Why do urban rivers look like they do? What makes one river key to a city’s identity and another one largely unknowable? We wrap up Season Four with a trip to the banks of the Los Angeles River, where Cindy Olnick chats with new dual-degree alum Leslie Dinkin about her award-winning master’s thesis, Heritage in Practice: A Study of Two Urban Rivers…

Drag performances have long been a draw for audiences in L.A., though often held “underground” because of threats of persecution. In addition to its entertainment history, drag has had a role in affirming and protecting gender identity. Architect and recent graduate Jesús (Chuy) Barba Bonilla researched this history for his master’s thesis, Drag Cu…

Tools for documenting historic buildings evolve constantly, but professional 3D scanners remain out of reach for most of us. Alumna Ye Hong, our first dual-degree student in Heritage Conservation and Building Science, sees a path to more equitable heritage conservation in the nearly ubiquitous smartphone. For her thesis, she tested the potential an…

Dedicated students at the University of Southern California have pulled out the laser scanners and measuring tapes to document the Wilfandel Clubhouse in the West Adams neighborhood of Los Angeles. The Wilfandel Club, the oldest Black women’s club in Los Angeles, was founded in 1945 by Della Williams (wife of architect Paul R. Williams) and Fannie …

New alumna (and Save As producer) Willa Seidenberg has enjoyed the mineral-water spas of Desert Hot Springs for decades. In the 1950s, the Coachella Valley town became a destination for middle- and working-class families who frequented the simple spa motels, or "spa-tels." Willa and co-host Cindy Olnick took a road trip to Desert Hot Springs to see…

A San Francisco native, alumna Emi Takahara always wondered why so many locals dismiss the historic Fisherman’s Wharf as a tourist trap. Sure, it has overpriced food, but it also has a culinary history that might surprise you—as well as longtime businesses trying to weather the changing times. In this episode, Emi talks with producer Willa Seidenbe…

Alumna Isabel Thornton grew up in the Rust Belt town of Roanoke, Virginia. After graduating from USC, she eventually returned home and took note of the city’s beautiful Victorian homes, many vacant and in a state of disrepair. Linking her experience in affordable housing with her passion for historic places inspired her to establish a nonprofit cal…

Alumna Sara Delgadillo grew up in Pacoima, a blue-collar neighborhood in L.A.’s San Fernando Valley. Sara joined us in Season One to discuss how growing up in Pacoima influenced her life, studies, and career in heritage conservation. She also shared some of the enclave’s rich history, including some of the longtime small businesses that serve as ce…

After the Watts Rebellion of 1965, Black architects Art Silvers and Robert Kennard designed a Late Modern building for the Mafundi Institute, a cultural organization. The Watts Happening Cultural Center opened in 1970 as a place of creative expression, community, and healing. The popular Watts Coffee House has called the building home for decades. …

From 1930s census cards to virtual reality, the Bunker Hill Refrain project just keeps getting cooler. This multi-year effort is using data to reimagine downtown L.A.'s Bunker Hill—a historic, vibrant neighborhood razed in the urban renewal/removal of the 1950s. Dr. Meredith Drake Reitan offers an update on the project, which is digitally rebuildin…

Save As is taking a wee little break this fall. BUT we will bring you some exciting updates on previous episodes. We will be back in 2024 better than ever and with new and interesting episodes. Stay tuned and take this time to catch up on previous episodes from Seasons 1, 2 and 3! Connect with us on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn…

A group of architecture students at the University of Southern California wants to do more than just design buildings. They want to work with communities to “un-design'' spatial injustice and leverage the power of residents in shaping their neighborhoods. In this episode, producer Willa Seidenberg talks with students Reily Gibson and Kianna Armstro…

When Emily Varley arrived in Beaufort, SC for a summer internship, she had no idea she’d make a discovery that would change the course of her studies at USC. Her research for the Reconstruction Era National Historical Park led her to a boarded-up Freedman’s cottage associated with both Daniel Simmons, a Black soldier for the Union in the Civil War,…

Allensworth is a tiny town with a big history—and its residents are grappling with some very big issues. The only town in California founded and governed by African Americans, the Central Valley farming community was free of oppression and full of opportunity. It also faced more than its share of obstacles. Residents have been fighting to save it f…

One of the many great things about Los Angeles is its unrivaled legacy of modern residential architecture. Students in Peyton Hall's Materials Conservation class did their case study on the John J. Buck House (1934-35) by R. M. Schindler, one of the legendary architects who defined Southern California modernism. Co-host Cindy Olnick tagged along on…

In case you missed it, we're re-releasing this episode from Season 1. The decade-long civil war in Syria has decimated the country’s infrastructure, killed more than 400,000 Syrians, and created the world’s largest displaced population of around 13 million. Heritage sites play a big role in war as targets of destruction and are typically an early f…

