Transcripts For CSPAN2 Ken 20240704

With us tonight is mike presidency dio of the center for arts and culture. Prior to joining fort mason he was an nonprofit sf heritage in opened up the directors efficacy of the los angeles conservancy and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. We asked mike to moderate tonights program because his preservation work in los angeles is the subject of tonights talk in here in San Francisco. Thank you for being with us mike. Mike. Welcome and theyll hand the microphone over to you. Thank you so much frances. 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 preserving historical cities can transform americas cities published by angel city press. Dare i say this book is a monumentalda achievement in the preservation field. Ken has devoted his career h to enhancing the heritage of los angeles and when i joined in 2006 i had big shoes to fill. Ken had just left his role as director of preservation for the city and there it was in the Planning Department and its office of Historic Resources and urban dub design. Among his many responsibilities ken bled the sprawling l. A. Project. He documented Historic Resources across the citys 500 square miles not only the diversity. Its cultural communities. Anyone who knows los angeles can appreciate the size and scale of this massive undertaking. Steven schaefer describes himself as a photographer with a preservation distraction. He two decades behind the length of the camera to become a specialist in the photography of new and historic a architecture. He caught the preservation copped a preservation bug as it were after seemingly endless days of preservation to his 1881 victorian farmhouse. Ever since theyve been drawn to this buildings big and small and finds itself crisscrossing america documenting significant places for the National Register of Historic Places and historic email Building Survey collection at the library of congress. Let me handed over to ken and stephen for their presentation. There we go. Good evening everyone. Such a pleasure to be with alloo of you and the Historical Society to be able to speak with an audience throughout the state of california tonight and to share a little bit about preserving los angeles, our new book for angel city press. I really wanted to begin by talking a little bit about why we had this motivation what we are trying to do. I think most of you who follow the history of california in los angeles know there are many books on los angeles and its history and its architecture but i felt biggest story of presort ashbury Historic Preservation had not been told in a conference of way and thats what i wanted toat try to do wih preserving los angeles and let me quickly pull up my presentation. There it goes, okay. Preserving los angeles is meant to be the story of Historic Preservation of los angeles. I hadc felt that in their many books on los angeles architecture the power of preservation transforms communities has not been told and ive been frustrated in many cases the tears up in a claim that los angeles is a city that doesnt care about her history and doesnt care about historic architecture. Alle of you who are angelinos withu us tonight no certainly those are myths and their is a lot about theno heritage and wih this image of Universal Studios Los Angeles Story is told has a mind of its own tonight its a story of some of the studios of los angeles and the entertainmenten industry could e the sum total of the history of los angeles and obviously thats not the case. Often i think the east coast reporter parachutes into the city and captures the essence of what l. A. Is all about. Ive been fortunate to be in professional vaults with the l. A. Conservancy and the city of los angeles and gotten a birdseye view for how Historic Preservation has been making a difference in communities around the city. I wanted to bring more interested in nuanced parts of los angeles that ive come to know and what i saw in los angeles is that Historic Preservation while its frequently mischaracterized about stopping change or preventing progress reservation has been aog primary engine for positive change throughout los angeles. Its been a tool that revitalizing our downtown, our historic downtown. Its been transforming neighborhoods in creating economic regeneration across her city and even helping to address thehe housing crisis in califora and los angeles. I wanted to try to bring that l. A. Preservation story to a larger audience so for angelinos who may not fully internalized all the positive changes that are around them or may not see them and to those beyond l. A. Who have misconceptions about what l. A. Is all about and i hope those of you joining us from the area dont have those negative perspectives. I hope as you start to get a closer look through the prism of Historic Preservationsm you stat to see much more interesting different city. This is what i wanted to do with the book and this is a side project for me. I call up my weekend project for the last two years. Ive been able to work on this with Stephen Schafer and i decided i want to donate my proceeds from the book to three National Organizations working for greater equity and inclusion in Historic Preservation. The africanamerican Heritage Action fund the National Trust of Historic Preservation they Historic Preservation and a tia Pacific Islander Historic Preservation. And they knew i wantedio this to be a visually rich book and am fortunate to find the perfect partner in t Steven Schaefer who we will be hearing from a little later and youll you will see in the photos i will be showing today. 