LA: Rising from the Ashes

On January 7th 2025 the Altadena and Pacific Palisades neighbourhoods of Los Angeles suffered two of the most destructive fires in the city’s history. 21 people died and 15,000 buildings were destroyed over a combined area the size of Paris.

The city is still reeling from the scale and intensity of the fires and the challenge of rebuilding areas in which almost nothing remains standing. As the first tentative shoots of recovery begin to appear Jonathan Glancey meets angelinos including architects Scott Uriu and Michael Kovac. Like Dustin Bramell, Co-Founder of the Case Study: Adapt programme they lost their own homes in the fires. Others like architect and social justice advocate Steven Lewis or Cynthia Siegler and Alex Athenson, founders of the Foothill Foundation Catalogue saw their neighbours and communities displaced. Now they’re trying to help replace what has been lost whilst looking for better ways of building in a land where earthquakes, drought and most of all fire are an ever present threat.

As man-made climate change and urban growth worsen the risk and impact of fires Jonathan asks experts including Dan Turner, a retired fire chief and Executive Director of Cal Poly’s Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) Fire Institute and architecture critic Frances Anderton if and how this city can reshape itself for a better future.

Presenter: Jonathan Glancy
Producer: Michael Umney
Executive Producer: Susan Marling
A Just Radio Production for the BBC World Service