share in the book some of the work and the progress that we have made in this area with respect to being more inclusive and equitable and historicus preservation. Weve done that through the creation of preservation frameworks d called Historic Context statements. Part of the work weve done on survey l. A. , the citywide survey that mike mentioned and well share more about in a moment. And these framework withs are really meant to tell the story more comprehensively in many of our Diverse Communities of the city and to tie important themes in that history to places that remain on the ground today. And i think these can be a great resource. I want to call attention to them particularly for the california Historical Society because this really, i think, gives greater life to often Untold Stories on Southern California and los angeles history. Such as, for example, this house which is the Hattie Mcdaniel resident in the sugar hill neighborhood of west adams. And we are very mindful of the legacy of Deed Restrictions that raciallyrestrictive covenants of that have shaped the urban planning history and really the economic history of our city. The africanAmerican History Historic Context statement that we did put that story front and center, tells many other stories about the civil rights movement, the history of the black church and many others. Whats notable is that Hattie Mcdaniel joined with other prominent residents who were beginning to move into this neighborhood, actress louise beavers, ethel waters and others, to challenge some of these racial covenants. That story the itself began in sugar hill, and and they hire an attorney, lauren miller, to defend the right to own property for africanamericans in this allwhite neighborhood, and that was a legal action that ultimately went all the way to the Supreme Court in the case of shelley v. Kramer, 1948, that ultimately ruled that raciallyrestrictive covenants, deeds restrictions, were unenforceable. This is a home in the sugar hill neighborhood that speaks to that very important history. The Latino Los Angeles Historic Context addresses many important themes including the influence of visual art and particularly the Muralist Movement that has really defined the visual landscape in los angeles. And an example of that is the great wall of los angeles. So i found many longtime angelen os are not aware of it. Its the social and mix will are center thats along the wall in the San Fernando Valley. It was completed from 19741984. Judy baca and her colleagues working with teams of youth every summer to do a set of annals that tell essentially an alternative social history are of california and los angeles. The office of Historic Resources built upon the work we did on the Historic Context to nominate this successfully in 2017 through the National Register of Historic Places, so its now listed nationally. We also asianamerican Historic Context supported by [inaudible] the unique histories of our chinese, korean, japanese, filipinoamerican communities. The japaneseamerican context, of course, tells the story of little tokyo as a primary japaneseamerican set element in the city but really looks for comprehensively at the of japaneseamericans throughout thee city including the communiy of saw tell where there were once 26 japaneseamerican nurseries that really reflected the legacy of early labor of japaneseamerican gardeners in the city in the years prior to thein internment [inaudible] theres really only a handful left that had been lifted up as important aspects of the jalapeno japaneseamerican legacy in the city. A Downtown Renaissance fueled bg the power of adaptive reuse converting older buildings to new purposes, and here again the Eastern Columbia Building on broadway whose conversion was made possible like many others through the adaptive reuse elements in los angeles which cleared away some of the prior zoning t impediments that had prevented older buildings from becoming housing. One of those is parking, each of these Historic Buildings would have had to have had basically two Parking Spaces perez den, unit which they dont per residential unit. Helped trigger a tremendous boom in housing downtown that really created a new residential base and revitalization. About 75 projects with 9,000 new Housing Units just in the first decade of the adaptive reuse ordinance being enacted and many other great examples we share in the book. Some of which speaks to the fact that los angeles has aso transitoriented Development Legacy historically such as this building, the civic Electric Building at 6th and main in downtown l. A. It wasci l. A. s first skyscraper built in 1905 and also speaks to the legacy of henry huntington, a figure well known throughout california ask california history. Henry huntington, of course, was responsible for the civic electric railway system, our red car and yellow car systems, all of which terminated at this building in downtown, the pacific electric depot. It was a hub for streetcar lines to the fan out around the city and really created many of our sprawling early suburbs in the city. And this buildings top floor if including the jonathan club, an elite private club for men in the city. Thelu adaptive reuse ordinance allowed this to be converted to housing by 2005, 314 new residential units. It was the largest project, i think, still under the adaptive reuse ordinance. And you can see the beauty and the authenticity of some of these spaces. The scwp than Clubs Library the jonathan Clubs Library, the rotunda, actually, was converted to a library for residents here on the eighth floor of the building. And many of you may know the pacific electric buffet which dates back to 190 8 in its own right, one of our most significant Legacy Restaurants in the city. But adaptive reuse is not limited just to downtown in los angeles, its also been taking