Historic Places LA

For several years now the Office of Historic Resources has been making a survey of buildings and districts of note -- and now the findings are available to you at HistoricPlacesLA.org -- a web site created in collaboration with the Getty Conservation Institute.

Ken Bernstein heads the Office of Historic Resources and says they created the site to bring people into the preservation process so buildings of note are flagged before they are threatened. But what merits preservation, especially when buildings have difficult histories or look ugly to some?

Bernstein talks about why Parker Center wasn’t among the city’s local landmarks, the challenges of cultural memory, and when buildings are most susceptible to demolition.