Young Korean Academy
Overview
A civic home, restored
Design by Page & Turnbull, this project is the historic preservation and rehabilitation of an existing Craftsman-style building constructed in 1910 that formerly served as the longtime headquarters of Hung Sa Dahn from 1929 to 1979. Also known as the Young Korean Academy, Hung Sa Dahn is a Korean-American civic organization established by Dosan Ahn Chang Ho, a singularly important figure at the local, state, and national level, as well as in modern Korean history. The Young Korean Academy's mission centralizes around fostering a community that supports and develops civic leaders towards a healthy, democratic society, and it played an integral role in the Korean Independence Movement. In Los Angeles, it served as a haven for its members in the 1920s, and operated as a social and cultural hub for the Korean-American immigrant community.
In recent years, this historic landmark of the Korean-American community was threatened, becoming at risk of demolition given a redevelopment project. It is thanks to the efforts of the Asian & Pacific Islander Americans in Historic Preservation and the Los Angeles Conservancy back in 2021 to designate the property as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument, as well as the Government of the Republic of Korea's purchase of the property in 2023, that the structure was preserved and still here with us today. This rehabilitation project will return the Young Korean Academy building back to its original use as a community center.