hold throughout the city. And t not just for housing. It also has been benefiting businesses. So when google was looking to further expand from its bay area headquarters, have more of a flagship building in l. A. , it didnt look to highrise office buildings, it found the spruce goose hangar that had been historically associated with howd Hughes Howard hughes and the Aircraft Company where he assembled the famous herb lease h4 hercules. They collaborated on this stunning reuse of the building, really a building within a building, and tremendous spaces for work and Gathering Places for employees. And this is now probably the center of whats become known as l. A. s silicon beach which othe, other Tech Companies as part of this. Adaptive reuse has also created affordable housing, again, as a key aspect of addressing our housing crisis in the city. This is a wonderful example, the 28th street w ymca, designed by a prominent africanamerican architect who contributed so much to our city over many decades. This is actually an early work of paul r. Williams from 1926 and has served the Africanamerican Community in south las vegas a l. A. For many decades. By 2011, though, it had fall fallen into more disuse. Two nonprofits have collaborated to convert this to 24 units of hoe Income Housing in the Historic Building and a 5story complex in a very contemporary style, 25 units of additional low Income Housing behind it. And the project shows how even contemporary additions are possible. This was approved by our city Cultural Heritage commission and and our office even though it is a highly differentiated new addition. Its also showing here how you can kind of have layers that remain invisible with an dabtive project. The former Swimming Pool was mostlyoo filled in, but you can see on the right an outline of tile which a marked the outer edge of where the outline of the pool had been. Can and kind of makes this work potentially reversible in the future if it does go back to more of a recreation use. The rest of the original tile is intact underneath. Just to close before i turn it over, i wanted to introduce a little about survey l. A. Thats my collection. A large part of the work really captures the work of this citywide survey that was completed in 2017. It was the largest Historic Resources survey of any municipality in the country, the result of a lengthy partnership between the city and the j. Paul getty trust from the foundation and support from the Getty Conservation Institute. And i always start with this map because it kind of shows the daunting challenge that was before us, the outline of the 470 or so square miles in the city of lang los angeles with 8 of the largest cities in the nation sit in between. And survey teams which were professional Historic Preservation literally went down every street of the city to identify significant Historic Resources and that was anchored in a great deal of Field Research that had been done. Using Historic Context, Community Engagement for about 69 months before we were out in the field to capture the collective knowledgemo and crowd Source Information in every community about the places that matter to local residents, places that may not be as obvious architecturally. And all of that got preloaded into tablet es and pcs as you can see here with a set of drop down menus so this survey could be completed for the First Time Ever as an alldigital survey out in the field with photos linked to that. And if this informations now all available on our comprehensive inventory web site at Historic Places la. Org. The home screen is showing here with a toe foe photo from schaef. Answer and so that some e of the survey, also information for developers and Property Owners before they invest in projects. A big portion of the book focuses on the hidden gems of the city, the discoveries from this process of survey over more than a decade. The book provides the sampling of some of the most interesting signs of the survey period is important to me that includes side to every community, we have 35 areas all of them are represented so every community can find places that matter to them instead underscore the point that every neighborhood has remarkable history, remarkable architecture thats worth lifting up and celebrating appeared without i will turn it over to chase and let into little bit about the process of going through the city and documenting some of these places that were going to share. Shape. Thanks. Appreciate that. This was indeed a Pretty Amazing project, kind of a daunting project i didnt exactly know what is going to get myself into. But let me do a screen share here. We will get going. Okay. Does that look like its working . Im going to have to assume yes. W some of my behindthescenes photographs and some of the photographers not just a bunch of pretty pictures it was a pretty remarkable summer in many, many ways. An incredibly diverse set of subjects an incredibly diverse city. So that was Pretty Amazing to see. And now you all know what i did last summer with this book. I learned los angeles. And just to begin, while i was out there i let google maps track me so i can build this a map of all of my trips you can see with the way i live over in the left side in ventura which is about 60 miles west of l. A. That sort of gives you an idea many days of driving down to los angeles in exploring i think it pains me every five or ten minutes its not definitely accurate but it gives you the idea like how it follows the l. A. City limits. L. A. Has an odd city structure and goes down to the san pedro area to pick up a little bit of the port. It has some islands in lake beverly hills, santa monica, or would that are not burbank, not part of it. There are islands that you are missing and long stretches your connecting and sometimes youre looking across the street sing gosh that would