A new initiative in California is seeking to expedite the rebuilding process for homeowners affected by wildfires by offering a catalog of pre-approved housing plans. The Foothill Catalog Foundation, founded by architects Alex Athenson and Cynthia Sigler, was inspired by an early 20th-century Sears program that provided home designs and pre-cut materials for assembly.
The foundation worked with Los Angeles County to establish a system for pre-approving housing plans, a mechanism that did not previously exist for primary residences. By mid-June, just five months after local fires, the county had approved the foundation's first plan, a 1,200-square-foot bungalow named "The Lewis." Currently, the nonprofit offers over 70 pre-approved designs, with more than 100 homeowners selecting plans and over 40 homes under construction in Altadena.
These plans are priced at $5 per square foot, significantly less than custom architectural services, which can exceed $100,000 for a 1,200-square-foot home. All designs are compliant with California's Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone regulations, mandating features such as non-combustible exterior materials, ember-resistant vent screens, and Class A fire-rated roofing.
Athenson and Sigler emphasized the importance of preserving the unique character of communities like Altadena, which has a diverse history. They stated their goal is to honor regional specificity and understand what residents value about their homes. This "place-based design" approach is also being applied to the Palisades, a community with a distinct aesthetic from Altadena.
"In housing today, there's a flatlining in a lot of what we see built," Athenson noted. "And as natural disasters accelerate and the housing shortage grows, you see an exacerbation of that flatlining [and a loss] of the really unique regional character that defined a lot of these communities."
The foundation's model is seen as potentially replicable nationwide, offering lessons for other communities facing disasters and aiming to make quality housing more accessible and efficient to build.