Save As: NextGen Heritage Conservation

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!

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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, a very 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.

Photos, links, and transcript on episode page

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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, and Edith Stokes, a Black woman who lived there for nearly 60 years.

Edith’s granddaughter Annie Mae Stokes was born in the house and shared stories with Emily about everyday life there. Will those stories be part of the park’s Reconstruction-based interpretation? Emily talks with co-host Trudi Sandmeier about her summer and her thesis, Reconstruction Right Now: Conserving Vernacular Heritage in Beaufort, South Carolina as an Act of Reconstructing Preservation Practice.

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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 for decades, from working to restore the long-neglected cemetery to lobbying for the town center to become a state historic park.

They’re still fighting—this time to restore the land itself, flooded by the historic storms of spring 2023 and headed for much worse as the Sierra snowpack melts. USC landscape architecture professor Alison Hirsch created a class to work with residents on aspects of Allensworth’s community plan including the cemetery, regenerative farming, and ecotourism. Hear from Professor Hirsch, students Luis Mota and Nina Weithorn, residents Sherry Hunter and Denise Kadara, and park docent Emmett Harden about Allensworth’s rich history and remarkable community.

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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 a site visit and talked with Peyton, students Sam Malnati and Julie Dinkin, and owner Jocelyn Gibbs.

The house is in great shape but has changed over time—even Jocelyn, an architectural historian, says it's full of mysteries. Buck did an original concept, and Schindler (who often made changes during construction) redesigned it. Buck added Art Deco touches inside, so Schindler didn't want the interiors published in his lifetime. Subsequent owners also altered the house and the grounds.

To unravel some of the mysteries, Peyton's students documented the Buck House down to the Bakelite doorknobs, analyzed it inside and out to identify original elements and alterations, and suggested approaches to restoring the property (if anyone ever wanted to).

See the episode page for links, transcript, and a mega-slideshow of photos by Danielle Armstrong, Julius Shulman, Dr. Fritz Block, and Ray Wachsmann

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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 focus of rebuilding efforts.

With an optimistic take on a devastating situation, alumna Dalia Mokayed talks about the effects of war on heritage and identity, and how heritage conservation can help cities and communities rebuild. The Aleppo native specifically addresses the Old City of Aleppo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the case study in her thesis, Heritage Conservation to Rebuild Cities After Crisis.

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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 community character, particularly in ethnic and immigrant neighborhoods. In this episode, producer Willa Seidenberg talks with recent USC graduate Xiaoling Fang about her thesis, Legacy Business Program Implementation in American Urban Immigrant Neighborhoods.

Xiaoling explored some of the longstanding small businesses in L.A.’s Chinatown and Little Tokyo neighborhoods, and how legacy business programs, like the ones recently adopted in Los Angeles, can be used as a tool to help culturally significant and beloved businesses survive.

See episode page for show notes and photos

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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, despite a 2012 arson attack, the alumni are working to restore the school buildings to once again serve the community. USC alumna and Tennessee native Brannon Smithwick dug into the stories of this influential school and the efforts to conserve it in her recent thesis, Educating Generations: The Legacy and Future of the Allen-White School Campus, A Rosenwald School in Whiteville, Tennessee. Through copious archival research and oral history interviews, Brannon learned firsthand the impact that one place can make.

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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 slavery for the military in its occupied territories. Their captors called them "comfort women" and their prisons "comfort stations." Two of the few remaining former comfort stations are in Hanyu's hometown.

In this episode, Hanyu discusses how the "comfort women" system developed, why these crimes took so long to reach the public eye, and why conserving the few former stations is critical to reclaiming these women's stories.

See episode page for transcript, photos, and links

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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 insisted on using specific studios to get a certain sound. It’s the physical environment of the studio, from acoustic tiles to echo chambers.

Yet the transformation of recording technology has studios closing left and right. Why save these places when you can simulate their sounds with an app? How do you preserve pegboard that’s no longer made? Hear how Kasey explored these issues and many more in her thesis, Acoustic Heritage of Recording Studios: Physical Characteristics and Signature Sound.

Photos and links on episode page

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