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 e