be really amazing. But that is not in the city of l. A. And what is behind you is. My trips also mimic that surveyed like a comparison map to illustrate the sheer size of life. Shows the seven major cities jammed into the borders pretty really wish i would have remembered this map when ken gave me his first 65 page shot list. I did not remember or realize what is getting myself into. The photos in the book all came to be the same way. I added all of kens target from a 65 page shot list to my googles maps limit between sites like this when i tried to leap preplanned for the best shot like here but sometimes i was totally wrong when i drove up and i would have to make a second visit. Here is fleetwood center, the top shot is a good example of the difference or hours can make. The top image is 6 00 p. M. The facade is in full shade. I went back again, out a different day at 2 00 p. M. To get the rigging sunlight emblem and the gorilla of this cadillac shaped Shopping Center and some depth. Most cases that i was able to read one shot some days i had to go back. Some photos required excess planning logistics i was able to bring kate her fabulous intern on this outing to the hollywood sign. Its about 101 that day it was nice and dry on the top of the hill which is a very long hike. Many of you might know that if youve ever hiked to the top. Took the picture on the roof platform of my truck. If you look carefully throughout the book youll notice the rooftop angle on a lot of photos in the book but is not trying to copy google. I favorite photos in the book are still the hero shot in the evening and the cover shot use in the theater in downtown. Both both of those took hours to do they are sort of deceptive simply looking and not to systole representative of most of the photographs in the book i took. So for instance i got to the Orpheum Theater way back before covid would about 45 00 p. M. On the left side i set the frame thats the basic shot kids and parents were lining up for the busy junior Holiday Party all of that craziness subsided when the show started at 4 30 p. M. Is able to move the cones the light was about perfect when a postal truck stopped in the photo to do deliveries but luckily i was able to persuade him to move and talk him out of keeping his car there but otherwise the picture on the right will be the cover of todays book. Heres a behindthescenes selfie the cameras light. Jim the owner left the lights this was taken march 2020 where that happens to be significant as the day Los Angeles County sacred home order was given all nonessential work in l. A. Stopped. So stayed safe at home in ventura, planted tomatoes learn to bake muffins and i waited. After a month i realize most of my photos did not require into the action with real humans. So i got back on the road for a typical day was leaving Greg Schwietz amp photograph until 8 00 p. M. , drive back. Tried different drivethrough every day, usually got home around 10 00 p. M. Lather, rinse, repeat same thing. Because of covid would my days were remarkably efficient rate almost no one asked me what i was doing or dared to come near me. It was heaven. I was about 90 finished with the photography in september when traffic started to come back. Places had reinvented themselves this is colonial corners barrington and national boulevard at 7 00 p. M. I was working at home i walked up the street and set up the shot. Pretty remarkable, cannot do that today. And here is the Hotel Rosslyn in downtown l. A. At rush are. Here i literally parked in the middle of the street, climbed up the roof of the truck and set up the shot. Cars going by me do not try this at home i hadnt worn orange vest pretty much lets me do anything as long as they look like i know what im doing. Theres even a code check parking and that never happens. It is built ko jk if youve never heard of that i need to look it up. After months photos edited ready for publication cropped and uploaded highresolution first buying photographers my preserving l. A. Light room database on my computer is 19612 images in it for this one project. That edited down to just over 300 images in the book. About one and every five photos was used. I get it right a little under 2 of the times was probably a good thing im not a doctor. Moving along, here is the survey a late spread from brentwood. The back of the book which is the survey l. A. Section that ken alluded to is really a wonderful field guide. Serves as a tribute probably field surveyors who did serve l. A. Pay when i spent the summer dabbling down one road and down another looking for cans of cream of the croft 65 page shot list the surveyors walked every sidewalk and drugged out every single street. Sometimes they did not find anything for a day or a week and sometimes they found a lot. And so every survey sites in the book has a brief description i should go to the actual book. I found that was just part of the story. For instance, here is 647 south and westchester. It was a duplex and altered in 1977 but notable architect in a project cited as mosses first built work for the structure it represents streamlined architecture in a distinctive playful late modern designs emphasizing the buildings verticality. That is the basic overview or entry in the back of the book. And then i arrived at the site and got to see the amazing mailboxes on the left. In neighbor walked by said the hay they just painted that billing so i had to go online and see from the middle photo from a couple years ago on google. I dont know about you but i like the old paint job better. So, all of these sites and places lead to other things and that was what was fantastic about the book. Theres the 1962 Apartment Building in Granada Hills which is a smaller vertical shot in the book. You dont really notice all of these details. But i had to clear the palms you could not include