John Lesak is a Principal at Page & Turnbull in Los Angeles, where he specializes in in the preservation, rehabilitation, repair, and reuse of historic structures. His work includes the adaption of historic modern office buildings, 1970s concrete structures, and a 1960s library into The Cheech, a museum for Chicano art in Riverside, California that opened last year to house the collection of actor Cheech Marin. Unfrozen and Lesak chat concrete, the broad meaning of historic preservation, and of course, the Cheech – the man and the museum.
Show Notes
Intro: “Born in East L.A.,” by Cheech & Chong
Discussed:
- The Cheech
- The Mercury (Union Bank, Getty Realty Building) – Claud Beelman, converted to residential in 2007
- Local Law 97 – New York City
- Empire State Building retrofit by Johnson Controls
- Ranking of NYC buildings for energy performance
- Shift of LEED from incentive-based program to code
- Concrete cage match: Walter Netsch vs William Pereira
- Consider also Max Abramowitz
- Boston City Hall
- Early recognition of embodied energy impact, 1976-1980: Energy Use for Building Construction, Richard G. Stein & Associates + Center for Advanced Computation at the University of Illinois
- New Energy from Old Buildings, National Trust, 1981
Outro: “Concrete,” by the Darkness
Listen On
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