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Category archive for: Season 4

April 18, 2024
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Season 4, Episode 9

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There’s an App for That: 3D Scanning with a Smartphone

Tools for documenting historic buildings evolve constantly, but professional 3D scanners remain out of reach for most of us. Alumna Ye Hong, our first dual-degree student in Heritage Conservation and Building Science, sees a path to more equitable heritage conservation in the nearly ubiquitous smartphone. For her thesis, she tested the potential and limitations of mobile apps to scan Reunion House, designed by Richard and Dion Neutra. In this episode, co-host Trudi Sandmeier discusses this exciting project with Ye, as well as (fellow alum) Sian Winship of the Neutra Institute for Survival through Design.

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March 28, 2024
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Season 4, Episode 8

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Documenting Black Women’s History at the Wilfandel Clubhouse

Dedicated students at the University of Southern California have pulled out the laser scanners and measuring tapes to document the Wilfandel Clubhouse in the West Adams neighborhood of Los Angeles. The Wilfandel Club, the oldest Black women’s club in Los Angeles, was founded in 1945 by Della Williams (wife of architect Paul R. Williams) and Fannie Williams as a safe place for social, civic, and community events. In this episode, producer Willa Seidenberg visits the clubhouse to see the students in action, hear what they’re doing and why, and talk with longtime member Jan Morrow Bell.

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March 7, 2024
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Season 4, Episode 7

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The Midcentury Spa-Tels of Desert Hot Springs

New alumna (and Save As producer) Willa Seidenberg has enjoyed the mineral-water spas of Desert Hot Springs for decades. In the 1950s, the Coachella Valley town became a destination for middle- and working-class families who frequented the simple spa motels, or “spa-tels.” Willa and co-host Cindy Olnick took a road trip to Desert Hot Springs to see the remaining spa-tels and talk about Willa’s thesis, Spa City: The Midcentury Spa-Tels of Desert Hot Springs. You’ll hear about Willa’s research journey down rabbit holes that led to valuable discoveries. You’ll also learn about tools the town could use to boost its economy by celebrating its heritage.  

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February 15, 2024
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Season 4, Episode 6

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The Hidden Heritage of San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf

A San Francisco native, alumna Emi Takahara always wondered why so many locals dismiss the historic Fisherman’s Wharf as a tourist trap. Sure, it has overpriced food, but it also has a culinary history that might surprise you—as well as longtime businesses trying to weather the changing times. In this episode, Emi talks with producer Willa Seidenberg about her thesis, The Restaurant That Started It All: The Hidden Heritage of San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf, how Italian immigrants shaped Fisherman’s Wharf in the nineteenth century, and how it’s evolving in the twenty-first.

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January 24, 2024
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Season 4, Episode 5

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Rehabbing Old Houses into Affordable Housing

Alumna Isabel Thornton grew up in the Rust Belt town of Roanoke, Virginia. After graduating from USC, she eventually returned home and took note of the city’s beautiful Victorian homes, many vacant and in a state of disrepair. Linking her experience in affordable housing with her passion for historic places inspired her to create her non-profit Restoration Housing. In this episode of Save As, Isabel talks with Trudi about how her organization is successfully rehabilitating neglected houses into unique high-quality affordable rental housing. 

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December 13, 2023
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Season 4, Episode 4

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[Update] Meet You at Lenchita’s

Alumna Sara Delgadillo grew up in Pacoima, a blue-collar neighborhood in L.A.’s San Fernando Valley. Sara joined us in Season One to discuss how growing up in Pacoima influenced her life, studies, and career in heritage conservation. She also shared some of the enclave’s rich history, including some of the longtime small businesses that serve as centers of community and cultural continuity. One of them, Lenchita’s Restaurant, recently won a $5,000 Legacy Business Grant from the Los Angeles Conservancy! Hear about this well-deserved honor in a brief update with Sara and Chef Art Luna, a culinary instructor and grandson of Lenchita’s founder Angelita Alvarez Rentería. Then enjoy the original episode—and get in line for your holiday tamales.

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November 1, 2023
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Season 4, Episode 3

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[Update] Heritage and Hope at the Mafundi Building in Watts

After the Watts Rebellion of 1965, Black architects Art Silvers and Robert Kennard designed a Late Modern building for the Mafundi Institute, a cultural organization. The Watts Happening Cultural Center opened in 1970 as a place of creative expression, community, and healing. The popular Watts Coffee House has called the building home for decades. Now commonly called the Mafundi Building, this neighborhood treasure needs some TLC and new programming by and for the community.

We featured the Mafundi Building in Season 1, when it faced demolition and USC Materials Conservation students used it as their case study. MHC alum Rita Cofield, a lifelong community member and longtime champion of the building, joined us for the first episode. Now executive director of Friends at Mafundi and Project Leader of the Getty’s African American Historic Places Los Angeles initiative, Rita returns with an update on exciting developments. We follow the update with the original episode. This is a long one, but stick with it—you’ll be glad you did.

The original episode was dedicated to the memory of Jerome Robinson—scholar, MHC alumnus, and friend—pictured at Disneyland Paris in 2017 with Save As co-host Trudi Sandmeier. Jerome Robinson and Trudi Sandmeier at Disneyland Paris

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October 9, 2023
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Season 4, Episode 2

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[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!

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September 19, 2023
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Season 4, Episode 1

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Architecture + Advocacy in L.A.’s Sugar Hill

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.

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University of Southern California