the palms in the shot. But there is just that one shot. But in order to really appreciate you need to see the carvings the ingenious airconditioner screens on the right which officially makes in the coolest character defining features on the building. Also you have to get out of your car and stepped on the sidewalk and really take a look. It does not work at 20 miles per hour. Heres the atchinson house in san pedro built in 1907 the first row of architectural photography is you must say a prayer to the van gods to move in a van in front of their shot. Theyre always there and always at the wrong time. The van gods luckily complies heres the front of the house which is extraordinary but if you dont go there you dont see the marvelous a balcony which you cant include in one photograph because of the tree on the left. There it is, you walk around the corner it is an amazing house with different things. Which i found endlessly entertaining. Heres an un touched 1908 in the middle of little old lady who lives there looked like she was about as old as the house but she gave me the hairy eyeball as i stood on top of my truck and my orange vest and took this picture. It is amazing and vaccinating this is on a double lot. It is screaming out to be an Apartment Building or a condo. Finance eight vernacular historic resource. Everything is original including the paint. And heres a completely redone house in studio city. You probably recognize it as the brady bunch house. It was just rebuilt by hdtv recently should be on everybodys tour of l. A. Next time youre out. Again shows the super diversity of the things that are historic for his doric deafening up architecture heres the space station 1957 Great Western savings Bank Architect in panorama city. I added this photo to the Wikipedia Page a few weeks ago. This is in west lake the other end of the historic spectrum. I also learned this is not the same as west lake. As learning l. A. As we go its also an l. A. County. But westlake is just off of downtown. As the 1903 subzero substation start to realize its a radio check its a resource now understand it looks like an industrial building its hiding there in plain sight as bright and colorful as you can imagine. This is the lincoln park motor court in Lincoln Heights for if you look closely youll see the swards above the neon sign think all hotels should have swordsmen pretty sure swords dont meet the l. A. Guidelines anymore. Heres the church of Saint Andrews in Granada Hills. Not only did i do a double take but this when i also did a uturn. It was not on kens shot list but its surveyed and survey l. A. I managed to convince him to put in the book. I kept seeing amazing places on the way to other amazing places. A lot of time i did not have time to stop it at if i did i would probably still be there driving around in circles. So often times its in between where you are and where you are going. Here is the Department Store by a small maker and westchester in 1948. And if you walk around the back you can still see the ramp to the classic parking system on the roof it is no longer a parking lot on the roof. 1906 craftsman residents the owner came out and the other neighborhood i kind of wish i wouldve copied down the address. I know where he lives i can run down there and check it out again. This is a palmer kiesel house to be right at home and palm springs. It is amazing work which is consistent with palm springs mid lake legacy pretty just dont realize theres los angeles and theres in the valley. Its almost a secret unless you live in the valley and you know where they are. Theyre now starting to get snapped up and restored. I had no idea or maybe theres a little bit of valium palm springs. Brutalism. That places and features in the book are small fraction of the sites from survey l. A. If you are out there in l. A. , you see a building and are curious just type the address in the database which added to the chat. Every time i did that the building was there and that is what happened here. This was not on the shot list but i came to add it because i like these buildings and be because the moment i drove by was also the perfect lighting for this building. It is historic as the 1966 liberties savings and loan that is the building the same architect as the litton savings which is also in the book. But unfortunately, sadly, no longer with us. At the end other end of the spectrum i like to call this house folk brutalist. It is such a great expression of construction. You can almost ignore the replacement windows. But typically most of my architectural photos are taken on a tripod. But here the occupants were sitting just inside the opener so i walked up the sidewalk and nonchalantly took the photo and without stopping i spun around and took another shot i got back into the truck to see if one of those two photos was good enough for the book. It is all work sometimes. And it is a diversity of places in the book. Amy, the designer did a terrific job with the book. In this spread theres a 19202 service station covid 1956 japanese Hardware Store covid 1978 telephone substation. A ranch House District turn of the century 19205 organ pavilion and an elaborate craftsman that is just in one of the 35 plan areas that was part. And the highlights to get you curious to see the maybe other hundreds of things that were surveyed in that area or dig a little deeper on anyone. In 1961 it was designed and built as an expression of all things mid century. It is not only an epic curving canopy also folded slate roof on the main building. Im sort of expecting to run into alan hess is i walk into this place. School was not in session so i drove right up and walked right in. There are no fences at this point which is pretty terrific. A dont miss the 1959 boatHouse District hanging off the hillside in the valley. Built by norwegian Ship Builders