Lately I’ve been on a bit of a hiatus from the blog – but with very good reason. For the last year or so, I’ve been part of a group planning a large national conference here in LA. Now about a week away, the event brings together about 400 planning historians at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown for the 16^th Annual Society for American City and Regional Planning History (SACRPH) meeting. The members of SACRPH look at planning and urbanism issues through a historical lens and the conference provides an opportunity to learn about the latest issues and trends in this area. While many panels have a national or international theme, there will be significant attention paid to Los Angeles.

The conference runs from November 4^th to 8^th and is open to local urbanists and historians. Aside from the academic papers, there will also be special events and tours on Thursday and Sunday highlighting various Los Angeles neighborhoods and issues.

More information about the conference is available on the SACRPH website. As of today, online registration has closed, but onsite registration will be available starting on Thursday at 1:00pm at the Biltmore Hotel.

Below is a quick overview of conference activities with a local bent. Some focus entirely on Los Angeles or Southern California, while others have one or two speakers who will discuss the Southland. The full conference schedule can be downloaded here as a PDF.

———————–Thursday———————–

Redevelopment in the Rear View Mirror (special day rate of $35)

Thursday pre-conference program of walking tours, exhibitions, and panel discussions explore the rocky past and uncertain future of redevelopment in the City of Los Angeles. The program will pay particular attention to the Bunker Hill neighborhood, the city’s first large-scale redevelopment site and a model of mid-century planning.

3:00pm – 5:30pm: Walking Tour

5:30pm – 6:00pm Exhibition, LAPL

6:00pm – 7:00pm: Panel discussion with Don Spivak, Jan Perry & Raphael Bostic

7:00pm – 9:00pm: Reception at the Farmers & Merchants Bank

 

———————–Friday @ 8:30am———————–

8:30 – 10:15 AM PLENARY SOCIAL JUSTICE THROUGH A HISTORICAL LENS

This special panel considers struggles over fair housing, homelessness, and freeway construction in Los Angeles to suggest the depth of the fractures in the city but also its legacy of vibrant social activism. Panelists include Eric Avila, University of California, Los Angeles, Catherine Gudis, University of California, Riverside and Greg Hise, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Moderated by: William Deverell, University of Southern California

———————–Friday @ 10:30am———————————

PERIPHERIES OF LOS ANGELES
Chair & Comment: William Deverell, University of Southern California

• Recreating the Aloha Spirit: Japanese American Hawai’ians in the South Bay, 1945-1970, Anne Soon Choi, California State University, Dominguez Hills
• To Fight the “Expensive Processes of Urban Development experienced at USC, Columbia and Chicago”: The Making of San Fernando Valley State College in Cold War Los Angeles Jean-Paul deGuzman, University of California, Santa Barbara
• Asian American Dreams and the Suburban American West James Zarsadiaz, University of San Francisco

PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARIES: SITUATING THE POLITICS OF MEMORY
Chair & Comment: Ruth Knack, former executive editor, Planning

• Presidential Libraries and Their Cities: From Rural Memorial to Urban Campus Marie-Alice L’Heureux, University of Kansas & Kapila Silva, University of Kansas
• The Site Selection Process for Presidential Libraries: Politics and Controversy Anthony J. Clark, independent writer
• A Third Term: The Nixon Presidential Library and the Architecture of Presidential History Patrick David Haughey, Savannah College of Art & Design

SEXUALITY, SPACE, AND METROPOLITAN DEVELOPMENT IN CALIFORNIA
Chair: Josh Sides, California State University, Northridge

• Ian M. Baldwin, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
• Nan Alamilla Boyd, San Francisco State University
• Clayton Howard, Ohio State University

———————–Friday @ 2:30pm – 4:15pm———————–

SHAPING THE IMMIGRANT METROPOLIS: COMMUNITY AND CONTESTATION, SOCIAL HOUSING AND CIVIC ACTIVISM
Chair & Comment: Abel Valenzuela, University of California, Los Angeles

