Where others saw devastation, artist Evan Curtis Charles Hall, the founding director of LA’s House Museum, discovered moments of poignant beauty. Surveying the ruins of the Palisades fire, he was gripped by the sight of charred chimneys—sentinels of memory and loss now untethered to the homes they once warmed. “They were alarming, but they were also uncannily beautiful,” recalls Hall, who hatched an ambitious scheme to salvage the surviving masonry structures for a Palisades Fire memorial, a venture he dubbed Project Chimney. Of the six he was able to preserve, three were designed by renowned architects Richard Neutra, Ray Kappe, and Eric Lloyd Wright. (The others bear the pedigrees of illustrious early Angelenos and manufacturers.) Hall is currently raising money to permanently install the chimneys in the Santa Monica Mountains. “I think of it as a place of reflection and encounter, a place that speaks to the past as well as the future,” he states. —M.R.
An illustration of a Spanish Revival concept designed by Breland Harper for Seven Houses.
Photo: Courtesy of Breland-Harper
Anthony Zimmitti, a seasoned builder based in Pasadena, will never forget the moment he first saw the blaze. “I was born and raised in LA, so I have seen fires my whole life. But this was unique. The need for help was immediate.” So began his and his wife, Gina’s initiative to support displaced families. Named Seven Houses, the project aims to construct just that though its potential to scale is great. To streamline the process, Zimmitti enlisted his friends Michael Breland and Peter Harper, founders of the interdisciplinary design firm Breland Harper, one of AD’s 2024 New American Voices honorees. They have in turn conceived historically sensitive plans in three styles: midcentury, Craftsman, and Spanish Revival (above). “We are going for a standardized approach, but also trying to create homes that will last,” reflects Zimmitti, anxious at the prospect of cookie-cutter houses replacing the city’s architecturally significant stock. The first of their initial seven has already gotten off the ground. —S.C.
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This story appears in the March issue. Never miss a story when you subscribe to AD.