Education is a major theme in the LAPHG mission. To facilitate active learning about planning in the Los Angeles region, the Huntington Library has hosted numerous well-attended conferences featuring experts on major aspects of planning in the Los Angeles region. The panels of experts have ranged from urbanists, historians and planning educators to planning directors and private sector developers. Topics have ranged from transportation and industrialization to the role of developers and plans such as the Olmsted-Bartholomew Plan in shaping the Los Angeles region. Transcripts of many of these conferences have been prepared and are available at The Huntington Library.
The conferences conducted include:
- 1985 – Planning Retrospective 1950-1985
- 1987 – Building the Los Angeles Region (developers and builders discussed their roles in shaping the landscape of the Los Angeles region)
- 1988 – Mobility in Southern California (historians and planners discussed the role of transportation and infrastructure projects as well as lifestyle preferences have shaped the Los Angeles region)
- 1993 – Changing Cities: Learning from the History of Development in Southern California (historians, academics, and planners discussed the planning implications of local and regional change over time for three of Los Angeles’s three oldest cities, Pasadena, Pomona, and Long Beach)
- 1997 – The Industrialization of the Los Angeles Region: The Twentieth Century Record and Lessons for the Twenty-first Century
- 2001 – Eden by Design: The 1930 Olmsted-Bartholomew Plan for the Los Angeles Region
- 2004 – The Entertainment Industry — City Building and the Development of Southern California
- 2006 – Shaping Southern California: Transportation & Water
Los Angeles Planning History Group 