[Update] Bunker Hill Refrain: Resurrecting a Lost Community

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 rebuilding the neighborhood block by block. Hear the latest on this great partnership to illuminate the social cost of urban renewal, inform more thoughtful planning going forward, perhaps even reconnect the community. Then hear the original episode from Season 1!

Transcript

USC Digital Archives - Los Angeles Examiner Photographs Collection, 1920-1961
USC Digital Archives - Los Angeles Examiner Photographs Collection, 1920-1961
One of approximately 5,000 WPA cards describing the housing and households on Bunker Hill.
A 1939 WPA Land Use Survey Map showing the Bunker Hill neighborhood and points showing locations of individual WPA census cards. Created in Google Earth Pro. WPA Maps courtesy of USC Digital Library.
Students are mapping the residential trajectories of individuals and families who lived on Bunker Hill by cross referencing the WPA cards with data from the 1940 U.S. Census.

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

Visions & Voices exhibition (spring 2024)

Bunker Hill Refrain Zooniverse site

Follow the project on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube

USC Digital Library WPA household census cards and employee records

Los Angeles Times Timeline: How Bunker Hill transformed Los Angeles and Grand Avenue

USC Master of Heritage Conservation program

Episode Guests

Meredith Drake Reitan	Dr. Meredith Drake Reitan is an Associate Dean in the Graduate School at the University of Southern California. She also serves as an adjunct professor in USC’s Price School of Public Policy and School of Architecture where she teaches classes on planning history, urban design, and heritage conservation. Dr. Drake Reitan is currently a board member of El Pueblo Park Association, an organization dedicated to supporting El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Monument.
Suzi Noruschat	Suzi Noruschat is Southern California Studies Specialist in Special Collections at the University of Southern California Libraries, where she oversees the Regional History Collection comprising books and archives related to Los Angeles, California, and the American West.
Andy Rutkowski	Andy Rutkowski is a Visualization Specialist at USC Libraries. He helps support scholarship and research using visualization methods and practices. He teaches a course in USC’s Dornsife School, Images of Los Angeles: Visualizing Data, that explores Los Angeles through data and hands-on visualization practices and methods and a course on Big Data for Planning and Development in USC’s Price Executive Master of Urban Planning Program.
Jessica Rivas Acuña	Jessica Rivas Acuña is an M.A. Candidate in the Heritage Conservation program. Her academic and professional background lies in California history, with an emphasis on the late 19th century. Her other research interests include domestic architecture and the promotion of interdisciplinary perspectives when studying the built environment.
Brannon Smithwick	Brannon Smithwick is a dual-degree masters student currently studying Heritage Conservation in the School of Architecture and Urban Planning: Design of the Built Environment in the Sol Price School of Public Policy. Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, Brannon has a background in production design and art direction for the film industry.
Cindy Olnick	Podcast co-host Cindy Olnick recently interviewed the Bunker Hill Refrain team. Cindy is a communications pro who loves L.A. and thinks historic places are magic.