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__Description__
In January 2025, a wind‑driven wildfire tore through Los Angeles’ Pacific Palisades, destroying more than 1,200 buildings and racking up an estimated $250 billion in damage. Yet one newly built home—surrounded by ashes and charred foundations—stood almost untouched. How did it survive when its century‑old neighbors didn’t?
__Special Thanks__
– Evan Montgomery — co-producer
– SOM — filming location (www.som.com)
__Key Points__
– Why Pacific Palisades is a textbook wildland‑urban interface (WUI) and how its street grid, vegetation, and topography turned into fuel.
– The architect’s radical design moves: 30‑foot defensible space, board‑formed concrete fences, no eaves, Class‑A roof, sealed vents, and an almost airtight envelope.
– Trade‑offs no one talks about—historic charm lost, windows that stay shut, yards that trade grass for gravel.
– California’s Chapter 7A wildfire code (2008‑) vs. older houses, plus the zoning loopholes and “like‑for‑like” rebuilding rules that keep entire districts vulnerable.
– What other fire‑prone regions (Ventura County, post‑2019 Australia) are doing to blend resilience with neighborhood character—wider streets, strategic landscaping, buried utilities.
– The big question: Should we rebuild exactly as before, retrofit piecemeal, or rethink entire communities when the next blaze is only a matter of time?
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__About the Channel__
Architecture with Stewart is a YouTube journey exploring architecture’s deep and enduring stories in all their bewildering glory. Weekly videos and occasional live events breakdown a wide range of topics related to the built environment in order to increase their general understanding and advocate their importance in shaping the world we inhabit.
__About Me__
Stewart Hicks is an architectural design educator that leads studios and lecture courses as an Associate Professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He also serves as an Associate Dean in the College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts and is the co-founder of the practice Design With Company. His work has earned awards such as the Architecture Record Design Vanguard Award or the Young Architect’s Forum Award and has been featured in exhibitions such as the Chicago Architecture Biennial and Design Miami, as well as at the V&A Museum and Tate Modern in London. His writings can be found in the co-authored book Misguided Tactics for Propriety Calibration, published with the Graham Foundation, as well as essays in MONU magazine, the AIA Journal Manifest, Log, bracket, and the guest-edited issue of MAS Context on the topic of character architecture.
__Contact__
FOLLOW me on instagram: @stewart_hicks & @designwithco
Design With Company: https://designwith.co
University of Illinois at Chicago School of Architecture: https://arch.uic.edu/
__Attributions__
Stock video and imagery provided by Getty Images, Storyblocks, and Shutterstock.
Music provided by Epidemic Sound and includes music from Chromatic by Tom Fox
https://www.youtube.com/@chromaticbytomfox”
#architecture #urbandesign
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