The Lost Treasures of California’s Devastating Wildfires
It’s been more than three weeks since the beginning of the Los Angeles area wildfires and the level of devastation is overwhelming. The numbers are stark: The fires killed 28 people and incinerated more than 16,000 structures. Officials peg the economic damage at $150 billion or more, with insurance companies expecting losses of $30 billion.
We’ve also seen the heartbreaking images of our fellow Californians combing through the wreckage looking for their beloved pets and remnants of their lives. My wife is a Red Cross volunteer and I can’t stand hearing the tragic stories after she returns from a service call.
In this fast-paced social-media-dominated world, we all jump to various policy conclusions. I’ve done so myself, as I’ve ruminated in previous columns about the various insurance, land use, wildfire prevention, and water policies that exacerbated the situation. These are important issues and need to be hashed out, especially as the state and federal governments consider aid packages and regulatory relief to speed up the rebuilding process.
But sometimes it’s best to step back and just react in a human way, by mourning the losses. And boy have there been some major ones, especially on the architectural front. Early on, I experienced something of a panic when I read reports that some of LA’s most notable architectural treasures had been destroyed or were threatened. Fortunately, many reports were incorrect.
“Some early news coverage and social-media chatter implied that the TCL Chinese Theatre, Hollywood Bowl, and Magic Castle were close to burning when, in fact, those spots never were in immediate danger,” the Los Angeles Times reported. It noted rumors (thankfully untrue) that the spectacular midcentury Eames house had burned. Pasadena’s Gamble House—the most notable Arts-and-Crafts style home in the nation—reportedly was threatened but also survived.
Other treasures were not so fortunate. Fires claimed the Benedict and Nancy Freedman House, a modernist masterpiece designed by architect Richard Neutra in 1949. Also lost: 21 of 28 of architect Gregory Ain’s Park Planned Homes in Altadena. Also dating to the 1940s, “This was one of the first modernist housing developments in the country,” per US Modernist, conceived “as a groundbreaking social experiment, with affordable prefabricated homes for working families.”
These treasures are irreplaceable, even if new buildings are rebuilt on the sites. I have a particular love of modernism and the midcentury variety, with their dramatic, earthy details (atriums, beams, aggregate concrete floors, innovative materials, etc.). I live in one of the Sacramento area’s largest neighbor
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