Andrea Thabet, Ph.D. Bunker Hill, Civic Leadership, historic preservation, LA Conservancy, LA Music Center, LA Politics, LA River, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Magazine, Uncategorized, urban renewal

The Impermanence of LA’s Built Environment?

What deserves protection? With every announcement I read about the construction of a new building, new museum, or a park redesign comes my inevitable questions: what was there before? Is there anything worth saving? And how will these new spaces shape L.A. in the 21st century? My latest pondering of these questions has to do with L.A. … Continue reading The Impermanence of LA’s Built Environment?

Andrea Thabet, Ph.D. Bob Baker Marionette Theater, historic preservation, LA Conservancy, LA Politics, Los Angeles, Uncategorized, urban renewal

The Messy World of Historic Preservation: the Bob Baker Marionette Theater

What constitutes a building worth saving? Curbed LA recently featured an article about the likely conversion of the Bob Baker Marionette Theater into a five-story mixed-use building project.[1] As the article notes, the sixty-one year old building in downtown Los Angeles has faced a number of threats in the last six years, including a near-foreclosure, and official … Continue reading The Messy World of Historic Preservation: the Bob Baker Marionette Theater