300 images in the book. His unique eye for architectural detail and having a preservation as i think capturing the message i was trying to get across. I think that comes through as youll see the images i will be sharingom tonight. Again starting with ourst histoc downtown and Eastern Columbia Building and Architectural Buildings and historic theater business airy on broadway we are seeing developers and Property Owners alike tying preservation and adaptive conversion of Historic Buildings as economic value to their property and to project an angelinos are seeking out places like this as preferred places to live, work and play. I kind of book to provide example after example of how thats occurring throughout los angeles and to show how preservationist transform los angeles and how other cities with Historic Resources can use preservation as a tool to do much the same. For many writers reactive writing itself is a journey of discovery and finding your message and finding your character for a fiction fiction writer and it for me it wasnt about that. The story wanted to tell was based on my birdseye view of los angeles so for me it was about channeling the discoveries that was part of my work all along any infusing that into the book could have been very fortunatete too have an entree to remarkable Historic Places around the city that many angelinos. I wanted to take the reader along with me and say here, look at this. This is the real los angeles and one of those sites is the garden of oz. Its the firstge time i got to e this remarkable secret garden in the Hollywood Hills by a former journalist who worked with 75 of her artist brands including dietrich woods who began to involve it into her own home. Here you have a munchkin land as a tribute to the wizard of oz and tributes to peacemakers from the dalai lama and musicians and figures from Elvis Presley to duke ellington. She distributes the key to artist and to neighbors to be able to come in and experience the garden to offer to the general public and she was generous in allowing him to share with a wider audience and i wanted to share many of the hidden gems of the city with our readers in los angeles. This is a book and part about the practical lessons of Historic Preservation what we have two share and also to showcase it. We start the story with the power of historic designation that local Landmarks Program in los angeles we call a Historical Monument which are part of the local landmarks and we have over 1200 in theve city. The book showcases how many of these designations have led to dramatic transformations and rescues at the start places such as this are the idle hour one of the few remaining examples of whats called programmatic architecture in the form of the building reflected its use. This is a bar in North Hollywood in the form of a whiskey barrel that endures thanks to a historical designation. It became a flamenco dance theater, dinner theater in the 1970s and 80s and the dancer who operated the theater Florence Fernandez became the a woman who lived in a shoe except she was the a woman who lived in a whiskey barrel she grew old and apartment upstairs atat the bar with a small menagerie of animals around her. The building was curated and it was a historic f designation tht led to be the building came for auctionn a preservation minded buyer taking over in rehabilitating the bar and spending 2 million in preserving original features and reclaiming wood planks to the bar andar patio relocated. Another example of programmatic architecture an example of the 1928 bulldog cafe on washington boulevard in los angeles, a replica of the building in the automotive museum. In 1933 was relocated. We have two examples of programmatic architecture and Historical Monuments. L. A. Has also been a pioneer of preservation of cultural resources. We have one of the earliest Historic Preservation ordinances ahead of other california cities like San Francisco and san diego and allowing for the designation of local landmarks. Its always allowing for designation of places for social history. We call their landmark historic cultural monument and an example of that is the bar bar in silver lake. If any of you know about the stonewall riots in new york in 1959 and people saw that as the First Movement nationally. Actually the birth of that movement in many ways began at the cat new years day 1957. There was an lapd police raid on the bar melee and people were beaten by police just for expressing their enthusiasm for their love for one another. That led to protests at the site the following month and that led to action that went all the way to the u. S. Supreme court and the pioneering action for equal protection rights as part of the movement. Los angeles is a pioneer but a preservation pioneer and began to recognize places like this that may not have architectural significance. Social and culturall significane in addition to our definition of individual landmarks and monuments we also share here in los angeles the story of how preserve the entire neighborhoods or districts to the designation of Historic Preservation overlay zones which is another name for local districts in l. A. We have 35 of these in los angeles today and about 21,000 properties included in these neighborhoods. These designations have led to mass transformations in americas communities not only to share a handful of them in the book but i first wanted to speak to what makes las historic history unique. They are neighborhood thats very noted socioeconomic and demographic diversity for one. There were studies prepared by on the happen of the l. A. Conservancy last year that found los angeles has a higher share of fun and populations within the neighborhoods than average share of nonwhite populations in the city as a whole in los angeles. These are neighborhood that attracted very vibrant and diverse mixac of residents at al income levels as well read the example of that is the neighborhood shown here in t soh l. A. That is tremendously diverse and about 50 latino and 35 africanamerican and the historic designation has led to this neighborhood becoming even more closeknit and a truce sense of community in this area and reinvestment in many of the homes as well. Minnesota shows how droughttolerant landscaping can be inserted on the front lawn of the historic setting like this and still be very compatible with the historic character. All architectural styles and time periods in the citys history including the balboa islands historic overlay zone. This is the north end of their city San Fernando Valley in granadain hills. Many of the bay area citizens will note development with 10,000 homes in the bay area and this is their only in the city of los angeles and it brought modernism to the masses in 1964 and their youngest and as you can see landscaping and the cohesiveness of this modern neighborhood of the historicrh district. Our Historic Preservation generally have shown preservation and density are not mutually exclusive. This is a big topic is many of you whiting california right now as we are grappling with our housing prices and looking at introducingg transit and many neighborhoods. One thing that same preservation positive study that i cited found is there hbo v. s are denser and then the residential neighborhoods on average than the rest of city combined with surprises a love people. They are denser than the citywide boston and washington d. C. As an example. This is not a highrise neighborhood in terms of density but you can see a singlefamily