Home Design Initiative Aims to Streamline Rebuilding Efforts in Los Angeles

In response to the January wildfires in the Los Angeles area, a rebuilding initiative called Case Study 2.0 is offering affordable home designs to fire victims in neighborhoods like Pacific Palisades and Altadena, according to Fast Company. Spearheaded by Crest Real Estate, a land-use-consulting and permit-expediting company founded by third generation Angeleno Steven Somors, the program brings together 40 architecture firms to create over 50 fire-resilient house plans.

The house plans are designed in a variety of styles found throughout the city, ranging from Spanish Colonial homes to quaint bungalows. The designs combine high-quality architecture with fast permitting, tailored to fit the eight most common lot types found in the affected areas. At just $25 per square foot, the plans are also offered at a steep discount compared with traditional architectural fees. 

Somers says the program cuts the cost of rebuilding in several ways. First is the discount on the designs offered by all the participating architects, including Morphosis, Marmol Radziner, and Tighe Architecture. Second is a range of 15% to 30% discounts offered by partner companies on building materials including doors, windows, roof tiles, and exterior cladding. There’s also the reduced overall cost that comes from having plans that are already preapproved.

Once the first iteration of a design goes through that four-to-six month permitting process, Somers says each subsequent use of that design should be approved in just two months. And if the same contractor is used to build each iteration of a design, there are likely to be further cost and time savings. “They’re going to start to really create almost an assembly line process,” he says.