• Exploring Lifeways and Values across L.A.’s Asian American Suburbs, 1960-2000 Becky M. Nicolaides, University of California, Los Angeles and University of Southern California
• The Right to Suburbia: Redevelopment and Resistance on the Urban Edge Willow S. Lung-Amam, Univ. of Maryland, College Park
• “We are here to stay”: Multiracial Solidarities and the Founding of El Centro de la Raza in Seattle Maki Smith, Colby College
• It Looks Like Our Homeland, Not Like the United States: Latina/o Community Building and Belonging in South East Los Angeles: 1970-1997 Jorge N. Leal, University of California, San Diego

PLANNING HISTORY, CIVIC ENGAGEMENT & INFLUENCING SOCIAL CHANGE

• Planning History and the Future of Public Housing in Richmond, Virginia Amy L. Howard, University of Richmond
• Miami Affordability Project: Mapping Affordable Housing and Community Development in South Florida Robin F. Bachin, University of Miami
• Planning, Politics, and Play: Restaging Gentrifcation’s Front Lines in Los Angeles Catherine Gudis, University of California, Riverside
• Decoding Planning Violence, Co-creating Civic Health, Montgomery Alabama Jocelyn Zanzot, Auburn University & Daniel Neil, Troy University Rosa Parks Museum

———————–Friday @ 4:30pm – 6:15pm———————–

THE ARSENAL OF EXCLUSION: LOS ANGELES EDITION – WORKSHOP

• Access Wars Daniel D’Oca, Interboro Partners, Brooklyn, NY
• Community Designing Change: Active Methods of Community Engagement to Reshape a More Equitable Built Environment Theresa Hwang, Woodbury University
• Trailblazing Public Space Therese Kelly, Therese Kelly Design / Los Angeles Urban Rangers
• Aesthetics and the People Mimi Zeiger, Architects Newspaper and Los Angles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design
• Tourism for the 99% Laura Pulido, University of Southern California
• Cracking, Packing, and Gerrymandering Rosten Woo, independent consultant

FROM CITY BEAUTIFUL TO LIVABLE CITY: ART, SPACE & POLITICS – ROUNDTABLE

• John Arroyo, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Cathy Gudis, University of California, Riverside
• Ken Rogers, York University
• Annette Kim, University of Southern California
• Lily Baum Pollans, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Louis L. Thomas, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

IMAGINING LOS ANGELES, MAKING URBAN HUMANITIES
Chair: Jonathan Crisman

• Contemplating the Fate of Operative Histories in the City of Angels, Jon Christensen, University of California, Los Angeles
• Speculative Practices at Union Station, Jonathan Crisman, University of California, Los Angeles
• The Expanded Field of Los Angeles, Dana Cuff, University of California, Los Angeles
• In Los Angeles, the Past Is a (Very) Different Country Michael Dear, University of California, Berkeley

THE CINEMATIC CITY
Chair & Comment: Michael Carriere, Milwaukee School of Engineering

• Boosting Kaohsiung through Cinematic Urban Vision Ying-Fen Chen, University of California, Berkeley
• Industrial Networks and Urban Development: Kansas City’s Film Row and the National Film Distribution Network Stephanie Frank, University of Missouri, Kansas City
• Talking Picture Development: The Cinematic Cities of Moscow, Rome, and Hollywood Kirby Pringle, Loyola University Chicago

———————–Saturday @ 8:30am – 10:15am———————–

DEFINING AND DESIGNING PUBLIC SPACE IN LOS ANGELES
Chair: David Ulin, University of California, Riverside
Comment: Elaine Lewinnek, California State University, Fullerton

• Designing for Development: Urban Design in the Era of the Community Redevelopment Agency, Los Angeles, 1968-2012 Orly Linovski, University of Manitoba
• Resistance at the Trench: The 101 Freeway as Public Space Linda C. Samuels, University of Arizona
• Public Space and the Images of Urban Design: Downtown Los Angeles Since Kevin Lynch Tridib Banerjee, University of Southern California & Meredith Drake Reitan, University of Southern California

SUNBELT SUBURBIA: DESIGN, PLANNING, AND PRESERVATION
Chair & Comment: Mary Corbin Sies, University of Maryland