home on the left the cottage in the middle and it triplex revival style and on the far end right and Apartment Buildings of different densities and you see many of our hbo thes this is the Lincoln Heights neighborhood one of our lower income neighborhoods that has a lot of multifamily homes. And our Historic District chose to density can be accommodated. I also in the book with all these beautiful photos that makes the book quite visually stunning that we have the reader get lost and in that i lose sight of the fact that preservation isnt only about ute and architecture but also about people. Its people who make Historic Preservation impossible possible and administrators of Historic Preservation and people who give life to the spaces we are talking about. It was important to me that we include those voices ine the bok through preservation profiles. I just showed the Lincoln Heights the driving force shown with a couple of his neighbors that made that all possible in this community. Kristin on the right who is a student at uc riverside in little tokyo Historical Society and put out a cultural Historic Mission foror the japanese hospital in and the Boyle Heights community in downtown l. A. Reallyea telling the story of fe japaneseamerican immigrants who created a Health Care Facility for their own community in the 1920s at the time when asianamericans were being denied health care and discrimination. Its a book that gives life to some of the stories and allow some of these individuals to tell their own stories in their own words through the book. I do want to point out while i have a fairly optimistic upbeat view of what we have been able to accomplish through Historic Preservation of los angeles i dont want to paint an entirely rosy picture. We have a lot of work to do and shortcoming in areas where we have come up short in many ways and one of those is in the arean of equity, diversity and inclusion and my own donation to the book is a recognition that we have fallen short in that area of los angeles. A disproportionate share of our designated cultural monuments in l. A. Are legacies of communities of color and 3 for africanamerican to the city and 6 for persons of color more generally. They do have newer designations in the last couple of years seeking to rectify some of that imbalance and one of them is the Temple Missionary Baptist Church onmi South Broadway in Southeast Los Angeles near the Watts Community and it was designated for the location of the recording of aretha franklinst Amazing Grace the bestselling gospel album of all time in 1972. And there was a film of sidney pollack that was only recently released a couple of years ago. Wes in los angeles have recenty launched an africanamerican historic project at the Getty Conservation Institute as our partner to continue to rectify thefy disparities to advance additional nominations the American Heritage sites and to look at all of our Historic Preservation programs and processes through an antilens lands. We also wanted to share in the book some of the work in this area with respect to being more inclusive and equitable and Historic Preservation. We have done that for the creation of preservation frameworks called Historic Context statements and part of the work we have done the citywide survey that mike mentioned. These frameworks are meant to tell the story of her comprehensively of our Diverse Communities and cities and to tie important themes in that history to places that remain on the ground today. I think it can be a great resource and id like to call attention to them for the Historical Society because this gives greater life to Untold Stories in los angeles history. Such as for example to hadi mcdaniel resonance in the sugar hill neighborhood. We are very mindful of the legacy of these restrictions that restrictive covenants that shape the urban planning history and the economic history of our city. It the africanAmerican History of Historic Context looked at the story of these restrictions front and center. The history of the Civil Rights Movement in the church many others. Hadi mcdaniel joined with other prominent residents who are beginning to move into the neighborhood with ethel waters and others to challenge these in that story itself began in sugar hill. They hired an attorney Lauren Miller to defend the right to own property for africanamericans in an allwhite neighborhood and that was a legal action that went all the way to the Supreme Court shelly dll cramer 1948 that ruld that racially restrictive covenants were unenforceable. This is the sugar hill neighborhood that speak to that important s history. The latino of los angeles context has many important themes including the influence of latinos inin visual art and particularly the movement that is defined of the visceral landscape in los angeles an example of that is the great wall of los angeles which i found many longtime angelenos are not awareel of. The artist judy bach and her nonprofit for the Historic Resource center along the wall of the tujunga in the San Fernando Valley completed from 1974 to 1984. Judy baca and her colleagues worked with teams of youth every summer to do a set of panels that tell essentially and it alternative social history of california and los angeles. The office of Historic Resources built on the Historic Context so its now listed nationally. They also gave five asianamerican context grants reflecting the histories of their japanese thai and the Latino American communities. Themu japaneseamerican context tells the story of little tokyo and primary settlement of the city that looks more conference of late at the inclusion of japaneseamericans of the city including West Los Angeles and the community where there were once 26 japaneseamerican that reflected the legacy of early labor of japaneseamerican gardeners in the city in the years prior to the internment during world war ii but theres only a handful of these left and it has lifted those up as important aspects of the japaneseamerican legacy. Preservation los angeles has created Downtown Renaissance fueled by its adapted for use turning Old Buildings into new the conversion was made possible through the adaptive reuse ordinance in los angeles which gavein away the each of these Historic Buildings would have had to have two Parking Spaces per residential unit which they dont have and their reuse ordinance ordination triggered a tremendous boom in housing downtown that created a new residential base and revitalization about 75 projects with 9000 units of the adaptive Reuse Organization and many for example that we share in the book some of which speak to the fact that los angeles has the Transit Oriented Development legacy historically like the pacific Electric Building at sixth and main in downtown l. A. He was las first skyscraper built in 1905 and speaks to the legacy of Henry Huntington wellknown throughout california history and was responsible for the Pacific Electric Railway system are red currant yellow car systems all of which a terminated at this building downtown pacific electric depot. It spanned across a city and created many of our sprawling suburbs and the city and the top floor included the Jonathan Club and elite private club for men in the city. The adaptive reuse ordinance allowed this to be converted to housing by 2005, three. 