Small businesses provide much more than goods and services. Over time, they become neighborhood anchors and a key source of culture and community—especially for new Americans. Heritage conservationists are increasingly turning to legacy business programs as economic development strategies to combat rising rents, gentrification, and the erosion of c…

What happens when a community takes its educational future into its own hands? Funded by local advocates and a generous grant from the Rosenwald Fund, the Allen-White School served the African American community in Whiteville, Tennessee from 1920 until 1974. With thousands of graduates, the school helped shape the lives of multiple generations. Now…

Warning: This episode features the difficult topic of sexual slavery during World War II. Producer Willa Seidenberg talks with recent graduate Hanyu Chen about her thesis, Our Bodies, Their Battlegrounds: The Conservation of Comfort Stations in China. Before and during World War II, the Japanese Imperial Army forced women and girls into sexual slav…

In case you missed it, we're re-releasing an episode from our first season, chosen by our Save As intern, Emily Kwok. It's an Emily's Pick! Have you ever considered sound a character-defining feature? Musician and alum Kasey Viso Conley certainly has. She knows why Nat King Cole, Janis Joplin, Van Halen, and countless other recording artists insist…

In case you missed it, we're re-releasing an episode from last season, chosen by our Save As intern, Emily Kwok. It's an Emily's Pick! Should the Brady Bunch House be in the National Register of Historic Places? Why not? asks alum Jonathan Kaplan. In his master’s thesis, the TV writer-turned-heritage conservationist makes a case for designating sit…

How can taking a building apart possibly relate to heritage conservation? Join us in the Upside Down for a chat with architect and alum Guadalupe Flores about his thesis, Deconstruction: A Tool for Sustainable Conservation. When a building can't be saved, reusing the materials makes perfect sense. The concept of deconstruction certainly isn't new. …

Chinese American architect Gin D. Wong, FAIA (1922-2017) defined what it means to achieve the American dream. He immigrated from China as a boy and went on to have a 60-year career as a successful architect in Los Angeles. He played a key role in the design of post-World War II L.A., with projects including LAX, CBS Television City, and the iconic …

This episode delves into global heritage conservation, as producer Willa Seidenberg talks with recent grad Haowen Yu about his thesis, Examining Feng Shui as Tangible and Intangible Cultural Heritage. Many Americans consider Feng Shui primarily an approach to arranging space. Yet it’s a far more complex system of knowledge, practice, and tradition …

We said “so long” to summer with a trip to the Santa Monica beach with historian Alison Rose Jefferson, whose work at USC launched a deep dive into African American recreation areas in the Golden State. Her master’s thesis on Lake Elsinore led to her widely acclaimed book, Living the California Dream: African American Leisure Sites in the Jim Crow …

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When is a light fixture not just a light fixture? When it helps tell the story of a remarkable home designed, and lived in, by one of the twentieth century’s greatest architects. The 1951 Reunion House in L.A.’s Silver Lake neighborhood was designed on spec by Richard Neutra. It housed Neutra and his family as his home/studio down the street was re…

Is Leimert Park the most significant neighborhood in Los Angeles? Katie Horak thinks it might be. “I don't think there's any neighborhood in the city that tells so many different important stories about our history as a city, and that really has the integrity to still tell that story,” she says in this episode of Save As. A USC alum, principal at A…

Last month, about ninety volunteers spent a weekend excavating the former hospital site at Manzanar, a World War II incarceration camp about 225 miles north of Los Angeles. Some of those volunteers were students in Mary Ringhoff’s Cultural Resource Management class. One of those students was Save As producer Willa Seidenberg, who interviewed people…

As a kid, Laura Dominguez would sit under the kitchen table during tamale season, listening to family stories as the grownups handed her corn husks to play with. Now she’s one of the people setting a new table for heritage conservation, with community as the centerpiece. In this episode, Laura shares the personal roots of her professional path, her…

You may know that Greater Los Angeles has the largest Armenian population outside of Armenia. But you might think it’s concentrated in the city of Glendale and Hollywood’s Little Armenia. Recent alum Erik Van Breene found pockets of Armenian Americans throughout the county while researching his thesis, Not So Little Armenia: Conserving Armenian Her…

Robert A. Kennard, FAIA (1920 - 1995) led an extraordinary life as an architect, mentor, and humanitarian. The son of a Pullman car porter, Kennard defied steep odds to build a successful career, design more than 700 structures, and create one of the longest-running African American-owned architecture firms in the western U.S. He “believed that peo…

Cemeteries mean many things to many people. In this episode, we talk with alum Rachel Trombetta about her thesis, Beit Olam: A Home Everlasting--The Jewish Cemeteries of East Los Angeles. Rachel shares the history of Jewish congregations in Los Angeles, how they moved away from the central city over the years, and what that means to the burial grou…

We need to hear from you! Please take 180 seconds to let us know what you think about Save As: Click here to take the Save As survey It means so much to your friends who work hard to share the future of heritage conservation with you. And you can enter to win a highly collectible, limited-edition Save As mug! Thank you thank you thank you! Take the…

