Save As: NextGen Heritage Conservation

As artificial intelligence (AI) transforms modern life, we’re understanding more about the benefits and tradeoffs of its use in generating content. New alum Paul Kim wrote his master’s thesis about how generative AI (genAI) perpetuates false narratives about Asian and Pacific Islander Americans (APIA), and how communities can use genAI to reclaim those narratives.

In this episode, producer Willa Seidenberg talks with Paul about his thesis, Encoding Counter Memories: Artificial Intelligence as a Tool for APIA Community Empowerment. He completed it for his dual master’s degree in heritage conservation and landscape architecture and urbanism.

They discuss ethical concerns like misinformation and data privacy, how bias affects APIA heritage, and how communities can—and must—use it to share their stories and amplify accurate history. Paul’s already on the case as a Past Futures Fellow for Asian and Pacific Islander Americans in Historic Preservation (APIAHiP)!

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An Encore episode with a new update!

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 Armstrong about L.A.'s Sugar Hill, an important neighborhood cut in half by construction of the I-10 Freeway. A nonprofit they co-founded, Architecture + Advocacy, worked with neighborhood partners on a community celebration and a design-build project.

Reily and Willa walk and talk about Sugar Hill's history and legacy of activism, and Kianna shares how a new generation of architecture students is using heritage conservation (even if they don't call it that) to help neighborhoods affected by structural racism and gentrification.

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Photographer Sally Mann once said, “Photographs open doors to the past, but also allow a look into the future.” Photography is a key component of the historic documentation process. New graduate Sam Malnati (MHC/MUP ’25) delved into photography’s role in the field for her thesis, Contemporary Vision: Photography's Influence on Perception of Places in the Past. 

In this episode, producer Willa Seidenberg talks with Sam about the history of photography and its use in the Historic American Buildings Survey, the differences between film and digital photography for historic documentation, and how researching the thesis helped Sam slow down and look at her world.

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In this “Where Are They Now?” episode, we catch up with Elysha Paluszek (MHC ‘10), senior associate, architectural historian, and preservation planner at Architectural Resources Group. She’s been highlighting hidden history since her master’s thesis, The Los Angeles African American Heritage Area: A Proposal for Development. At ARG, she’s worked on award-winning studies revealing how policy and practice shaped the built environment in West Hollywood and Los Angeles. Elysha chats with co-host Cindy Olnick about these projects and more, including her career path, the field’s evolution, and what she’d change with a magic wand.

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A month after the disastrous fires in the Los Angeles area, this special episode features a conversation among Save As co-hosts Trudi Sandmeier and Cindy Olnick, and producer Willa Seidenberg. Trudi reflects on the loss of her historic family home, her close-knit neighborhood, and the Will Rogers ranch, an integral part of her and her family’s lives. We discuss the city’s current state of grief and bewilderment, the understandable rush to rebuild along with the need to plan thoughtfully, and how we must focus not just on what we’ve lost, but what remains.

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In this “Where Are They Now?” episode, we catch up with alum Junyoung Myung (MHC ’15), who followed yet another of many career paths in heritage conservation: research and teaching. His exciting work blends architecture, design, heritage conservation, and technology—from teaching undergrad architects about adaptive reuse, to training AI to identify architectural styles, and much more. He’s also finishing his doctoral dissertation, which explores how generations of Korean immigrants and Korean Americans created a unique ethnic urban landscape in Los Angeles. It builds on his master’s thesis, Values-Based Approach to Heritage Conservation: Identifying Cultural Heritage in Los Angeles Koreatown.

Jun talks with co-host Trudi Sandmeier about working with residents to identify overlooked places of memory and meaning, using digital technology to advance the field, and inspiring the next generation of architects to embrace heritage conservation.

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As a young architectural historian in San Francisco, Shayne Watson would take lunchtime walks near her office, pondering how and where the city’s lesbian history took shape. She discovered that one of the earliest lesbian bars once stood right up the street in North Beach, a neighborhood that served as the birthplace of the city’s lesbian community—though you’d never know it just by looking. After earning her USC master’s degree in 2009, Shayne decided to do something about underrecognized LGBTQ history in San Francisco. She never looked back and is now a national leader in LGBTQ preservation.

Producer Willa Seidenberg took a walk with Shayne in North Beach to see some sites from her thesis, Preserving the Tangible Remains of San Francisco’s Lesbian Community in North Beach, 1933 to 1960. They discuss the neighborhood’s roots in tourism, its transformation after Prohibition, and its uncertain fate in the face of the affordable housing crisis.

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October 31st marks the beginning of Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights. It's the most important holiday in India. In celebration, we are re-releasing this episode from Season 1.


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 is the heart of a vibrant South Asian Punjabi community, rich with traditions and culture.

In this episode, hear from alumna Deepeaka Dhaliwal about her family ties to the area and some of the sites she explored in her research for her thesis  Yuba-Sutter: A Case Study for Heritage Conservation in Punjabi-American Communities.

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Before Death Valley became a desert tourism mecca, it was a mining hot spot. The homelands of the Timbisha Shoshone tribe were opened to industry during the California Gold Rush. In this “Where Are They Now?” episode, producer Willa Seidenberg talks with alumna Mary Ringhoff about her thesis on the early-twentieth-century mining town of Ryan, an unusually well-preserved site just outside the boundaries of Death Valley National Park. The company town housed workers at the Pacific Coast Borax Company, which produced the famous “20 Mule Team” cleaning agent used in millions of households.

Mary, an archaeologist by training, describes the lives of miners in a harsh desert environment, the town’s conversion into a hotel for tourists, and how it became a ghost town. She also shares the surprising project she’s been investigating in her work as an architectural historian.  

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One of the signs memorializing the 1955 murder of Emmett Till weighs nearly 500 pounds and is designed to absorb a rifle round. It’s the fourth version of the sign, the others having been vandalized and riddled with bullet holes.

How can communities recognize and preserve vulnerable Black heritage sites without placing them more at risk? New alumna Kira Williams shares her views with co-host Cindy Olnick on a visit to L.A.’s St. Elmo Village, a historic site of art and healing. They explore the site and discuss Kira’s thesis, Being a Part of the Narrative: How to Preserve Black Heritage in the U.S. South While Mitigating Violence and Facilitating Change?

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