Allensworth: The Past and Future of a Black Agrarian Utopia Trudi Sandmeier 00:00Today on Save As: Nina Weithorn 00:02Something that’s really important to them is kind of honoring this history of Black agrarianism and resilience and leveraging resources within a community and…
Tag: heritage conservation
Mysteries of Modernism at Schindler’s Buck House
One of the many great things about Los Angeles is its unrivaled legacy of modern residential architecture. Students in @peytonhall’s Materials Conservation class got to do their case study at the John J. Buck House (1934-35) by R. M. Schindler, one of the legendary architects who defined Southern California modernism. We got to tag along on a site visit and talk 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).
Mysteries of Modernism at Schindler’s Buck House Cindy Olnick Today on Save As: Sam Malnati I came from a background of not knowing anything about materials, so it was really cool to be able to look at peeling paint or…
Season 3, Episode 10
Posted in Episodes
[Encore] After the War: Using Heritage to Rebuild
In case you missed it, we are re-releasing an episode from our first season.
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.
After the War: Using Heritage to Rebuild Trudi Sandmeier 00:00 Hello Save As listeners, Trudi Sandmeier Here. This week we’re bringing you an encore episode from our first season. It’s called After the War: Using Heritage to Rebuild in which…
Legacy Businesses in Immigrant Neighborhoods Trudi Sandmeier 00:00Today on Save As … Xiaoling Fang 00:02These small places might not look fancy or unique or iconic from outside, but it’s such an important pinch point for the community. Trudi Sandmeier 00:12Welcome to Save As:…
Legacy Businesses in Immigrant Neighborhoods
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.
Listen below, and click here for the transcript.
Reinvesting in a Rosenwald School
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.
Bearing Witness: World War II “Comfort Women” Stations
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.
[Encore] Preserving That Signature Sound
In case you missed it, we are 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 recent USC grad 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 at home with a digital plugin? 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.