Preserving Los Angeles heritage

A brief Q&A in the LA Times: Taking Stock of L.A.’s Heritage to Help Preserve It

The head of the new office of historic resources will lead the city’s first full survey of architecturally significant sites.

When the Ambassador Hotel was demolished late last year, Ken Bernstein grieved for the loss. But Bernstein, then the head of preservation issues for the Los Angeles Conservancy, also knew that the group had put up a good fight in trying to retain at least parts of the main hotel building as a new school complex is built there.

Now, after eight years at the conservancy, Bernstein is switching camps. He recently became the city of Los Angeles’ first manager of the office of historic resources, a new part of the Planning Department that consolidates previously scattered responsibilities for preservation issues at a time of growing development and population pressures. Among his tasks will be to lead the city’s first full survey of historic and architecturally significant sites, a mammoth, five-year project partly funded by the Getty Foundation.