taxes in stead of saws so to wrap it up this is the old ranch road district plan in one of my favorite afternoon walks to find a perfect angle that showed off both the house and the context. The photos in the book were not manipulated in photoshop. I had to wait for the sun here. There are trash cans in the photo in the background because i took this photo on trash day but had arranged all the trash cans in the background to the brown ones hid the balloons that does not count as retouching if you do it in real life. So unlike my pandemic trips when everything was closed, when you finish exploring you can end your day with a beer and a Historic Building in the art district which is now angel city brewery. I hope youll have the book on your passenger seat as you learn historic los angeles one summer just like i did. Thanks so much. So that was that. Thanks so much can for that kaleidoscopic tour of los angeles with a note traffic no people its really quite amazing to see that view of the city. Before we launch into q na i just want to remind participants please enter your questions into the q a tab at the bottom and i will read them direct them to answer. I have a few of my own i would like to maybe get started with. But, before i get to the questions i just wanted to get back to kens initial comment about this over worn probes about los angeles not caring about its history. I just want to note from my perspective as a former director of San Francisco heritage ive always believed San Francisco, for those was attending from San Francisco has much to learn from los angeles and the leadership of ken and others and documenting the citys heritage. Some of you might assume San Francisco will log a goat surveyed its resources but in fact the city is a just about to get started doing a citywide survey here. And through many of the innovations developed through survey l. A. , that project is going to be easier. Anyway i just wanted to note that. I guess i will start with one of my questions. It relates to the pandemic of course which permeates everything we discussed. The last time i saw your presentation the state was still closed. Now of course we are reopening. I just wanted to ask as preservationists often tout the importance of Historic Places of centers of community , i was hoping you would comment on how many of the Historic Places profiled in the book were impacted by the pandemic. Places were people tend to gather. Theaters, restaurants, bars et cetera. Also its reopening what you see as Historic Places will play in providing a sense of Community Going forward prequickset is a great question mike thanks. As i had finished he had talked about how he was going after in the pandemic and capturing most of the photos during that period of time i had written most of mine prior to the pandemic. It just kind of wrapping it up. It occurred to me was i describing a city that was not going to exist . Is a different experience coming out of this time. I felt like i needed to add and i did add a covid afterward that reflects on this just a little bit. I think almost every place in los angeles has been affected in one way or another by the pandemic. I think in part so many showed the idle hour that had just been reopened and was a result of the reinvestment i describe and then people could not come together there any longer. Of course our churches and other public Gathering Places all had been significantly impacted. I think there is significant concern as well. We have learned a lot from you in San Francisco and your work with the San Francisco heritage about legacy businesses and that Legacy Business Program you havent San Francisco because it is really our legacy businesses that have been anchored for so many decades in our community that are particularly precarious, number of them have closed in locations. We saw a little tokyo business that was the birthplace of the ice cream for over a century, it closed just recently. Other beloved restaurants, delis and others have closed during this time period. We are not looking at the model of San Francisco to create a Legacy Program coming out of the time. It had a legacy business registry have grant support. I think what i think and reflected upon and the covid after words is that, it really is Historic Preservation. The values of Historic Preservation really being about authenticity, continuity in our communities connecting us between past, present and future as we have reemerged and been re engaging with our cities coming out of this time. Or gravitating toward these places that have that type of enduring connection and value. We have seen that in l. A. We recently had an announcement about the closure of the Pacific Theater chain very significant landmark theater in hollywood and the outcry that arose to come out and go out back to these places that have such value in places like the Hollywood Bowl as a Gathering Place or dodgers stadium which is now the third oldest ballpark in the major leagues. We have a long standing connections in continuity with Historic Places. That has more value than ever. Thank you ken tucci of anything to add on to that question . Being a preservationist and seeing just context and history backwards i sort of now realize while going to be looking back on this time and historians in the future are going to be looking back it may be this group of photos this wonderfully book ended by one summer. It becomes a historic moment. But they are his all Historic Buildings. But from the associations of here are these things that have happened to us that somebody in 100 years is going to be looking back on things during 2019 this thing happened. That allowed me to sort of take a bigger perspective picture of how important it was as you are living it. I always am looking back at the turnofthecentury that i am photographing and thinking what were they