14 new residential units the largest project still under the adaptiveid reuse ordinance and u can see the beauty in the authenticity of the spaces but the Jonathan Club library the rotunda will that was converted to a library for residents here on the eighth for the building and many of you might know pacific electric buffet which dates back to 1908 in its own right which are both significant Legacy Restaurants in the city. Adaptive reuse is not limited to towns and los angeles is also around the city not just for housing. Benefiting businesses. When google was looking to further expand headquarters in l. A. Didnt look too highrise office buildings. They found a hangar that had have been historically associated withs Howard Hughes n companies where he assembled the famous flying boat. The gia architects in google collaborated on this stunning reuse of the building starting a building within a building and spaces for working Gathering Places for employees. This is now the center of what has bec. A silicon beach with other Tech Companies is part of it. Adaptive reuse is affordable housing. The key aspect of addressing or housing crisis in the city. This is a wonderful wonderful example the 20th street ymca designed by paul revere williams a prominent africanamerican architect who contribute so much toaf our city over many decades. This is an early works from 1926 and served the africanamerican and south l. A. For decades. By 2011 though it had fallen into misuse and nonprofits collaborated to affordable housing. Units of lowincome housing in the Historic Building at fivestar complex in a contemporary style by the eisenberg architect with 25 units of additional low income units behind it and to project shows how contemporary additions are possible and approved by our city of social Heritage Commission and her office even though it is a highly differentiated newal edition. Its also showing here how the layers of histories remained visible in the adaptive reuse project. The image on the lower left is where the former Swimming Pool for the ymca was that it was mostly built in the city. The city the outline of the tie which marks the outer edge of where the outline had been and makes it potentially reversible in the future. Its more for recreation use. Just to close them before you turn it over to schaf i want to introduce a little bit about l. A. That was mentioned. A large part of the book captures the work of the citywide survey completed in 2017. Its one of the largest Historic Resource survey of any municipality in the country resulting in a lengthy partnership between the city and the funding from the Getty Foundation that supports the getty conservation or that all they start with this map because it shows the daunting challenge that was before us in the outline of the boarded 70 or so square miles of the city of los angeles the largest cities in the nation in disrepair in between. Professional Historic Preservation went down every street of the city to identify Historic Resources. A great deal of research has been done so using Historic Context the Community Engagement for six to nine months before we were out in the fieldd to captue the collective knowledge and information in every community about k the places that matter o local residents. It may not be as obvious t architecturally but all of that got preloaded into the cameras with this set of menu so the survey was completed for the first time in all Digital Survey out in the field with photos link to that. This information is available on our comprehensive inventory web site at Historic Places la. Org with a photo from schaf as well on our web site. This is meant to guide the planning of the city. We can only plan the future of our cities and plan for greater density and how cities will will preserve in what may changeni dramatically. We know where Historic Resources in the firstow place so that applies information for developers and Property Owners before they start the project. A big part of the book focuses on the hidden gems of the cities the discoveries from the processes over more than a decade and the book provides a sampling of interesting sites of the survey. It was supported to include in every community 35 Community Plan areas and all of them are representative in every community in places that matter to them and underscore the point that every neighborhood has a remarkable history and remarkable architecture is worth lifting up and celebrating. With that i will turn it over to schaf and let him tell a little bit about the process of going through the city and documenting some of these places. Schaf. Thanks ken. Appreciate that. This was indeed a Pretty Amazing project, kind of a daunting project and i didnt know i was going to get myself into it. I will get the screen shared here. Does that look like its working . I really wanted to show some of my behindthescenes photographs and the photographer stories and not just a bunch of pictures but it was a pretty remarkable summer in many ways an incredibly diverse set of subjects and incredibly diverse city. That was Pretty Amazing. And now you all know what i did last summer. I learned a lot of things and just to begin while i was out there i let google maps track me with a map of all my trips he could see where i live on the west side and ventura which is a mile west of l. A. That gives you an idea of many days of driving to los angeles and exploring. Not particularly accurate. Adeptly gives you an idea not like the way the maps follows the l. A. City limits. L. A. Has some city structures in the san pedro area has islands in it like Beverly Hills and santa monica and inglewood that are not part of it. There are islands that are missing and long stretches as you are looking across the street thinking that would be really amazing. Thats not in the city