After attending a restoration convention at the Hollywood Roosevelt put on by the California Preservation Foundation I came across a flier for the USC Masters of Historic Preservation. On the flier is a picture of a concrete block from the Freeman House. There was an open house for their Summer Program on June 16th. William, and I attended the open house with Sarah, my daughter. I was impressed with the enthusiasm of the program director Ken Breisch. His vision for the program included a philosophy that we all have a responsibility to preserve our history. Everyone from architects, to historians, to the city hall, as well as contractors, manufacturers, and even regular citizens. The involvement of all levels of the Architecture department was highlighted by dean Qingyun Ma’s speech. Coming from China, he brings the idea that we are “Honoring the Past, Inventing The Future.” I like this idea. It is simple and honest. I find that in life we are often trying to do many different things at the same time. Sometimes they seem completely contrary but can actually work and thrive together. One of my favorite examples of two things that shouldn’t work but do is the idea of a custom commodity or the process better known as mass customization. At Arto it is one of our goals to create products that are mass produced in a way that they can be customized to your individual needs. Likewise the past and the future seem like complete opposites, and trying to focus on both could be mind boggling. Still it is the past which has laid the foundation for our future, and so the two are actually very closely linked.

 

 

Over the years Arto has been involved with the restoration of many buildings and landscapes. Some of the projects have been done with products William, one of our sales managers, would call “off the shelf.” Other projects are custom jobs. An example of “off the shelf” would be the Roosevelt Hotel in

Hollywood. Some of our custom work includes the western courtyard of

Los Angeles

City Hall or the sidewalks of the City of

San Clemente. The thing these projects had in common was they found us.

 

 

I am excited and encouraged by the direction the USC school of architecture is moving. Their openness to community involvement inspires me to develop a relationship with them. By helping the restorers of our past today, we can look forward to a strong network of well trained preservationist in the future. I am also motivated to search out (instead of them finding us) opportunities that will help preserve the history of our public spaces and historical buildings in the way only Arto can. Our past is important to us, so is education, and our community. We’ll keep you updated as we do more work in these areas.

 

-Armen