International Crossroads: From Cube Houses to Streamline Moderne
November 15, 2014
Diane Kane is a former Senior Planner from the City of San Diego, where she handled large-scale historical surveys as part of the long range planning process. Previously, she was the Heritage Resources Coordinator for Caltrans in Los Angeles, where she conducted environmental review of historic properties.
Specializing in 19th and 20th Century architectural history and urban planning, Dr. Kane holds an MA in Art History from UC Berkeley and a PhD in Architectural History from UC Santa Barbara. She has taught these subjects at several colleges and universities, including the NewSchool of Architecture & Design, the Design Institute, SDSU, UCLA, University of Redlands, and Cal Poly, Pomona. As a Trustee and Vice-President of Programs for the California Preservation Foundation, she is a frequent contributor to CPF conferences, workshops and webinars.
Diane worked closely with architect Ione Stiegler in the recent renovation of Wisteria Cottage, the home of the La Jolla Historical Society. She wrote the historical structures report for the project, documenting features of the cottage, people who lived there, and important events that occurred. In the archives at UC Santa Barbara, Diane located Irving Gill’s working drawing of Wisteria Cottage which proved to be a better guide for the project than a faded copy in the Historical Society’s archive. Although Kane and Stiegler were not able to identify the original architect, they did discover that Gill added Wisteria’s lower level, the cobblestone walls surrounding the property and the cobblestone supporting terraces.
For volunteer work associated with the La Jolla Historical Society’s efforts to save the La Jolla Post Office, Dr. Kane was named Save Our Heritage Organisation’s 2014 “Preservationist of the Year.”