of l. A. And what is behind you is. My trips mimic that survey that illustrate the sheer size of the survey of l. A. The map shows the major cities jammed into las corners and i wish they would have remembered this map. Ien didnt quite remember and realize what i was getting myself into. The photos in the book came to me the same way. I added all 10 targets with this live shot list and i mounted my ipad by clicking on a listing like this one. I preplanned the light for the best shot. If i was totally wrong when i drove up by to make a second one. Theres a fleetwood center. The top shot is an example of the difference for hours can make. The top and it images 6 00 p. M. In full shade and i went back again a different day at 2 00 p. M. To get the emblem and this cadillac shaped shopping center. In most cases i was able to do one shot. Some voters required access and logistics. I was able to bring kate are fabulous and turn to the hollywood sign. It was 101 that day. Its a very long hike and in many of you know who it hiked to the top. If you look carefully throughout the book youll notice the rooftop angle a lot of photos in the book. My favorite photos in the book are still bit cover shot that we used at the Orpheum Theater downtown. Both of those took hours to do and simple looking and dont necessarily represent multiple photographs that we took. For instance i got to the Orpheum Theater before covid in december of 2019 and 3 45 on the left side i had the basic shots. Kids and parents were lining up for the holiday party. All of that craziness started at 4 30. The light was perfect at 4 45. Luckily i was able to persuade them to move and keeping his car there otherwise the picture on the wrightwood be theres a selfie at the pants about eight feet high waiting for the perfect light. The owner left the lights and the signs on for me and this was taken on march 19 2020. That happens to be significant because it was a Los Angeles County sacred homeowner was given and all nonessential work in l. A. Ge stopped. Stay safe at home and ventura planting tomatoes learned how to make muffins ande i waded. After month i realize most of my photos that require interaction with any real humans so i got back on the road. A typical day was to leave venture at 9 00 a. M. Photograph until 8 00 p. M. Drive back try a different drive through every day. I usually got home around 10 00 p. M. And rinse and repeat and same thing. Because of covid my days were marked remarkably efficient. Almost none asked me what i was doing or dare to come near me. I was 90 finished and traffic started to come back and its like panns reinvented itself in the shot in response to covid. This is colonial corners in markets that barrington and national boulevard at 7 00 p. M. Everyone was working from home. I walked out and set up the shop ty the shots. I literally parked in the middle of the street climbed on the roof of the truck and set up the shop with cars driving by me. I have an orange vest and pretty much lets me do anything as long as they look like i know what im doing. There was kojak park in front of canters deli and that never happens. If youve never heard of it you need to look at it. After months of driving around it took weeks of postproduction to get the selected photos edited cropped color corrected and uploaded in high resolution. For aspiring photographers my labor and database is at 19,600 images in it for this one project. That was edited down to just j over 300 for the bucs a one in every 65 photos i took was used at 2 of the time. Its probably a good thing im not a doctor. Moving along heres the survey l. A. To Pacific Palisades in the back of the book which is the survey l. A. Section that ken alluded to in this one for field guide and serves as a get the hard work we did survey l. A. And while i time dabbling down one road and down another looking for the cream of the crop was the surveyors walked every sidewalk. Enjoy down every single street and they didnt find anything for a day or we can sometimes not a lot in Historic Districts. Every survey l. A. Site in the book is a briefry description is to go through the book. That was just part of the story. Zysks 47 south vista dome are in westchester a duplex by notable architect and project cited as moss first worked with the structure represents streamlined air architecture and distinctive playful late modern design emphasizing the buildings for the caliber you so thats the basic overview or the basic entry in the back of the book in iraq at the site and i got to see the amazing mailboxes on the left. Walked by and said hey they are just painted that building so i had to go on line and see. This middle photo from a couple of years ago on google and i like field paint job better. So all of these sites and places lead to other things and that was what the book was about produced in 1962 poly polynesian Apartment Building at Granada Hills which is a smaller vertical shot in the book with details but they had to include the palms in theta shot. Theres just that one shot but in order to really appreciate the full thing you need. To see the carping and the ingenious of air conditioners on the right which officially makes him the coolest fine features of the building. And also you how to get out of your car and look at the sidewalk and really take a look. Heres the ashes and house in san pedro builtk in 1907 for the first rule of architectural photography is that you must say a to the van gods to move any van in front of your shot because they are always there for a long time. The van gods luckily complied so heres the front of the house which is extraordinary. If you dontt go there you can see the marvelous balcony on the north side which you cant get in just one photograph because of the tree on the left. If you walkse around the corner its just an amazing house with so many Different Things to look at. So i added it to other discoveries which i found endlessly entertaining. Heres an untouched 1908 house in the sawtelle area in l. A. The little old lady who lived there look like she was as old as the house. She gave me the eyeball assisted on top of my truck and took this picture but its amazing and fascinating that this house is still there on a doubles lot. Its screaming out to be an Apartment Building or a condo. Yet its a vernacular Historic Resource and everything is original including the paint. Heres completely red and redone house in studio city and you probably recognize it as the brady bunch house. It was just built by hdtv recently so should be on everybodys tour of l. A. Again