A group of architecture students at the University of Southern California wants to do more than just design buildings. They want to work with communities to “un-design'' spatial injustice and leverage the power of residents in shaping their neighborhoods.
In this episode, producer Willa Seidenberg talks with students Reily Gibson and Kianna Armstrong about L.A.'s Sugar Hill, a very important neighborhood cut in half by construction of the I-10 Freeway. A nonprofit they co-founded, Architecture + Advocacy, worked with neighborhood partners on a community celebration and a design-build project.
Reily and Willa walk and talk about Sugar Hill's history and legacy of activism, and Kianna shares how a new generation of architecture students is using heritage conservation (even if they don't call it that) to help neighborhoods affected by structural racism and gentrification.
Photos, links, and transcript on episode page