What happens when a historic landmark tells only part of the story? At Barnsdall Art Park and Hollyhock House, famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright gets most of the credit and attention. But the real force behind it all was his client Aline Barnsdall, who envisioned a civic and arts complex on Olive Hill that would be open to all. In the Season 7 premiere of Save As, producer Willa Seidenberg talks with recent Heritage Conservation graduate Melissa Miller about her thesis, Reinterpreting Significance: Aline Barnsdall, Hollyhock House, and Amendment as Conservation Practice in Los Angeles. Melissa makes the case for allowing amendments to Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument designations. Her case study on Aline Barnsdall grew out of a class taught by alumna Sian Winship, part of the ongoing Los Angeles Women’s Landmarks Project, a collaboration between the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the L.A. Conservancy, and the City’s Office of Historic Resources.

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This spring, as the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence approached, USC Heritage Conservation students explored this milestone from a West Coast perspective. The season finale of Save As welcomes back Dr. Laura Dominguez (MHC '12)—public humanities scholar, heritage conservation leader, and newest member of the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission.

Laura taught a documentation class based on her work on LA2026, a USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute initiative exploring Southern California’s relationship with the founding of the United States. Co-host Cindy Olnick spoke with Laura and students Leslie Madrigal, Jade Mothé, and Isabella “Bella” Ryan. They discussed reading scholarship “against the grain” to find untold stories, researching sites from early Los Angeles, and connecting Indigenous history and civil rights to themes of commemoration and belonging—all of which will inform the future of our field and our nation.

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Sea levels are rising ever faster in the face of climate change, and by the year 2100 many historic properties could be underwater. Recent Heritage Conservation graduate Alex Clark wrote her thesis on the Adamson House in Malibu, built in 1929 and famed for its Malibu Potteries tile. In her thesis, Heritage at the Water's Edge. Adaptive Release at the Adamson House, Alex outlines the site’s layered history and current use as a museum. Alex tells producer Willa Seidenberg how coastal erosion, storms, king tides, and projected sea-level rise could place the house and parts of the coastal highway underwater in a few short decades. She evaluates past and proposed mitigations and advocates for “adaptive release,” or actively managing the inevitable decay or loss of a historic site.

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