living . They lived the last pandemic we get to live this one. It is just another way to look at that history which i found pretty fascinating its a very fascinating overlay to this book. Kind of unexpected to see the cities Historic Places devoid of people which really enlivened them. That is really interesting aspect. Let me get to the audiences questions because we have several here that are interesting. So i will just read from this one. Theyre constantly in a state of transformation consulate being remade. How do you ensure people will remember places that have been built over and erased from the landscape . I will note that of course you have an example in the book, the parkers center is one example talked about in the book. Could you speak to that that is increasingly important to what we do. Yes. That is a difficult question. I will say that maybe we dont pay as much attention to that traditionally as we showed. And even in the survey, survey l. A. The purpose of that was not to document lost los angeles what was really already gone. But its what still remains on the ground. Of course it is about that continuity and the layers of community the layers of history and change. We have many examples of that. I think in los angeles we have urban renewal coming of age, our bunker hill neighborhood was our first redevelopment project of a neighborhood. What was created there we begin to appreciate some of the mid to late 20th century modern buildings in bunker hill and taking stock of them. They were built atop what had been a Victorian Era neighborhood from the late 1880s. An understanding that history in the evolution of history is really important. I was particularly fascinated though not so much by los angeles but by the layers of history that are still visible in many ways. I have examples of those in the book. Blake and neighborhood in the crenshaw district of los angeles that became a japaneseamerican enclave after the years of interment in the 50s and 60s where the photo in the book really captured japanese architecture and landscape pieces that are still very evident in the neighborhood. Im really fascinated by the ways that type of change the layers of history are still evident all around us. We need to take steps to help tell the full stories of all of the contributions in the history we are trying to preserve. Fascinating. Im going to direct this next question and a couple variations on it to you regarding photography. First of all ages what to know, ive always believed photography is one of the strongest tools we have as a preservationist to convey the value and beauty of Historic Places and build public support for what we do. That certainly comes through in the book in your images. I am curious though if you could talk a little bit more how you convey the stories of your photograph. In one of our attendees asks if you look at old photos or google street view to plan shots. Also, especially in the case of culturally significant non descriptive landmarks, how you prepared to document that type of Historic Place . Actually going back for a brief moment to that last question, how are we dealing with these things that are vanishing off the face of the earth . Ironically i documented before is demolished for the historic Building Survey before this project started about two years ago. All of that documentation is now at the library of congress in the archive and publicly accessible in the public domain. There is sort of this wonderful giving back in that way. Yes the building is gone. Hopefully the photographs can live on for people who are curious and many of the Historic American Building survey photographs from years past as i understand it are in the california Circle Society archive. And just sort of moving on to that, i have done a number of architectural historic projects. Either books or for a while i did historic calendars. Looking at historical photographs is really help me too photograph current buildings and given me a different viewpoint of that. I tried to scout everything i possibly can. Im using using being arial or birdseye views and a couple of other mapping tools online just to see what i am up against. I was not able to do that in this particular case. The best i could do this many 300 photographs in a short amount of time was basically to give me im going to spend a day and the valiant men to spend a day in san pedro only to spend a day here, day there. And like i said, sometimes i would roll up anna building it was perfectly lit sometimes i would have to go back. When im doing something that is much more singular lets say, anything i can absorb to make sure always in the case of Parker Center and Historic Buildings are the kaufman house, i am looking at historic photographs in the flank lloyd wright i was actually documenting and duplicating some of the views from the same location with the same lenses so that if someone were to compare them he would be able to see those alterations. We are supposed to be plugging preserve l. A. But one of my favorite books is called help buildings learn. That is it goes to it can is saying, that layering. When you see a building and sometimes you can tell what has been added and what has not been added. As an architectural purist, which is how i came into preservation sort of one of those i dont know anything about architecture been out there pretty victorians and their painted lots of colors and that is really cool. As ive gotten more into it and started to appreciate that funny little tact on part of the back of the building were the additions that happened that just show people live there or people did things or entire era came and went. It came and now we want to modernize. The canvassing bunker hill came, bunker hill went and now were looking at the next level. The Department Store photograph i showed its like i am celebrating