Getty Grant to L.A. Conservancy Will Help Altadena Map Its Heritage

Getty announced today it has awarded $420,000 to the Los Angeles Conservancy to lead a community-driven historic resources survey and Cultural Asset Mapping project designed to inform the rebuilding of Altadena following the devastating Eaton Fire in January 2025.

Utilizing an approach that prioritizes local participation, the project will document both tangible heritage, such as buildings and sites, along with intangible heritage, including community traditions, oral histories, cultural practices, and legacy businesses, to capture the social and cultural significance of Altadena’s distinct neighborhoods and community identity. L.A. Conservancy will work directly with various community organizations and the L.A. County Department of Regional Planning to ensure historic and cultural heritage are incorporated into policy discussions and decision-making.

The Eaton Fire claimed the lives of at least 18 individuals and destroyed half of the area’s homes, businesses, schools, places of worship, and other structures. While there is strong community interest to rebuild historic neighborhoods, these efforts have been hampered by the absence of a complete inventory of heritage and cultural resources to identify what has been lost. Unlike Pacific Palisades, whose comprehensive heritage data was mapped by the City of Los Angeles in SurveyLA well before fires ravaged the area, Altadena is an unincorporated part of Los Angeles County and lacks an official inventory.

“Tackling this incomplete record of Altadena’s cultural resources, both built and intangible, is critical for the community as it contemplates rebuilding,” says Joan Weinstein, director of the Getty Foundation. “L.A. Conservancy is an excellent partner to lead an alliance of community-based organizations and preservation professionals who are working to ensure that Altadena’s vibrant cultural history is not lost in redevelopment efforts.”

The Cultural Asset Mapping project will be led by L.A. Conservancy in partnership with Altadena Heritage, a volunteer-led organization that has worked in the community for decades. The team will incorporate community input in the project at all stages and is eager to involve other local organizations in this collaborative process, including Altadena Historical Society, Altadena Rebuild Coalition, Altadena Rising, and SoCal National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA).

“With devastation as profound as the Eaton Fire, the erasure of our heritage is a real and urgent threat,” says Adrian Scott Fine, president and chief executive officer of L.A. Conservancy who is overseeing the project. “Combining Cultural Asset Mapping with other survey work helps us ensure that cultural heritage is a cornerstone in Altadena’s recovery, and Getty’s support makes it possible to reach a fuller scale of community engagement so that local voices and stories are heard and surviving sites of significance are protected for the future.”

In addition to mapping Altadena’s physical loss, capturing its intangible heritage is essential to sustaining cultural memory and identity. Over the coming months, the project team will engage with Altadena’s diverse communities through interviews and listening sessions to gather oral histories, personal stories, traditions, cultural customs, and more—all of which will help create a fuller narrative of the region’s unique history and foster community healing, engagement, and empowerment.

“Documenting our community’s historic places and mapping both the visible and intangible aspects of our heritage is vital for Altadena,” says R. Steven Lewis, principal architect at ZGF Architects, past president of NOMA, Altadena resident, and member of the SoCal NOMA Altadena Rebuild Coalition. “This work helps us keep and hold on to not only buildings and sites, but also the memories, stories, and traditions that define the people of Altadena.”

A core component of the grant is the completion of a full inventory of Altadena’s heritage sites. L.A. Conservancy began this work immediately after the fires through a coordinated effort with Architectural Resources Group (ARG), an architectural preservation firm, and community organizations, compiling existing heritage data about Altadena into a freely accessible Geographic Information System (GIS) map. They will now complete a full historic resources survey and develop a community-wide historic context statement, a document that will provide a framework for understanding and evaluating the historical and cultural significance of Altadena’s buildings and locations. The project team will consult local organizations to ensure these resources reflect the community’s needs and priorities.

The project will also support residents and local jurisdictions in proposing informed land use and planning recommendations that can help owners of historic properties access various tax incentives. Included in this work will be a comprehensive list of heritage properties eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places, California Register of Historic Places, and Historic Landmark status in Los Angeles County. New opportunities for residents to activate local heritage could be a result of the project, like neighborhood-specific walking tours, public artworks representing areas of cultural significance, literary works featuring local voices, and more.

“The Getty Foundation’s grant comes at a pivotal moment for Altadena,” says Steven McCall, chair of the board of directors of the Los Angeles Conservancy. “Having lived in Altadena for nearly four decades, and fortunate to have my home still standing, I have personally witnessed both the deep loss and the incredible resilience of our community. This support will help us honor what’s been lost, recognize the cultural assets that endure, and ensure that Altadena's rich heritage plays a central role in shaping its recovery and future.”

Getty’s grant is one of several recovery efforts following the January fires, including the L.A. Arts Community Fire Relief Fund, a Getty-led coalition of major arts organizations and philanthropists to provide emergency relief to artists and arts workers whose residences and/or studios were impacted by the Los Angeles fires. Within six weeks of its launch, the fund announced $14.3 million awarded to 1,700 individuals, 78 percent of whom were impacted by the Eaton Fire.

The Getty Foundation

The Getty Foundation fulfills the philanthropic mission of the Getty Trust by supporting individuals and institutions committed to advancing the greater understanding and preservation of the visual arts in Los Angeles and throughout the world. Through strategic grant initiatives, the Foundation strengthens art history as a global discipline, promotes the interdisciplinary practice of conservation, increases access to museum and archival collections, and develops current and future leaders in the visual arts. It carries out its work in collaboration with the other Getty Programs to ensure that they individually and collectively achieve maximum effect. Additional information about the Getty Foundation is available.

The Los Angeles Conservancy

The Los Angeles Conservancy is a nonprofit membership organization that works through education and advocacy to recognize, preserve, and revitalize the historic architectural and cultural resources of Los Angeles County. What began as a volunteer group in 1978 has nearly 5,000 member households, the largest membership of any local preservation organization in the U.S.