it shows the diversity of the things that are historic. Heres a space station. You have to see it in 1957 Great Western savings bank. When that architect in Panorama City and i added this photo to his Wikipedia Page if you weeks ago. This is an west lake at the other end of the historic spectrum and i learned this is not the same as Westlake Village so i was learning l. A. And the villages in l. A. County. Westlake is just off the drive practices in 1903 Los Angeles Pacific railroad substation. You start to realize the real real word resource and not that im looking at it i can understand its hiding their plain sight is bright and as you can imagine. This is lincoln park motor court in Lincoln Heights. If you look closely youll see the sort of the neon sign. Like all motel should have swords and im sure sort 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 for this one i did a uturn. It was not on my 65 page shot was but it was surveyed site managed to get it in thea. Book. I kept seeing amazing places on the way to other places but a lot of times i didnt have time to stop. I probably still be down there driving around in circles. Often the best part of l. A. Is the stuff in between where you are and where you are going. Harris miller owned Department Store in westchester from 1948. If you walk around the back you can steer the ramp to the classic parking system on the roof. Its no longer parking lot on the roof. You cant park there and i sort of wish we could. Heres a 1906 residence in arlington heights. Its the coolest keyhole window. The owner told me theres a twin of this house in another neighborhood for which i would have copied down the address. I wish i could run down there and check it out again. This is the Palmer Chrysler house and it would be right at home in palm springs. Its an amazing work which is consistent with palm springs midcentury legacy but you just dont l realize los angeles architects in the valley and it is almost a secret unless you live in the valley and they are now getting too snatched up and the start but i had no idea before i started this project. Maybe theres a little bit of the valley in palm springs. Brutalism. Theut places featured in the bok are a small fraction of the survey sites and survey l. A. So if you are out there in a way and you see a building and youre curious just typed type the address into this database which added to chat. Every time i did that the atebuilding was there and thats what happened here. This was not on the 65 shot page list that i added it a because i like the building. B the moment i drove by it was the perfect lighting for this building. Its historic as a 1966 liberty savings and loan be architect curt meyer. Its the same architect of the lytton savings which is also in the book. Unfortunately is no longer with us. I like to callnd this 1932 house posts per list a great expression. I can almost ignore the replacement window. Typically lifted my architectural photos are done on a tripod. Here the occupants are sitting just inside just to the right of the open door. I walk up the sidewalk and nonchalantly without stopping run around and walk back and took another shot and got back into the truck and to see if one of those two photos was good enough for the book. And the diversity of places in the book. In meet the designer did a terrific job in this harbor harbor gatewayed spread. The japaneseamerican Hardware Store in the substation. Thea alondra palms at the turn f century the 1925 and 1912 craftsman just in one of the 35 areas that was part of survey l. A. Its really just highlights to get you curious to go to the hundreds of things that were surveyed in the area. In 1961 it was designed and built with a fantastic expression of all things new century. Theres not only a in epic canoy but also a roof on the Main Building expecting to run into allen hassan. School was in session so i drove up and walked right in. It was pretty terrific. You dont want to miss the 1959 boat House District hanging up the hillside in the valley. To rap it up this is the old ranchero road district plan constructed by cliff may 1 of my favorite actor in the box and i found the perfect angle that showed up the cliff may house in the context of the neighborhood or the photos in the book were not nifty later photoshopped are they hit to wait for the sun and their trash cans in this photo in the background because i took this photo on day so so i had to rent out thek trash cans so the ones hid the blue ones but that doesnt count if you do it in real life. 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 arts district. The john a. Robot building which is now angel city brewery. Hope you have have the booking it passenger seat and learned the story of los angeles in one summer just like i did. Thanks sois much. So that is that. Thanks so much ken and schaf for that kaleidoscopic tour of los angeles with no traffic and no people. It was really quite amazing to see that view of the city. Before we launch into q a i just want to remind participants that please enter your questions into the q a tab at the bottom and i will read them and direct them to ken and schaf and i bet few of my own that i would like to get started with. Before getting to questions i just wanted to get that to kens initial comment about this probe about los angeles not caring about its history and to note from my perspective as a former address or at San Francisco heritage for those of us who live in San Francisco we have much to learn from los angeles and the example in the leadership of ken and the citys heritage and one might assume that San Francisco will have Historic Resources that the city is just about to get started doing a citywide survey here and too many of the innovations developed through survey l. A. That project is going to be easier. Anyway i just wanted to note that. I was thirsts selfishly with one of my questions that relates to the pandemic of course which permeates everything we discuss in the last time i saw your presentation youou are still, te state was still closed and now course we are reopening but i just wanted to ask as preservationists often tell them towards a Historic Places is a center of community and im hoping you can comment on how many of the Historic Places were impacted by the pandemic places like new Temple Missionary Church where people tend to gather and theaters and restaurants and bars etc. And the state is reopening to what you see as the role of Historic Places and what it will how will play in providing a sense of community. Its a great question. Thanks. I