Reimagining Residential Landscapes in the Pacific Palisades
Honor Award
Research
Pacific Palisades, California, United States
Kinzie Carr, Student ASLA;
Elizabeth Hyzik, Student ASLA;
Kate Burris, Student ASLA;
Faculty Advisors:
Yiwei Huang;
Purdue University
Very practical research! This type of thinking needs to go hand in hand with architecture, urban form and fireproof materials. Great organization of information.
- 2025 Awards Jury
Project Statement
This project helps Pacific Palisades homeowners redesign landscapes to be more fire-resilient after the January 2025 wildfire. Grounded in extensive analysis of California’s fire history, vegetation, climate, and residential vulnerabilities, we developed site-specific toolkits and planting palettes tailored to local architecture. The design acknowledges zoning constraints and supports rebuilding on original sites. This work is award-worthy for its timely response to climate-driven disasters, integration of science with design, and its potential to guide resilient rebuilding in fire-prone communities statewide.
Project Narrative
This project addresses the urgent need for resilience in residential landscapes impacted by wildfire, particularly in California where fire is a recurring and intensifying threat. Following the January 2025 wildfire in the Pacific Palisades, our team developed a series of research-driven design toolkits to help homeowners rebuild landscapes that are more fire-adapted, protective, and responsive to the realities of climate change.
Wildfire has become a regular cycle in many California communities, destroying homes and forcing residents to rebuild with limited resources and under tight zoning constraints. Our project acknowledges this difficult reality. Rather than proposing sweeping changes that may be impractical or unrealistic, we embraced the likely scenario: that most homeowners will return to their original sites and rebuild within existing lot sizes, setbacks, and densities. With this in mind, we focused on transforming the surrounding landscape to reduce fire risk, without requiring radical land-use changes.
Our toolkits are grounded in a deep analysis of California’s historic fire patterns, vegetation ecology, and climatic conditions, as well as specific site vulnerabilities observed in the 2025 Pacific Palisades fire. We examined why certain residential landscapes burned while others were spared, identifying common design failures such as continuous vegetation, flammable plant species, and the absence of defensible space. We then translated these findings into actionable design strategies.
The resulting design interventions are both scientifically informed and aesthetically intentional. Key features include: – hardscape fire breaks (like permeable paths, water features, patios, and low walls to interrupt fire spread), defensible zones (near structures with low-flammability materials and open sightlines for access and emergency response), strategic planting (in dispersed, clustered islands using fire-resilient species that resist ignition and reduce fuel continuity), and plant palettes tailored to different architectural styles, allowing the design to feel integrated, not imposed.
This project is award-worthy for its integration of ecological research, spatial design, and practical application. It not only equips individual homeowners with the tools to create safer, more resilient environments—it also offers a scalable model that can be adapted across other fire-prone regions. By weaving fire science into everyday residential design, the project reframes resilience as a proactive, community-empowering approach rather than a reactive, emergency-driven one.
In an era of intensifying wildfires and climate uncertainty, this work demonstrates how landscape architecture can play a vital role in protecting lives, property, and ecological systems through thoughtful, site-sensitive design.
Plant List:
- Aloe barbadensis miller
- Sanecio mandraliscae
- Echiveria spp.
- Aeonium arboreum
- Crassula ovata
- Agave shawii
- Agave 'Blue Glow'
- Portulacaria afra
- Salvia sonomensis
- Achillea millefolium
- Hesperaloe parviflora
- Stachys byzantina
- Baileya multiradiata
- Festuca glauca
- Ceanothus
- Sphaeralcea ambigua
- Eriogonum fasciculatum
- Epilobium canum
- Pachypodium lamerei
- Dasylirion wheeleri
- Opuntia
- Kalanchoe thrysiflora
- Ferocactus spp.
- Romneya coulteri
- Salvia leucophylla
- Heteromeles arbutifolia
- Acrostaphylos ssp.
- Cistus x purpureus
- Artemesia californica
- Encelia farinosa
- Caesalpinia greggii
- Arbutus unedo
- Olea europea
- Lagerstroemia indica
- Trachycarpus fortunei
- Chilopsis linearis
- Parksonia x 'Desert Museum'
- Platanus racemosa
- Quercus agrifolia