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<\/p>\nWhere others saw devastation, artist Evan Curtis Charles Hall, the founding director of LA\u2019s House Museum, discovered moments of poignant beauty. Surveying the ruins of the Palisades fire, he was gripped by the sight of charred chimneys\u2014sentinels of memory and loss now untethered to the homes they once warmed. \u201cThey were alarming, but they were also uncannily beautiful,\u201d 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. \u201cI think of it as a place of reflection and encounter, a place that speaks to the past as well as the future,\u201d he states. \u2014M.R.<\/p>\n
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An illustration of a Spanish Revival concept designed by Breland Harper for Seven Houses.<\/p>\n
Photo: Courtesy of Breland-Harper<\/p>\n
Anthony Zimmitti, a seasoned builder based in Pasadena, will never forget the moment he first saw the blaze. \u201cI was born and raised in LA, so I have seen fires my whole life. But this was unique. The need for help was immediate.\u201d So began his and his wife, Gina\u2019s 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\u2019s 2024 New American Voices honorees. They have in turn conceived historically sensitive plans in three styles: midcentury, Craftsman, and Spanish Revival (above). \u201cWe are going for a standardized approach, but also trying to create homes that will last,\u201d reflects Zimmitti, anxious at the prospect of cookie-cutter houses replacing the city\u2019s architecturally significant stock. The first of their initial seven has already gotten off the ground. \u2014S.C.<\/p>\n
Want to Help? AD is proud to partner with The Foothill Catalog Foundation and San Gabriel Valley Habitat for Humanity to help rebuild homes in Altadena. Click here to donate.<\/a><\/p>\n