Councilmember Traci Park on site helping her constituents who lost their homes. Photo: Peter Brown
The Future of Rebuilding Starts Here
- Wildfire-ready homes that are airtight, toxin-free, and fire-safe
Energy-positive living with efficiency and solar integration built in
Faster timelines rom disaster to move-in within 12–15 months
- Accessible financing backed by philanthropy and cooperative credit
"LA is the ideal place to pioneer maximum fire-resilient, healthy, energy-efficient communities and set a global example."
One certainty remains: tackling challenges of this scale demands bold collaboration, transformative action, and the courage to redefine Los Angeles’ future – measured not by solutions alone, but by forging a resilient, sustainable community, built to endure.
“Altadena had a very rich, distinctive, unique sense of place,” Mr. Fine said. “How do you rebuild in a way that meets modern-day codes but still is representative of the look and feel, and the materiality and the scale, of what was there before?”
OUR Vision
BuildLA Initiative seeks to address systemic challenges exacerbated by the disaster, ensuring that recovery efforts promote equitable access to resources and opportunities for all affected residents.
- Development, Co-development & Finance
- Fire Mitigation
- Labor Solutions
- Supply Chain Management
- Integrated Energy Innovation
Stronger together
If state, county, and local governments rise to the occasion and embrace comprehensive, innovative solutions tailored to the scale of the crisis, a vibrant recovery is possible.
The scale of the devastation is almost incomprehensible, and the challenges ahead are monumental.
The road to recovery is fraught with systemic weaknesses and looming dangers. An already dire insurance crisis has worsened, leaving many families and communities—across a spectrum of incomes and resources—facing the overwhelming expense of rebuilding.
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
Buckminster Fuller
Unprecedented wildfires met with Passive House science.
- Market Failure → Aggregated Capital Models (Insurance collapse addressed by pooled public/private/philanthropic funds)
- Uninsurable Communities → Risk-Reduction Pilots (High-risk zones stabilized via insurer partnerships testing fire-resilient builds)
- Rebuild Cost Inflation → Prefab Innovation Consortia ($1,000/sq ft costs halved through off-site systems)
Research for Safety
For protection in an urban conflagration, such as we saw in the Eaton and Palisades wildfires, more is needed: a new powerful building standard for disaster resilience, clean and healthy indoor air, and energy positive living.
“If an airtight building envelope—paired with an energy-positive design—can slash energy use by up to 90%, enhance healthy airflow, quiet our spaces, and, crucially, save lives with fire resistance… maybe it’s time we rewrite the rules. Let’s make this the world standard.”
Andreas M. Benzing
