There's another woman in KIM COOPER AND RICHARD SCHAVE's marriage, and her name is Los Angeles. Uncovering her rich narratives is the couple's passion, through their work as writers, tour guides, preservationists, podcasters and cultural Salon hosts. Kim Cooper is the creator of the 1947project crime blog that spawned Esotouric's popular crime bus tours. Richard hosts the Literary L.A. and California Culture tours. The pair curate the free Sunday Salons and forensic science seminars of LAVA - The Los Angeles Visionaries Association. Their podcast, You Can't Eat the Sunshine, features discussion of current historic preservation and public policy issues and insightful interviews with fascinating Angelenos. In 2009, they put the Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk into a non-profit. Their historic preservation advocacy for historic signage, vernacular architecture and writer's homes includes the Save the 76 Ball campaign, the landmarking of Charles Bukowski's East Hollywood bungalow, the naming of John Fante Square, the Save Felix the Cat neon sign campaign (a rare failure) and the ongoing Save Angels Flight campaign.
Pershing Square architect John Parkinson's biographer STEPHEN GEE is an independent television producer based in Los Angeles. He has worked on numerous award-winning productions and has directed and produced live coverage of high-profile news stories, including four U.S. presidential elections, important court cases, Hollywood events, as well as disasters--including the 9/11 tragedy. Experienced in various important aspects of television production, Gee was the lead cameraman and producer for a series of documentaries for National Geographic. A graduate of London's City University, Gee began his career as a newspaper reporter in Norfolk, England. He has lived in Los Angeles since 1995. He is the author of Iconic Vision: John Parkinson, Architect of Los Angeles and Los Angeles Central Library: A History of Its Art and Architecture.
COURTLAND JINDRA is an amateur historian and volunteer for the United States World War I Centennial Commission. His "Great War" interest is largely focused on America's contribution to and remembrance of it. Delving into Los Angeles Times' archives, Jindra has located numerous memorials to the war in L.A. County, the first of which being the renaming of "Central Park" as "Pershing Square" in November 1918. He is a passionate advocate for highlighting their importance, and through them the war effort writ large.
Architectural historian NATHAN MARSAK is LAVA's Visionary of the Year for 2015, an honor bookended by his one-off guided bus tour of Southern California's early modernist mausoleums and his Sunday Salon lecture on L.A.'s lost Richardsonian Romanesque buildings. He helped Save the 76 Ball and is a tireless contributor to the 1947project series, most notably On Bunker Hill. Nathan is the author of the book Los Angeles Neon.
