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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Recent USC Heritage Conservation graduate Eliza Jane Franklin wrote her master’s thesis on a deeply personal topic: lynching. Not just the act of physical violence that took her great-grandfather’s life in 1922, but “the act of terrorizing and/or controlling individuals’ or a community’s heritage,” which she named “heritage lynching.” In this episode, co-host Trudi Sandmeier speaks with Eliza Jane about her thesis, Re-Membering Heritage Lynchings, Hoop Skirts, and History: A Southernbelle Radical’s Unveiling of the Daughters of Dixie’s Role in the Legacy of Violence in Preservation in Eufaula, AL. Eliza Jane discusses how White people sustain a Lost Cause narrative in her hometown, how she is reclaiming her heritage, and how people can do the same in their own communities.

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What does “sublime” mean to you? Join us for an art history-meets-heritage conservation episode with recent graduate Ryan Holcomb. Like many of our students, Ryan fused seemingly disparate interests with heritage conservation in his thesis, Ponderous, Romantic and Awful: Tracking the Sublime within the Interpretation of Industrial Landmarks. He puts a name to that feeling we get—that mix of awe, wonder, even terror—from certain overwhelming experiences. He shares the role of the sublime in three case studies: Lowell National Historical Park’s Boott Mill in Massachusetts, Pittsburgh’s Carrie Blast Furnaces, and Ford’s River Rouge Plant near Detroit. Ryan tells co-host Cindy Olnick how he came to this unusual thesis subject, how the sublime affects our experience of industrial sites, and how it serves heritage conservation through emotional connection.

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Recent graduate Andrea Mauk is from the historic mining town of Clifton, Arizona, just a few miles from the largest copper mine in the United States. Like many rural communities it has an aging and deteriorating housing stock, and its workforce is increasingly priced out of homeownership. In this episode, Willa Seidenberg talks to Andrea about her thesis, Old and Improved: Exploring the Use of a Community Land Trust to Rehabilitate Historic Rural Housing. It explores whether a Community Land Trust (CLT) model could serve as a mechanism for preservation, affordability, and community empowerment in Clifton. We hear about the popularity of mining town tourism and how a CLT can be tailored to meet the housing needs of Clifton.

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On December 5, USC hosts the Soak It Up conference, exploring "landscape architecture’s leadership role in addressing critical urban flooding and water management." We thought it fitting to revisit our 2024 conversation with alumna Leslie Dinkin, who earned dual degrees in heritage conservation and landscape architecture. Her award-winning master’s thesis, Heritage in Practice: A Study of Two Urban Rivers, explores how and why the Los Angeles and San Antonio Rivers took such different courses in the development of their respective cities.

In addition to comparing their histories, Leslie walked nearly sixty miles along both rivers. She documented the experience through her written reflections and hundreds of photos by Rio (yes, Rio) Asch Phoenix. In the episode, she shares stories, insights, and part of her conversation with Char Miller, Director of Environmental Analysis and W. M. Keck Professor of Environmental Analysis and History at Pomona College.

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Much has changed since we spoke with alumna Dalia Mokayed in 2020 about her thesis, Heritage Conservation to Rebuild Cities After Crisis. Yet wars worldwide continue to decimate countries, communities, and cultures. In her thesis, Dalia examined her hometown of Aleppo, Syria, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Years before the fall of Assad in 2024, Dalia shared her invaluable perspective on the effects of war on heritage and identity, and how heritage conservation can help cities and communities rebuild. Her optimistic take on a devastating situation still offers hope and inspiration.

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