Historical perspective: in a place where redevelopment and change is the norm, Los Angeles Conservancy head Linda Dishman tries to keep preservation in the forefront. (People).

THE Los Angeles Conservancy typically finds itself at or near the center of controversy. Executive Director Linda Dishman oversees the 7,400-member organization that enters its 25th year as the largest locally based preservation organization in the country and key to the redevelopment of the old Cinerama Dome complex--now the ArcLight Hollywood--the Herald Examiner Building and the Los Angeles Central Library The conservancy has also helped create Los Angeles' 15 Historic Preservation Overlay Zones--designated historic districts where building exterior alterations must comply with preset standards and are subject to approval by a local board It is also working with the L.A. Unified School District on a plan to convert the Ambassador Hotel site into a school. Dishman, a Sacramento native, will celebrate her 11th year with the Conservancy next month.

Question: How did you get into this?

Answer: I always loved historic buildings. I had one of those families that on Sunday afternoons drove around and looked at the little plaques on buildings. I did not realize you could have a career in historic preservation until I was in college and had an internship with the state office of historic preservation and pretty much have worked in preservation since then.

Q: How have Angelenos responded to the prospect of historic neighborhood districts?

A: We've seen an absolute explosion of neighbors coming together and saying, "we really want to protect our neighborhoods," and they've gone door to door to organize to do that. We've almost doubled the number of historic districts in Los Angeles in the last three years and we've got another 14 to 15 on the list. City governments actually do the designation of these properties. Sometimes people get confused and think that we actually have some kind of a regulatory role and we do not.

Q: Historic zones have been a hot issue in cities like Santa Monica, where a group has put on the next ballot a requirement of 100 percent neighborhood approval to enact a historic zone. What's your response?

A: When you require 100 percent owner consent, quite often the majority would not be able to get the designation to protect their neighborhood, so the concern is that one person could prevent everybody from going forward. There has to be a lot of education--getting information to people who have historic buildings in Los Angeles and why they're important. Historic preservation doesn't mean you can't make an addition or convert your garage into a bedroom. It really allows for a lot of changes to occur. Look at the Central Library--there's a very large addition on it, all of which was accepted and applauded by the preservation community.

Q: With property values some of the highest in the nation, isn't it more of a challenge to take a position that essentially dictates what a homeowner can do?

A: We don't have local data, but experience across the country is that being in a historic district actually increases property values. People want to know that their investment is secured. Say you live in a wonderful Craftsman bungalow and you have a nice porch in front and you sit outside and enjoy your porch. If the person across the street stuccos their Craftsman bungalow, your property values have theoretically gone down because the view from your house is not as pleasant. People actually buy into neighborhoods because they know from their wonderful little second story window that they're going to look out onto a row of gabled roofs and they're going to live in a craftsman neighborhood.

Q: Where are the next historic preservation zones going to be?

A: We've been working with (L.A. City Councilman) Tom LaBonge's office and the neighborhood groups in Hancock Park and Windsor Square. But much of our growth occurred after World War II, so we're looking at postwar suburbs. We need to be thinking about these historic resources that are just now becoming 50 years old, which is sort of the traditional demarcation of what is historic, and we have a wealth of that.

Q: What's the status on the Ambassador Hotel and its conversion into a Los Angeles Unified School District site?

A: An environmental impact report will probably be released within the next couple months, and the LAUSD is planning to have a decision by early to mid-summer. There are five alternatives being pursued: the complete preservation option, two partial preservation options, complete demolition, and keeping the hotel building as a school with new commercial development along Wilshire Boulevard.

There's an opportunity there to use the key historic spaces--the hotel lobby would be the entrance area to the high school. The Grand Embassy ballroom where Robert Kennedy made his. 1968 candidate acceptance speech (just before his assassination) would be turned into the library for all three schools on the site. The Cocoanut Grove would become the auditorium for the school.

Q: Is there a concern that the Conservancy could be perceived as delaying the process of building new schools?

A: With the Ambassador Hotel, we have an opportunity to build a school that combines the heritage and the legacy of that property. When you're a sophomore in high school and read "The Great Gatsby," you could do that in a building that F. Scott Fitzgerald stayed in. What better place to take drama than where Barbra Streisand had her first public appearance on the stage in the Cocoanut Grove. We have the Kennedy association and the fact that this was long a Democratic center.

Q: Has historic downtown's revitalization progressed as quickly as you would have liked?

A: There are more than 4,000 units in 35 projects in some stage of development--that's the really good news. The big issue for the next phase of development is getting major banks and financial institutions into the area because that has been the problem--it's still perceived as risky even though the projects that have been opened have been very successful.

Q: Will there be enough demand to support these units?

A: We don't have a lot to buy downtown and that is one thing we need to address. As long as you're looking at just a rental market, you're going to get a certain subset of the population. We do have the Flower Street Lofts, which will be the first for-sale adaptive reuse project, and that's exciting. When the big developers come in, then the big lending institutions will follow.

Q: Would you consider living downtown?

A: I don't live far from here. I live in Silver Lake. If I lived further away I would absolutely consider living downtown. I love the lofts and maybe at some point in my life, I would do it.

Q: If there was one razed L.A. building that you wished the Conservancy would've been able to help save, what would it have been?

A: The Richfield Oil Building, which was demolished to build Arco Plaza in 1968. The loss of that building was one of the reasons the conservancy was formed 10 years later. It's a stunning building--art deco, dark terra cotta with amazing gilded angels on the top.

Q: Are Angelenos as uninterested in preservation as non-Angelenos think they are?

A: When people say, "people in L.A. don't care about their history," I say they're wrong. We've got this huge membership that supports. historical preservation very loyally and very generously.

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Linda Dishman

Title: Executive Director

Organization: Los Angeles Conservancy

Born: Marysville, Calif., 1956

Education: Bachelor's in History, UC Davis, 1978, attended graduate classes at UC Davis and Cal Poly San Luis Obisbo, architecture and history

Career Turning Point: Internship with the California State Office of Historic Preservation, 1976

Most Admired Person: Julia Morgan, California's first female architect.

Personal: Married

Hobbies: Walking her dog, collecting miniature buildings on eBay