victor ruin. Thirtyfive years ago he was a bad guy who tore down everything we love. So irony in what i do. Thanks. Can i will direct this next one to you to get started. Think its a great question something the Preservation Community confronts. How hard is it to get people to see the cultural and historical significance of younger structures like the one just mentioned. People often associate preservation with old. That is a great question. I touch on that a bit in the book. I actually site at university of houston professor who confronted this question and termed ugly valley is an architectural concept of cycles of taste with architecture. The more recent past goes through a period particularly when buildings are 25 40 years old they tend to appear ugly to us. Its hard to imagine now the Victorian Era architecture prevalent in San Francisco and we have worked to preserve what we have in l. A. In the 1880s there was a period that was considered to ornament it and much more simple art deco buildings were threatened during the 1960s into the 1970s that rescued as the Preservation Movement began. So ugly right now brutal as him, postmodernism late modernism its at that low point of ugly valley were just starting to emerge from that. Thats when going from that time. Our most threatened and people do not look at them anew. Often it is younger people who are the first to emerge from ugly valley and embrace younger forms and younger styles. We have seen that in los angeles. Michael knight worked for the l. A. Conservancy modern committee for long time there the lone voice in the wilderness they began with the task force in the 1980s when those buildings were 30 years old i worked in the 60s and 70s when no one else was seeing it. But as for younger advocates typically at the time. So it is a constant source of concern and education that is needed. Survey l. A. , we began the survey we took it to the building that was built in 1,982,006 we began the project with that was very progressive, only about 25 years old. We now realize we are going to need to at some point expand the survey to take account of the architecture of the 1980s and 90s as well. Many of those are going to be threatened before we really appreciate them. Absolutely. There is always at work to be done as history moves forward. This is kind of a related question but of a different variety. You mentioned in the book l. A. Does not have confederate monuments that weve seen her move throughout the country but it does have monuments to colonialism and other controversial figures. This question is asking, how does the city address less uplifting moments and is at the citys role . I think we are now seeing it as a citys. Ive been honored to be participating over the past year probate memory working group Eric Garcetti and his chief design officer the former architecture critic of the los angeles times. We were grappling with the group of about 40 preservationists, historians architects and others really grappling with these questions that there director of the mayor how do we deal with these contentious, difficult chapters of our past . Not just in terms of preservation tools but interpretation and memorialization of that history. I highly commend to you there is a report that came out of that we can put it in the chat it was called past due its a specific working group with essays and recommendations related to just this topic. One of the first recommendations coming out of that is to do something this year around the 150th anniversary in 2021 of the 1871 chinese massacre in los angeles that is something i did not learn about until more recent years. Probably the largest lynching in American History 17 Chinese Americans were lynched in a massacre which what the original chinatown in los angeles. There is really no commemoration, memorialization of that tragic event. So that group is working with chinese and american the city to find out what type should that look like in the year 2021 as well as looking at these questions of existing monuments. We had fewer men on horseback statuary than east coast cities. But we do have for example a statue that was toppled last year during some of those protests of 2020. And other public monuments we need to start grappling with. The report does not develop definitive recommendations on what should be the public process grappling with these questions. That is a thats a rich topic that deserves a lot more discussion than certainly the Preservation Community in San Francisco and elsewhere throughout the state are grappling with those issues. Well, we are a little bit of our time so i think that is a good place to wrap it up here i would just like to thank you both, ken and schaf, for joint custody and for your presentation and i will just remind people again to please check out the book. I know francis is posting the link as to where you can purchase it. It is really an incredible, its a fun book to read. Its not overly technical. You dont need to be a preservationist to be interested in it, so i strongly endorse it. I hope youll consider it. Thanks again for joining us. Ga its great to see it again and thank you to the california Historical Society for hosting this program this evening. Had a wonderful night. Great to see you and its been a pleasure. Absolutely. Take care, everyone. Weekends on cspan2 are an intellectual feast. Every saturday American History duty documents americas stories, and on sundays booktv bring you the latest in nonfiction books and authors. Funding for cspan2 come from these Television Companies and more including comcast. Do i do think this is just a Community Center . Thats way more than expert comcast is partnering with Community Centers to create wifi enabled lift zones so students can get the tools they need to be ready for anything. 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