finished talking about how he was going out and capturing most of the photos during that period of time. I did most of my in the pandemic and it occurred to me was i describing a city that was not going to exist in describing a very different place than we would experience coming up of this time period and i felt like i needed to add and i did add a short covid afterwards that refight some this just a little bit. Almost every place in los angeles has been affected in one way or another byt the pandemic and in part its because so many of them i show the title at our bar that it just reopened and the reinvestment that i describing people can come together there any longer. And our churches and other public gatherings and theaters were impacted. I think there has been significant and we learned a lot in terms of units and this is the premiere work at San Francisco heritage around legacy businesses and the Legacy Business Program in San Francisco. It is really the businesses that have been anchored for so many decades in our community that are particularly precarious through a pandemic and coming up a bit. Have closed and change locations. They saw little tokyo business birthplace of for over a century that closed recently and other beloved restaurants have closed during this time period. We are now looking at the model of San Francisco to create a Legacy Program that had a legacy business registered. I think what i reflected upon and make covid afterward is it really is Historic Preservation and the value of preservation really being about the authenticity and continuity of our communities and connecting us between past present and future as we reemerge and have beened reengaging with their cities in that time period we aree gravitating toward these places that have that type of connection and value. We see that in l. A. Only recently had announcement about the closure of the Pacific Theater chain in the cinerama dome theater a landmark theater in and hollywood and the outcry that arose of people who wanted to come out of this period and go back to these places that had so much well you like the Hollywood Bowl as a Gathering Place or Dodger Stadium or the old ballpark in the major leagues. We have longstanding connections and continuity with Historic Places and that has more value than anything. Thank you ken. Schaf do you have anything to add on to that question . Being a preservationist and seeing just context and history i sort of realize its like wow im going to be looking back on this time and historians in the future will be looking back and maybe this group of photos wonderfully book ended by one summer becomes a historic moment. They are all Historic Buildings but from the associations of years the things that happened to us and in that someone in 100 years will be looking back on and during 2019 this thing happened. Allows me to take a bigger perspective picture of how important it was as you were living it. I always am looking back at the turnofthecentury buildings that im photographing and thinking they live to the last pandemic and we are living through this once with just another way to look at that history. I think its wonderful in retrospect and in many ways but a fascinating overlay to the book unexpected to see all the cities Historic Places devoid of people. I think thats really interesting. Let me get to that audience questions because we have several here that are interesting. E i will just wait on this one. We see transformations cant only being remade and how do we ensure that people will remember places that up in a ration landscape and you have an example in the book of the Parker Center, one example talked about in the book. If you could speak to that. Its increasingly important to what we do. Thats a difficult question and i would say maybe we dont pay as much attention to that traditionally as we should and the survey l. A. The purpose of that was not to document loss to los angeles. It was really documenting what still remains on the ground but a course it is about that continuity c and the layers of history and change and we have had many examples of that. I think in los angeles the legacy of urban renewal is comingofage. Carbuncle bunker hill neighborhood was our first redevelopment project example of how wholesale clearance of the neighborhood. What was created there we are able to appreciate some of those midto late 20th century modern buildings in bunker hill and taking stock of them but they s were built in victoria ad error neighborhoods and related communities andri understanding history is surely important but i was particularly estimated by the layers that are still visible in many ways and i have examples of those in the book like the neighborhood in the crenshaw district of los angeles that became a japaneseamerican enclave in the years after the interment in the 1950s and 60s where the photo in the book really captures japanese architecture and architectural features in the landscaping that are very evident in the neighborhood. Im fascinated by the ways that change in the layers of history are still evident and we need to take steps to tell the whole story of all the contributions and the history we are trying to preserve. Schaf im going to direct this next question in a couple of variations on it to you regarding first of all ive always believed photography is one of the strongest tools we have in preservation to convey the value and beauty of Historic Places in terms of what we do and that comes through in the book and your images. Im curious though if you could talk a little bit more about how do youho convey the story in yor photographs and one of our attendees asked if you look at old photos for street view to plan a shot and then also especially in the case of culturally significant nondescript landmark how you prepare to document that type of historic place. Well actually going back for brief moment to the last question which is how are we dealing with the places that are vanishing off of the face of the earth and i documented them for this start Building Surveys very before this project started two years ago all of that documentation is at the library of congress in the archive and in the public domain. This sort of wonderful giving back in a way and the building is gone so hopefully the photographs can live on for people who are curious and many of the Historic Survey photographs from years past a scientist and it earned the california Historical Society clarchives. And just moving on to that, i have done a number of architectural historic projects and for