• The Modernique Homes: Valuing Modern Architecture in Postwar Los Angeles Tract Housing Liz Falletta, University of Southern California
• Planning and Preserving the Mid-century Subdivision: The Case of Pueblo Gardens Clare Robinson, University of Arizona
• Learning from Suburban-style Retirement Communities in the Sunbelt: Sun City and The Villages June Williamson, The City College of New York

———————–Saturday @ 10:30am – 12:15pm———————–

COMPLICATING SUBURBIA IN LOS ANGELES
Chair: Becky Nicolaides, University of California, Los Angeles and University of Southern California
Comment: Phil Ethington, Univ. of Southern California

• The Remaking of Los Angeles: Latino Suburbs, the Case of South Gate, 1966-2014 Mercedes Gonzalez-Ontañon, Claremont Graduate University
• Deindustrialization and the Evolution of the Working Class Suburban Dream in Southeast Los Angeles (1965-1990) Graham McNeill, Claremont Graduate University
• The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same: Demographic Transition, Local Politics, and the Persistence of the Suburban Ideal in Southeast Los Angeles County Jake Wegmann, University of Texas, Austin

LOS ANGELES HISTORY 2.0: PLACE-BASED STORIES IN THE DIGITAL AGE – ROUNDTABLE
Moderator: Meredith Drake Reitan, University of Southern California

• Andrea Thabet, independent scholar
• Victoria Bernal, independent writer
• Nathan Masters, University of Southern California
• Stacey Allan, East of Borneo

———————–Saturday @ 2:30pm – 4:15pm———————–

BUILDING MODERN CALIFORNIA: LOS ANGELES AND SAN FRANCISCO IN THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY
Chair: Jan Reiff, University of California, Los Angeles
Comment: Mitchell Schwarzer, California College of the Arts

• Gardens in the City: San Francisco’s Twentieth-century Residence Parks Richard Brandi, Boardmember, Western Neighborhoods Project; independent preservationist
• Building Los Angeles: The Architecture of Morgan, Walls and Clements Tamara Morgenstern, independent preservationist
• “The Continuous City” of “Homey Homes”: Los Angeles 1900-1920 Laura Redford, independent historian

———————–Saturday @ 4:30pm – 6:15pm———————–

QUASI-PUBLIC SPACES: PLANNING AND CONTROL
Chair & Comment: Jason Henderson, San Francisco State University

• Ticket Please: The Right to the City Via the Right-of Way in the Long Civil Rights Era Fallon Samuels Aidoo, Harvard University
• From the Revolving Door to the Sky Lobby: The Transformation of Los Angeles Hotel Lobbies as Semipublic Spaces Megan McLeod Kendrick, Woodbury University
• Tunnels and Riverbeds: Quasi-public Pathways in Houston and L.A. Kyle Shelton, Rice University
• In the Name of the Pedestrian: Design, Planning and Regulation Since 1945 David Smiley, Columbia University

BALDWIN HILLS VILLAGE: RACE, COMMUNITY ASSOCIATIONS, & THE ETHICS OF PRESERVATION – ROUNDTABLE
Chair: Matthew Gordon Lasner, Hunter College
Moderator: Steve Moga, Smith College

• Dell Upton, University of California, Los Angeles
• Teresa Grimes, GPA Consulting, Los Angeles
• Alison Rose Jefferson, Los Angeles
• Michael Allen, Washington University
• George Rheault, The Village Green

CONTEXTUALIZING CODE: LAW, REGULATION, ZONING
Chair & Comment: David Freund, University of Maryland, College Park

• The Rules of Residential Segregation: American Housing Taxonomies and Their Precedents Sonia A. Hirt, Virginia Tech Excess
• Condemnation in the Progressive Era: Redistribution and/or Aesthetic Reform? Jon Ritter, New York University
• House Rules: How Policy has Shaped Single Family Houses in Southern California Mark Vallianatos, Occidental College

———————–Sunday @ 8:00m———————–

TOUR 1 Boyle Heights: Eastside Suburb, Ethnic Community, and Ongoing Change (FULL)

TOUR 2 Pasadena: City Beautiful, Heritage Conservation, and Urbanism Old & New

TOUR 3: Boulevard of Dreams & Main Street Revival

TOUR 4: Big Plans & Big Projects: Torrance, Baldwin Hills Village, Lakewood, and Playa Vista