I remember the May Co: As a junior high student, my best friend and I would walk back and forth between May Co. and Ohrbachs. This was pre-mall hanging out (early 1960s). Also Thrifty Drug: My mother’s part time job; my first (and only) off the book job — untangling jewelry and wrapping gifts — […]

What is an ICO? The Interim Control Ordinances (ICO) for neighborhood conservation created a two-year moratorium on development in certain single-family neighborhoods in Los Angeles. The ordinances limited demolition in soon-to-be Historic Preservation Overlay Zones (HPOZ) and established temporary regulations for new construction in more than a dozen other neighborhoods.  What does the ICO mean for […]

What is re:code? Re:code LA is the first comprehensive update to the City of Los Angeles’ zoning code since 1946. The new, web-based code will make it easier for users to navigate and understand land use regulations. One of the first components to be unveiled is a suite of new R1 single-family zones.  What do […]

Well before 1940, Los Angeles architects (both native-born and immigrant) had developed a free-thinking, exploratory Modernism blended with commercial pragmatism that generated new forms, new architectures, and a new decentralized city. Bullocks Wilshire (John and Donald Parkinson, 1929). Photo from Conservancy archives Southern California had been nurturing a culture of architectural experimentation as early as 1900. […]

The Los Angeles Conservancy's quarterly member publication.

Make your special event even more memorable by holding it at a unique historic site!

A new Preservation Report Card will be issued! The most effective protections for historic places often lie in the hands of local government. Los Angeles County has eighty-nine of them: eighty-eight cities, plus the unincorporated County government. Each of these communities operates independently and has its own protections–or lack thereof–for historic places. This Preservation Report […]

The City of Beverly Hills’s amended historic preservation ordinance was fully implemented in November 2015, reversing much of the great progress that earned the City a grade of A+ on our 2014 Preservation Report Card.  The Conservancy has correspondingly revised the city’s grade to C- by reducing some point totals and introducing a new demerit […]

One of Los Angeles' defining historic sites, the Ambassador fueled development of Wilshire Boulevard and housed the world-famous Cocoanut Grove.