San Francisco is a preservation-minded city, but as we hear in this episode, not all parts of the city get the same amount of preservation love. Alum Andrea Dumovich Heywood talks with us about her research into Clement Street, a diverse neighborhood in the city’s Inner Richmond area, that is considered the city’s second Chinatown. You’ll hear what…

At the Alcoholism Center for Women (ACW), women regain their lives and claim their space in the world. They also take care of two century-old homes in one of L.A.’s oldest neighborhoods. Brenda Weathers founded ACW in 1974 to give women—primarily lesbians, mainly women of color—a place to heal. Miracles have taken place there for nearly half a cent…

In this grab bag of SoCal history, we talk with alum Sian Winship, an architectural historian with her fingers in many, many pies. She explored the world of modernist tract homes in her master’s thesis, Quantity and Quality: Architects Working for Developers in Southern California, 1960-1973. Quantity and quality also characterize this wide-ranging…

When M. Rosalind Sagara entered the world of heritage conservation, she brought along a deep passion for, and background in, community organizing. At USC, she researched heritage advocacy through the lens of two contentious campaigns -- both led by local stakeholders working not just to save places, but to build power and community. Hear what Rosal…

In 2003, the majority of the beloved Holiday Bowl in L.A.’s Crenshaw district was demolished. Although the bowling alley--a big box profoundly important to the community--was lost, the coffee shop--a Googie gem designed by Armet and Davis--remains standing and is now a Starbucks. Today's guest Katie Horak analyzed the efforts to save the Holiday Bo…

At the turn of the last century, Black entrepreneur Arthur L. Reese convinced developer Abbot Kinney to hire Black workers for Kinney’s seaside resort and amusement park, Venice of America. Reese had a hard time recruiting Blacks to the area because, even though Venice was one of the few neighborhoods without racially restrictive covenants, no one …

Should the Brady Bunch House be in the National Register of Historic Places? Why not? asks alum Jonathan Kaplan. In his master’s thesis, the TV writer-turned-heritage conservationist makes a case for designating sites specifically for their use in movies and TV shows. Along with literary precedent dating back to Chaucer, Jonathan cites the deep mea…

As a teenager, Ingrid Peña saw a struggling part of Pasadena morph into the poster child for the revival of historic business districts in Southern California. Little did she know that years later, she’d revisit this period for her USC master’s thesis, Saving Old Pasadena: Where Locals Took on City Hall and Won. The story of Old Pasadena is the sto…

How do you preserve the heritage of a place you have to leave? Find out from Ani Mnatsakanyan, who just finished her master’s thesis on the Central Valley town of Yettem. Armenian for “Garden of Eden,” Yettem is a tiny town with a huge impact. Learn how it came to be, how it helped Armenians rebuild their lives after fleeing genocide in their homel…

As L.A.’s Watts neighborhood reeled from the 1965 Rebellion against systemic injustice, Black architects and civil rights activists Art Silvers and Robert Kennard designed a place of healing and hope. The Watts Happening Cultural Center opened in 1970 as the home of the Mafundi Institute (“mafundi” is Swahili for artisans or craftspeople), which pr…

Bunker Hill looms large in the collective memory of Los Angeles. Once a tony enclave of Victorian homes, the downtown neighborhood became a vibrant and diverse community before being razed in the urban renewal/removal of the 1950s. Much has been made of the architectural loss. But who were, and what came of, the thousands and thousands of people di…

Alumna Sara Delgadillo grew up in the working class ethnic enclave of Pacoima in the San Fernando Valley. The heart of the community, the Van Nuys Boulevard commercial corridor, is home to several legacy businesses that serve as centers of community and cultural continuity. In this episode, journey with us to this corner of Los Angeles and see it t…

The allure of abundant work and fertile soil drew many to California, and in particular, the rich rural areas of the state. Punjabi workers came in small numbers to Yuba City in the early 1900s, but after Indian independence in 1947 when Punjab was split in two, that trickle became a steady stream. Now this rural area known for its peach orchards i…

In mid-century Los Angeles, public housing was designed to house the many workers flooding to the city seeking jobs in the booming industrial economy. Taking advantage of the climate, the various developments used the popular garden apartment model and employed some of the area’s most prominent architects. A lack of maintenance and serial disinvest…

The decade-long civil war in Syria has decimated the country’s infrastructure, killed more than 400,000 Syrians, and created the world’s largest displaced population of around 13 million. Heritage sites play a big role in war as targets of destruction, and they're typically an early focus of rebuilding efforts. With an optimistic take on a devastat…

What comes to mind when you think of Compton? If it’s gangs and rap, think again. This small city is one of the oldest in L.A. County, with a history of agriculture, self-reliance, and resilience. It has a farm, a space-age civic center, the tennis court where Venus and Serena learned to play, and more (including, yes, cowboys). Compton’s history m…