wiley. Historic calenders and i think looking at historic photographs has really helped me to photograph current buildings and giving me a different viewpoint of that. I try to scout everything that i possibly can to get either an aerial or birdseye views in several mapping tools on line to see what im up against that it was not able to do that in this particular case. The best i could do with this many photographs in a short amount of time was basically to give me like im going to spend a day in the valley and a day in san pedro and the day hereo tody there and like i said sometimes i come up on the building and was perfectly lit. When im doing something thats much more singular lets say anything that i can absorb to make sure. Im always the Parker Center and the Historic Buildings i am looking at historic photographs and any in his house in los feliz i was actually documenting and duplicating some of julia chairmans use from the same locations with the same land so if someone were to s compare ito be able to see those alterations. We are supposed to be plugging in preserving l. A. Pic goes to what ken is saying about layering could you see a building and sometimes you can tell what has been added and what hasnt been added and as an architectural purist which is how i came into preservation sort of one of those i dont know anything about architecture but i know these are victorians with lots of color and its really cool and as i got more into it and started to appreciate the fundamental part of the back of the building where the edition that happened that the jazz show that people with their people did things where their entire era came and went. City beautiful came in now we want to modernize. Like ken was saying bunker hill came them bunker hill went and now we are looking at thet next level Department Store photographs to show im celebrating 35 years ago victor bruen was a bad guy and tore down everything we loved. So iron he and what i do. Now ironing in what i do. I will direct this. Next one ill direct this next to you to geteton started. Its a great question something that the preservation comingre o confront. How hard is it to get people to see the cultural and historical significance of quote unquote younger structures like the ones that schaf just mentioned. People associate preservation with its a great question i press on that in the book and eyesight is university of houston or this or that confronted this question and coined the term valley. This is ann architectural concept. We had the cycles of with architecture and the more recent past particularly when buildings are about 25 to 40 years old they tend to appear to us. Its hard to imagine that the victorian architecture in San Francisco that we still have it in away from the 1880s. There is a perry where that was considered uppity into ornamented. Our buildings during the 1960s and the 1970s were in many cases rescued as a preservation began. Modernism more recently. 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 architecture. We have i worked in the conservancy moderate committee as a lone voice in the were 30 years old. When no one else was it. Those were younger preservation advocates typically at the time. It is a constant source of concern and education that is needed. Survey l. A. We began to take the survey in 1980. In 2006 we began the project with that was very progressive. Only 25 years old. We now realized we are going to need to at some point expand the survey to take account of the architecture and the heritage of the 19 and 80s and 90s as well. Many of those are going to be before we appreciate them. Definitely. Always work to be done. As history moves forward. This is kind of a related question of a different variety. You mentioned in the book that l. A. Does not have confederate monuments that we are seeing removed throughout the country. It does have monuments to colonialism and other controversial figures. This question is asking how does the city address left less uplifting or dramatic moments in history in is that the citys role . I think we are now seeing it as the role. Iveve been very honored to be participating over the past year or so on memory working group convened by Eric Garcettis chief design officer, Christopher Hawthorne we work grappling with a group of 40 preservationists, historians, architects and others grappling with these questions at the direction of the mayor how do we deal with the cross contentious difficult chapters of our past. Not just in terms of preservation tools but interpretation and the memorialization of that history. I highly commend to you a report that came out of that. We can push her down and put her in the chat it was called past due. He memory working group with essays and recommendations related to the topic. One of the first recommendations coming out of t that is to do something this year around the one here but get the anniversary in 202150 of the 1871 chinese massacre in los angeles. Which is something i did not learn about until more recent years. Probably the largest lynching in arAmerican History 17 chineseamericans near el pueblo chinatown and los angeles. There is no commemorative station memorialization of that tragic event. The chineseamerican leaders to figure out what should that type of memorialization look like in the year 2021 . As well as looking at these questions of existing monuments. We had fewer men on horseback, statuaries this Important Information about the protest of 2020. In other monuments and you start grappling with. The report does not recommendations of what should be the public d process and inclusive and equitable on theie grappling with these questions. Exits are rich topic that deserves a lot more discussion certainly the Preservation Community and elsewhere throughout the state are grappling with issues. We are a little bit over our time that is a good place to wrap it b up. I would just like to thank you both can and shea for joining us today and for yourpe presentati. I will remind people again to please check out the book. And i know francis is posting the link as to where you can purchase it. Its really an incredible mike its a fun book to read. Its not so overly technical pretty do not need to be a preservationist to be interested in it. So i strongly endorse it. Thanks again for joining us. Its great to see you again. Thank you to the california Historical Society for hosting this program this evening. So have a wonderful day for. Thanks mike great to see what has been a pleasure. 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