Heritage and Homelessness

How can heritage conservation help end homelessness? USC grad students in heritage conservation, architecture, and urban planning sought to find out. Using the city of Pasadena as their laboratory, the students and their instructor worked closely with Union Station Homeless Services and Pasadena Heritage. These partners came away with creative strategies and design concepts they can put to use right now, and that could serve as a model for other cities. The students came away with a deeper understanding of both homelessness and heritage conservation.

Podcast Breakdown

• • • [05:55] Vinayak Bharne introduces the course
    • [08:26] Anne Miskey introduces Union Station Homeless Services
    • [13:06] The students (Melissa, Victor, and Ani) discuss their research
    • [33:00] Anne Miskey wraps it up

This slideshow previews just a few of the items produced for the course.

Want to know more about some of the ideas and places mentioned in this episode? Check out:

Union Station Homeless Services

Pasadena Heritage

USC Master of Heritage Conservation program

Episode Guests

	Vinayak Bharne is Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Southern California School of Architecture; Director the India-Netherlands-based knowledge platform, My Liveable City; and Principal and Director of Design of the Los Angeles-based architecture and urban design practice, Moule & Polyzoides. His work ranges from satellite cities and inner city revitalization to housing and urban regulations in the United States, Panama, Australia, China, India, Kenya, and Mauritius. He is the author/editor of numerous books including Affordable Housing, Inclusive Cities; Routledge Companion to Global Heritage Conservation; and the forthcoming Urbanism Beyond 2020.
	Anne Miskey is the Chief Executive Officer of Union Station Homeless Services, serving Pasadena and the San Gabriel Valley (SGV). Union Station is the largest agency working to end homelessness in SGV and focuses on strategic, innovative, and effective solutions to ending homelessness for individuals and families. With more than 25 years of experience in both the corporate and non-profit sectors, Anne has a unique perspective on the role non-profits, governments, and communities can together play in effecting and supporting an end to major social problems.
	Dr. Melissa Miller is a USC Master of Heritage Conservation graduate student as well as a faculty member for the USC Libraries. She serves primarily as a teaching and research academic librarian as head of the historic Hoose Library of Philosophy.  Melissa’s research areas and interests intersect through the fields of heritage conservation and the digital humanities, with a focus in medieval manuscripts and rare books. Her graduate research focuses on adaptive reuse strategies to help mitigate the issues of homelessness and social injustice.
	Victor Mendoza is an international Master of Urban Planning student at the Sol Price School of Public Policy, following the Design of the Built Environment Concentration. Born in Mexico, Victor has a background in architecture and practiced for ten years in both the public and private sectors. He is now working at a non-profit organization developing solutions to end global homelessness.
	Ani Mnatsakanyan is a graduate student in the Master of Heritage Conservation Program. She is currently the Curator of Education and Engagement at the Museum of Neon Art in Glendale, CA and serves as a member of The Glendale Historical Society’s Member Outreach and Inclusion Committee. Her interests are transplanted heritage and diasporan communities in Southern California.
	Trudi Sandmeier is the Director of Heritage Conservation Programs at the USC School of Architecture and the co-host of the podcast.

Episode Credits

We couldn’t do this without our amazing Save As Dream Team – Xiaoling Fang (visiting Urban Light at LACMA), Lindsay Mulcahy (she’s on the right with her classmates Stacy Williams and Rafael Fontes at the Paul R. Williams-designed Founder’s Church), and Julia Ressler (hard at work performing a materials assessment at Topanga Ranch Motel), who offer creative input, advice, perspective, reality checks, and hands-on help to make this episode possible.

Xiaoling Fang

Lindsay Mulcahy

Julia Ressler

The Save As logo was designed by the talented Fern Vargas – and we are grateful for the support of the Communications team at the USC School of Architecture!

Special thanks to Stephen Conley, who wrote our Save As theme music – you can reach him at stephenconleymusic@gmail.com.

And thanks many times over to Tom Davies for his sound engineering and tech support.